The lighting is nice. This image would say 'coffee' more to me if you took it without the splash. My eye goes directly to the splash and out of the frame.
Tina - how would you feel if the splash was replaced with steam from the hot coffee?
That would keep the subject interesting and then the eyes can enter the shot at the spilled mug, follow the beans, hit the subject and exit with the steam.
With that being said, personally I was drawn to the spilled mug first.
Thanks guys for taking the time to look and comment.
Primarily I was using the drop art, for the image, but felt it didn't allude to the coffee theme enough so I added the scene of beans, hessian and spilt cup to help this out.
As for the compositon.. I was using the Fibonacci or golden spiral method to lead the eye around.. see overlay from lightroom image below.
Hope this explains it, and thanks again for taking the time to comment
Actually, the Fib spiral should lead you along your line and back to the beginning. The problem with the splash is that it stops your eye from moving because it is both surprising and somewhat unrelated to the story that this photo tells. Altho you are using the golden spiral as a compositional element, you don't accomplish the movement because the splash stops it. Steam rising would be better because it feels like it belongs here.
My comments are solely related to the fact that you are working to a specific theme here... coffee. If the theme were 'splash' and you gave the splash a bit more headroom, it would be fine because the splash was supposed to be the subject.
Thanks for letting me offer and dispute my opinion. I've been absent from this forum for a year or so and hope to find my way back into it.
No probs Chris.. any feedback is useful, and thanks for taking the time too comment. (welcome back, i'm just back too ...so go easy
My reason for the shot was based on me playing with drops.. and when I saw the coffee theme thought hey why not do a coffee splash, its a bit different form the usual water stuff.. and tied in with the theme.. (or my interpretation of it) . I didn't want to do a boring old shot of coffee beans and a steaming cup of coffee.
When I did my first effort (see below) I felt it didn't shout coffee, it was simply a splash shot (using coffee) So subsequently changed it to this one the one above, giving it a bit of a story..
I use the spiral composition tool, to let the eye travel and stop at the the point of the image - I've not heard of using the spiral to take you back to the start as you say..... so in my mind, the eye is lead from the spilt cup along the beans up to the splash.. and ta da!.. thats the shot, a splash.
Its all subjective.. but thanks again for your thoughts
Both are interesting shots, and both have good lighting. I guess the context is what is being questioned. In my opinion they fit the topic of "coffee", but is coffee the first thing you think of when viewing the image? However, both are very good images.
Both shots are terrific. Whether the "splash" adds to the theme, or not, I think it is an excellent example of "droplet" photography, used in a creative way that doesn't scream "this shot only exists for the pretty colors." Well done.
I like them both and I found that the splash was the first thing I looked at also but find that the coffee cup and beans was next and made the shot much better than without...
