Hi Denny, this is a catchy shot. Having said that I need to qualify that statement. If this shot was intended for general posting such as MO then it has it’s moment, however if intended as a sample of Pro work then it needs work. IMO there are some dreadful hot spots, the ice? looks not like ice but chunks of Styrofoam or such and the blurry BG is distracting to me. A tip, use distilled water when making ice or what a lot of Pros do is use glass Ice Cubes. Another tip, use Glycerine instead of water, it photographs clearer! Was the background intended to hide the absence of anything interesting back there? If that is the case perhaps a closer crop would have been more appropriate. I also am not a huge fan of soft light. I find that specular or raw light gives much more spectacular results, however Softboxes ECT are much easier to use then Scrims, Flags, Snoots and the other tools of the trade that would be necessitated if one was using specular light. As this site is intended for members to critique each other’s work with the intention of helping one another to achieve a better shot, this is what I hope to achieve when I do offer advice. I did a shot similar to this earlier this year http://myolympus.org/document.php?id=12051 You may or may not care for this example, but I believe that I achieved what I wanted in showing a refreshing drink. The close crop was intended to (a) show the interesting ice effect and (b) to hide the BG as it wasn’t important to the main subject matter. Keep shooting Denny, as I said at the beginning “A catchy shot”. Regards R.

Randall
This was listed as a abstract shot, I understand everybody has there likes and dislikes and sometimes I get a little carried away with trying to do something a little different.
Also I'm working very hard to try and get my studio lighting to do what I want it to do, I'm very new to this digital thing and still testing the waters. Your reply is taken as a big help. Just for the record this is a Scotch & Soda with real ice.
I have posted Cocktail Time 2, this shot is untouched.

Again I appreciate and respect your comment.
Denny G.

Denny Giacobe wrote:
> Randall
> This was listed as a abstract shot, I understand everybody has there likes and dislikes and
> sometimes I get a little carried away with trying to do something a little different.
> Also I'm working very hard to try and get my studio lighting to do what I want it to do, I'm
> very new to this digital thing and still testing the waters. Your reply is taken as a big
> help. Just for the record this is a Scotch & Soda with real ice.
> I have posted Cocktail Time 2, this shot is untouched.
>
> Again I appreciate and respect your comment.
> Denny G.
> Hi again Denny, Firstly I’m glad to see that my comments were taken in the spirit that it was given. It wasn’t so much the blur effect as the other points that I made with regard to that shot. I don’t know how you set up your lights and subject when doing this type of shoot but perhaps an additive approach would help. If you care to check my tabletop images on my page and look at any that take your fancy and study the lighting. All my shots are “built” using an additive lighting approach. This way one can see and correct what is happening with regard to what lights to use and as where to place them. Having looked at your page of images the one that I thought showed the most promise was “Time To Eat” http://myolympus.org/document.php?id=11004 but do watch that items are relatively perpendicular! Those mugs are going off in all directions ;-) Also remember to use “kicker” lights to separate the foreground from the background. Also to add dimension to an object try scrims, reflector boards (both soft or hard reflective surface) & flags. Keep on keeping on Denny and yes it’s good to “Make the shot your own”. Happy shooting. R.

Randall
Your comments are well taken, the time to eat was a candid shot at a restaurant that I popped on my way in getting ready to eat.
But I'm going to work on my lighting.

PS
Rum and Coke gives me a headache. :))

Thanks again.
Respecfully
Denny G.