Boy, that's VIVID! Somehow, #1 is the most appealing to me. I assume that you wanted a "shiny" effect and chose to light in a way that produced the the hot spots. Delicious!
Yes, Jeff. I used two LED flashlights to round the fruit with light and splash on highlights to make them sparkle. Because the subjects were so simple, the images had to be about color and lighting. Notice on the third image the subject contrast between the shiny mandarin orange and the matt ya pear. That image was about the spectral/non-spectral reflectivity. The ya pear is basically white, which is a high level of non-spectral reflectivity. The mandarine is a darkish orange with less reflectivity for certain wavelengths, but has substantial spectral reflectivity, rendering bright white highlights.
Wow... your lighting (bright sharp high contrast) and the "finish" on the mandarins and really suggest an almost artificial nature: waxy or perhaps genetically modified organisms too vivid to be real... which creates a tension: if they were female subjects I would be wondering if those breasts were natural :-) ...not sure if that's what you intended but it's cool.
The directional light from the LED torches made them sparkle. The fruit really was that shiny. (I suspect the produce department waxes it. - It's a fairly common practice. I also buffed them gently.) I did re-touch a few blemishes with PS. I suppose if I'd left them in place the fruit wouldn't look perfect, but I wanted them to look perfect.
Ordinary mirror. (Some slight double reflections reduced in PP.)
I've since obtained a new/old stock ferrotype plate to function as a front surface mirror to avoid or reduce the need for double reflection PP retouching.
Interestingly lately I have been spending inordinate amounts of time printing in FB
glossy mainly. I have been using both bleach and toning as well for pop.
