Saffron

[Mike Buckley]

It's fascinating to realize the colors that are in strands of saffron that we usually don't notice. Unless they're being viewed up close, we generally only see the overall rust color.

Saffron is by far the most expensive spice by weight. Fortunately, very little of it is needed when cooking with it. This saffron costs USD $20 per gram and the amount shown below is about half that.

Setup
The tabletop is a saucer turned upside down. The background is semi-glossy silver presentation board changed to blue during post-processing. The heavy vignette was also added during post-processing. Two small continuous-light lamps were on the sides, high above and slightly behind the subject.

[Shadowman]

Nicely composed.

[Rita]

Mike, I like this shot. Creative idea using the saucer.

[bje07]

Nice global image but IMO the saffron lacks light on the front and sorry looks for me rather like fried onions. The saffron does not show the subtle stigmata

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone!

looks for me rather like fried onions. The saffron does not show the subtle stigmata

There are reasons for that: When viewed at this magnification, saffron indeed looks a lot like fried onions, or more specifically thinly sliced and chopped fried shallots, which are of course onions. The saffron doesn't have any subtle stigmata or anything else that's subtle, which is apparent perhaps only when magnified a lot such as in this image. So, as far as your your critiques are concerned, I wouldn't want to change a thing about the image.