A Bottle Of Wine

Wine seems to be popular tonight. Maybe we should have a theme week sometime.
Anyway, I could use some help with this shot, I see some things that I question, but I don't want to be leading. You guys are always so good in your c/c that I am sure you will find the problems.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b75/newmarq/wine1.jpg

1st off, If that's Chianti in that glass I'll eat my hat. It looks like tea with something dark floating in it. It should be appetizing. In addition the contents aren't level, it dips at the right. I like the chandelier reflection on the shoulder of the bottle, but not so much on the front edge of the glass, and reflection on the flower buds hurts.
Upper right corner of the background could be smoothed out a bit. I would have liked to have seen the flower arrangement a bit sharper, not totally, just a small amount soft. The shot is pretty standard. The background compliments the subjects. Remember, you asked.

I actually agree with everything you mention. Though I did not notice the light reflection on the flowers. Also, I chose to keep the flowers soft because they are wooden and I wanted to disguise that fact, which also explains the reflection. So some real roses are in order.
Thanks.

The Good:

Colors are nice and elegant.
The subject is great :D
I like the choice of three objects, which seems to eliminate the tension of two.
The amt of flower blur.

The Bad:

The placement of the vase and flowers, where it intersects the wine, probably isn't the best.
Tilt or distortion is obvious on the left side. You can fix this in PS btw.
It's a little softer than it should be for a still life. Did you use a tripod?
Upper right corner flaw.
Not sure what the light reflection is in the bottle, but it looks pretty suspicious to me.
If the wine bottle is unopened, where did the wine in the glass come from? :)
I want all in the foreground to be in focus.

Not a bad effort, but the technical details in a shot like this have to be perfect. You're on the right track. I really like the colors.

G

Thanks, GB. Very nice critique, btw.
You are pretty spot on with everything (though I don't understand the placement of the vase, I'm not disagreeing, I would like to know more).
I did use a tripod, sharpness is one of my major problems, I do believe.
The wine wasn't open because its my wife's wine, who is out of town right now:D , and I didn't want to open it for obvious reasons. But you are correct, it should be open.

For me I would re-shoot this one with out the vase and flowers, also like everyone else has said about the upper corner should be fixed.
Another thing I would change, if the bottle was opened up, leave the cork beside the bottle

other than those nick picks I like it

Arne - What I mean about the vase placement is, it is bisecting (touching) the other two foreground objects. If the bottle and glass were spread out a little more, or if the vase was smaller, it wouldn't do that. Not sure if this would be an improvement without seeing it, but normally I would be careful when having something in the background merging into the subject. Big thing with model shots, btw.

G

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GB1

Arne - What I mean about the vase placement is, it is bisecting (touching) the other two foreground objects. If the bottle and glass were spread out a little more, or if the vase was smaller, it wouldn't do that. Not sure if this would be an improvement without seeing it, but normally I would be careful when having something in the background merging into the subject. Big thing with model shots, btw.

G

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Now I see what you mean.

Thanks!