Ball of Ivory

[arne saknussen]

The subject is a small statue of carved ivory that my father brought back from Viet Nam. The ball was carved from a solid piece of ivory, how is beyond me.
Critique as you will, but my questions are; are the elephants too out of focus? and is the ball sharp? But please add any other critiques.

[Frog]

The elephants are way out of focus and I didn't even know they were elephants until I read your words. I don't think the ivory ball is in sharp enough focus either.
Were you using a tripod? If you were, why the f/2.8?
I think for a close up like this, you need much more depth of field.

I really think that you weren't on a tripod which is almost mandatory for something this close.
Could be a really interesting object to shoot and play with the lighting. I'd want to try some back lighting that came through the ivory. You could probably spend hours experimenting.

I've heard of these and seen a few. I know they are done in China, too. Sometimes ivory, sometimes wood. Long difficult process.

[arne saknussen]

Thanks, Frog. I did use a tripod and a release cord, but I will try more shallow dop and backlighting as well. I was trying to throw more focus on the ball, in particular, the interior. But it would appear there is too much unfocussed area.
Again, thanks for your comments, they help a lot.

[armando_m]

I'll probably try to make the light softer, as it is there is to much difference between light and shadow, makes the exposure difficult plus the ball ends up being dark with lost detail

[daq7]

I generally like the colors and textures. I don't like the ball being cropped.

[arne saknussen]

Thanks, Armando, good points.
And, Daq, that was another concern (the cropping) that I forgot to question

[Anbesol]

I agree with everything thats said so far. I also think the ball should be lit as the elephants are. Very cool subject!

[daq7]

Bear in mind that if you shot this in raw you can muck with the lighting a lot by tone mapping it. Or just manually blending.

[daq7]

I did not comment on the dof, because I am really fine with where it is, but given that there is important detail there, it probably would be better to make the dof deeper by a little bit.

[arne saknussen]

Thanks for all the comments. I took this shot before I read some of them. I think its an improvement, but....
I tried some backlighting, but it didn't quite work out since the ball has many layers. More suggestions are quite welcome.
Oh, and I have yet to explore RAW, its on my list.

[arne saknussen]

I removed the photo posted here. Not good.