Chips

[Imho]

Hey guys.

I'm after some guidance with this image. In my mind I saw a few things in the subject, like a metal and wood contrast, warm and cool colour, specular highlights, DoF, interesting shapes and shadows, but after playing around a bit I just ended up feeling flat about the end result.

What am I missing?

Thanks.

[Marko]

Hi Imho!

2 things come to mind right away
- the metal shavings are against a bright orange wood bkgd which is a distraction for me, it's competing with the shavings. I would have used a much darker and less exciting colour.
- Sharpness - I believe the focus is off here as I do not see any zone that is TACK sharp. Given the nature of the object my eye expects it. (so long as the image was 250 K or less when uploading it, there was no compression which can cause softness0)by the board software.

i guess the question is what were/are you trying to achieve with the image?

[Imho]

Thanks Marko.

The original upload was larger than 250K, so I have replaced it. It may also just be the cheap lenses I have, or a lack of skill.

Point taken in relation to the orange table top. I'll try again with a less distracting surface.

Regarding what I was trying to achieve, I guess I was just experimenting. I had a thought and was just playing it through to see how it turned out. It may just be one of those things that seemed like an interesting idea but it doesn't pan out in practice. It was an exercise with the goal of making something of the subject rather than leaving it up to the subject to make the image.

PS. I used two strobes, one bounced off the ceiling and one undiffused from camera left (in order to get some specular-ish highlights).

[asnow]

My first thought is that there is no real subject.

[Mad Aussie]

I don't necessarily find the colour a distraction myself but I do find myself wanting a much wider DOF.

[thoughton]

I agree a slightly wider DOF to get the foreground chips in focus as well. The orange table is a bit bright, as there is no other orange in the frame you can probably fix that in PP if you were so inclined. The lighting is slightly too even I think, perhaps some side lighting to give you some nice long shadows? It looks like your bounce flash was much more powerful than your side flash.

What tool is used to produce these chips? I doubt it's something as simple as a chisel, but if it was that might be something to include in the photo.

[Imho]

Thanks everyone, that's given me a bunch of helpful hints and clues. I'm rethinking and will repost when I get the chance.