Cup of Contrastby
MarkRobComment by tomzinho: I saw you comment about feedback from the CC club, so I thought I'd come back and give you some thoughts.
I generally rate photos giving a score from 0 to 3 each in terms of originality, meeting the challenge, and quality. Those add up to a 9, and a 10 is something that blows me away.
For yours, I thought that the originality was okay, and it did meet the subject, but where you were hurt the most was the quality. In your case its not that the photo was out of focus or any way you could have manipulated your camera to get a better result, but the setup really bothered me that the sheet was visible at all. I've found that its not that hard to take those shots where the objects seem to 'float' over a black or white background that provides no distraction from the subject and focus of the picture, and to set up a shot that doesn't do that pushes the needle to the amateur side of the 'quality' rating. A couple of months ago I went to an art store a for a couple of bucks bought some 18x18 thin black and white boards that when used can make the photo, IMHO, look more professional (like
here). I also didn't like the shadow on the top part of the yellow candies. Maybe the lighting could have been a little better controlled and/or you could have filled the cup up a little more to avoid that.
I hope that was helpful. Cheers, Tomzinho