Christmas time...again

[Javier]

[Shadowman]

Nicely composed, a bit too tightly cropped at bottom.

[Werner]

Nice still life, the label on the bottle is disturbing.

[Dave A]

Nice subtle lighting. I would consider correcting the leaning bottle and turning it so we are not looking at the back label and skew bars.

Dave

[mknittle]

Nice subtle lighting. I would consider correcting the leaning bottle and turning it so we are not looking at the back label and skew bars.

Dave

With this and as John suggested it would improve it a bunch.

[bnnrcn]

+1 to John and Dave , very nice colors

[madcrow]

It,s that time of year again and i love it, just like your image

[IzzieK]

Someone will say here I go again, but I can't help commenting on a shot when the tallest part/object of the picture is at the right. It makes me want to ask -- do you read and write from left to right or from right to left? To me a tall object at the right also means a period, a stop to the flow of what one is looking at...there is no more at the end...if you get my drip...nice colours ...

[Javier]

Izziek interesting your opinion. So in your opinion the bottle is the correct posicion?

[IzzieK]

No ... actually it is the other way around. The tall object, in this case the bottle should be on the left side, not the right side. I read from left to right so if this mind I will arrange my objects from tallest first on the left to the right. I hope this is a much more simpler explanation???

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Javier,

I agree with the points made about the rotation of the bottle/visibility of label and the cropping. That said, when the label is a local supermarket brand (not the classy stuff Mike shoots), I have done similar

I'd add to that that I don't think it is level, it has some lens distortion and possibly too many subjects and textures.
Also, I'm not sure there isn't something odd going on with specular highlights - they seem to be monochrome, while some on decorations might be explained by their construction, a couple of others, notably the apple, can't. It might be caused by excessive Chromatic Aberration correction, since I have seen this before on some of my shots while manually setting CA correction.


I suspect that somewhere, either in capture, processing or colour space conversion, the red channel blew out.


What I do like is the background and gobo shadow (or perhaps it really is a window pane).


I kinda see what Izzie means about left to right and which side tall things should be, but feel the background window pane shadows and their positioning solves the issue for me.


I will just say that for us 'northern hemi' folks, the presence of strawberries alongside 'christmassy' decorations seems odd, but I guess they are ripe on your half of the globe now. That's just an observation.

I hope those thoughts are constructive (as intended) for a future shoot or re-process - not to say you have to though.

All the best, Dave

[Mike Buckley]

I like the warmth! The light shining through the window onto the background is an especially nice touch, as is the reflection of the wine on the tabletop.

I recommend that you look at lots of famous paintings of still lifes. When you do, you'll probably notice that the tallest object sometimes is on the left, sometimes on the right, and sometimes near the center. I know next to nothing about design, but it seems that the relationship between the various objects in the scene is far more important than where the tallest object in and of itself is located. Imagine making a hundred still lifes with the tallest object always positioned on the left because some (only some!) cultures read from left to right. Now imagine how boring that would be to your viewers.

Personally, I would always allow the front label of the wine to show unless its colors ruin the photo. In that case, I would use a different bottle of wine. I've made photos of wine ranging in price from $10 to $500 (well, only one at that price and it's probably the only one over $100). Neither the price nor quality of the wine would be a factor when deciding whether to display the label in the scene. One of my favorite bargains is a $10 red wine that of late is always stocked in my home. I bought six cases of wine years ago that cost only $14 per bottle and, fortunately, I still have three cases left. The moral of the story: if you drink the wine (even if you don't drink the wine), proudly display the label in your photos!

Using a spot healing clone tool would easily eliminate the unattractive specular highlights on the apple and bottle of wine.

Agreed with others that the bottle appears tilted to the right and that the tabletop seems a little cramped at the bottom.

If you want the strawberries to stand out more (you may not), place them more in front of the basket to get better separation between them and whatever is behind them. Also consider putting a couple strawberries here, a few there, and a few elsewhere rather than leaving them all together in one bunch.

[Javier]

Dave, Mike, Izziek, thank you very much¡¡ I am really happy to be here, you dont have idea how much I am learning from you. Thanks for take your time in order to write your opinion. Unfortunately my English isn't good in order to write more. Thank you again

[IzzieK]

Dave, Mike, Izziek, thank you very much¡¡ I am really happy to be here, you dont have idea how much I am learning from you. Thanks for take your time in order to write your opinion. Unfortunately my English isn't good in order to write more. Thank you again

Stop! putting yourself down about your English. It is good enough to understand -- you must have a look inside my head, the mumbo jumbles I have there are worst than blurting them out of my mouth and I am always wrong and my subjects to interpretation. The forum will improve your English too...like mine. Like you, I used to barely speak English properly -- I have a hard time trying to correct them when I type because my original language do not have gender specifics like she or he.