Seeing as I still had the Gerbera flowers, tonight’s exercise was to experiment more with a structured still life scene, rather than just a flower portrait.
Personally this is really challenging, not just having the right props but building an aesthetically pleasing scene is much more difficult than expected. Examples I have seen on line tend to go really close and keep it very simple, have some form of base texture (here its the music book) and depending on the angle, a background that doesnt intrude but still adds value (more of the book here – I tilted it up to achieve that). The focal point (gerbera) and some other element to tie them together (the haematite necklace – I wanted pearls but I don’t own any!)
Compare the first image to this one, and it is nice, but feels like it is missing something. That is the bit I get stuck on – what exactly is it missing?
Also experimented with angles and depth of field – having to manually focus on the beads at the front – this image above has some blue satin which now that I see it, might have been better without it?
This is actually where I started, with a large piece of dark blue satin, and another necklace, but when I see the images, it doesn’t work for me.
My favourite ended up being the top image, I think it has all the elements needed to work as a cohesive image.
Do you agree? If not why? Which other image would be your choice?
Any tips or suggestions also welcome!
EDIT:
I updated Topaz Texture Effects and decided to have a play and I made this variation – I like how the colour toning is now much more consistent and the touch of grunge adds some interest and age.
Learning to See Light 
The first photo is my favorite, but what you did with it–that is my favorite! Pearls and pink….you cannot beat that.
I wish I had pearls for this shot
🙂
I also loved the first photo. There was something about the contrast of the pink with the dark ink and chain. I loved the edit as well, but it almost blends too much maybe? All around beautiful work though.
Thanks Ray, too mAny choices! Need to learn when to stop but it’s too much fun
I like the top one too. They are all pretty though.
Thanks, I like it too
Beautifully done. I liked hearing your steps and how you experimented.
Sometimes I don’t really understand my process til I’m writing it down for a blog post, so it helps me too!
Like the first one best, the one done in Topaz makes the flower too pale for my liking. Again the limited DOF really works in these setups.
I do think the filter you added makes it a better image.
I like both for different reasons, isn’t it fun what one small change can make!
Indeed. I really like to watch this progress!
Well stick around, there is an endless supply
🙂