Comfort in chocolateby
CeeforeComment by LucidLotus: Any photo depicting chocolate is alright by me. Good subject no matter what you do with it.
I read your comments on why you chose the style that you did and I can apppreciate what you were trying to do. I think in general the shot worked out, highlighting what you were trying to bring to light, but as you've probably noted in other comments, the extreme shallow DOF appears to be working against the image more than anything.
The lighting looks spot on and I like the composition, the chocolate arrangement is interesting and leads to some nice shadow/light play. The bits of chocolate in the foreground are a nice touch as well, though I think they are severely under-utilized.
I think this type of image screams for being in sharp focus throughout the main subject. You'd mentioned wanting to explore the texture of the chocolate, particularly the edges. I think the edges on some portions of the chocolate are enjoying a nice sharp line, but the surrounding softness, instead of accentuating that sharp area, actually is bleeding into there and making my eyes interprete everything as just a bit softer than it really is. Also the thick bands of blur from the shallow DOF definitely grab my attention and shove it down to the chocolate crumbs and away from the areas you're trying to emphasize.
If possible, it might be worth while to reshoot an image like this and try to get all the chocolate into complete focus, you may be surprised at how much detail and texture is visible. Also, if possible, I would keep the chocolate crumbs as focused as you can as they help boost the idea of ruggedness and texture by their very existance. Similar to a mountain having boulders populated at its base, more areas of interest for the eye to view and a subtle reminder of the roughness (read: texture) of the area.
You have some great lines provided by the way the chocolate is blocked off but they are being downplayed by the soft focus when they could be a wonderful asset to the image. I do think the simplicity of your set up is a boon to the image however and the concept is easily understood.
While I personally think complete focus on all areas would help this shot immensely, I do think it is possible to keep with your original intent of featuring selective areas using a shallow DOF without being at the extreme this shot is. Perhaps opening up the DOF just a little bit and finding a nice middle ground between what you've experimented with here and complete sharp focus will create a nice balance so all aspects of the chocolate subject can be enjoyed and you're objective of a shallow DOF is still met.
If you do give the shot another go, I'd love to see the results!
Photographer found comment helpful.
