Hi Kelly,
Been waiting and watching the thread before I pounced....
Let me preface by saying that anything I say here is based upon my own personal methods and views, and are
completely subjective. I am no more an authority on your work than you are. But.... you asked. :thumbup:
Color balance and clarity is very good. The very first thing that reacted with me was that it was
too much of a good thing. The background, although complimentary, just piles the orange tint on to sickening sweetness. I would have taken this shot, looked at it, and moved on to another.
This shot would have benefited with another pastel, probably a tan or a green. Just something not so very close in tint to the subjects.
Not my favorite pose (or Murray's) but that's not
that detracting. Shooting the display side of a RH marked knife with a RH sheath always poses more difficulty than a LH mark on a RH sheath.
In this case both the sheath and the knife have the same upsweep. Generally the other combination of LH/RH displays offers an opposite sweep effect, which I find very visual. You can't change that here.
Although I wrote the tutorial on a light box, and it will help bring other's photos to clarity, I can immediately see the distinctions when a box-type studio is used, and I don't like the 'look'. Here's why:
This knife has so much light surrounding it, that it's a bit milky. I'll bet you brought up the contrast nicely to get it to this point. From a completely subjective feel of the image, I don't have a sense of the shapes and textures with the shadows. Lots of diffused lighting does this.
I see it very clear, but it's not moody. The handle, although obviously round, has no highlight refection to
really show that wonderful shape.
My own setup has open sidewalls and an open frontspace, although I do surround the subject with mirrors. Some of this open space will be the dark reflections that would show the patterns in the shiny spacer and buttcap better. Because of the all-white surround of this box, I can't easily tell if there is a pattern there (I think so) or if it's just odd reflections. I would prioritize showing the patterns somehow.
Murray makes a good point. You might ADD some darkness into the background to see how that changes the reflections. You want to get away from the homogenous look. Dangle a strip of black paper across the back and experiment. You might go "Ahhhhhhhh......!"
And lastly the lighting is close to the same direction as the last shot you showed, which is directly overhead. Again, your call, but the lower you make your lighting angles the more you will show those textures and shapes more dramatically.
Too much information. No soup for YOU!
Coop
, so it'll be nice to tackle a task while learning what TO do. 