Milk & Pound Cake - Critique on Composition/etc...

[Drakenov]

Hi Everyone, I haven't been active for a long time in fact I hadn't picked up my camera for nearly 6 months so I'm trying to get into the rhythm of taking a picture a day. Anyways I'm glad to be shooting again and hopefully I can use it in my career someday, currently I'm in culinary school, studying to be a pastry chef, maybe I could be a food photographer lol who knows.

Well I just wanted to ask for some critique & suggestions on the composition/exposure/colors and if it is an all around good photo or not, personally I like it a lot.




Lens: 18-55mm (kit lens)
Exposure: 10 sec.
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Program: Aperture priority
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off

[Dodgeinart]

Looks good right about now. As to the comp itself is good I would have preferred the pound cake to be in focus. Right now it looks like bowl of dark stuff, probably tasty dark stuff with whip cream, but still just dark stuff. I think the hot chocolate in the mug would be identifiable even if it were oof.
Nice color and a clean bg, so your off to a running start after a 6 month leave
Always have fun,

[Drakenov]

I had to improvise with the bg on the spot, I just used some white paper held up by another cake..lol anyways the light was leaving me very fast so I didn't have time to take any pic's of the whole in focus and yes it is pretty delicious haha.

Unfortunately I brought home two more pound cakes today and I can't eat it lol gonna be giving most of it away. Well anyways thank you for the comment Dodgeinart

[pjmiller]

Great concept, overall. I really think you are on to something here. But I agree that the pound cake is "dark stuff" and it is detracting from the nice focus and balance on the mug. The way I see it, you have two choices. A) Make the shot ALL ABOUT THE COCOA and crop out a lot (but not all) of the bowl in the background OR b) brighten the exposure to bring out some detail, increase your DOF and allow your focus to include at least the edge of the bowl and some of the dark stuff. I love the concept though and I love the way your lighting is gentle and in from the right. It makes it look very "YUMMY" and I feel enticed by it. It was nicely staged and I think you can easily enough perfect it -- you are clearly onto something here and I would love to see your second try. Good luck.

Barking Spyders Photography - Nature Photography by PJMiller