In a friendly wayby
janskuComment by CEJ: Hello from the Critique Club!
I have studied your image and offer the following:
Composition/perspective - very nice application of rule of thirds. Your subject is the right size for the shot as well (subject to negative space ratio). Getting to 'eye' level with your subject was exactly the right perspective for this shot as well. At first I thought this looked sort of statice and flat, but when you really look at it you can see a lot more definition of shape in the bear than first appears. Just a suggestion, try turning the bear slightly to the left (since it is on the right) to add more shape and depth to the bear. This would allow more of the curve around to the back to show.
Color - the subtle color of the bear is well captured while your white background is still white. Post processing was not too harsh so as to remove the speckles in the coloring. With a light on white I would not expect to see a lot of color anyway.
Lighting - overall your lighting is done well. It appears as though one light source was used - to the left. My only dislike is the glares (as you pointed out). However, the only one that is any kind of a distraction is the one on the arm. Perhaps if you had used a faster shutter speed it would not have gotten so bright and any loss in intensisty of the rest of the image could have been brought back with a levels adjustment. I just don't think you gaind much by a 3 second shutter speed and infact it may have been the culprit to the glares being so bright.
Challenge requirements - this has certainly met the requirements of the challenge. Your subject is definitely light and your lighting is good that it has not caused any dark shadows. A small bounce to the background may have brightened that up a bit while not sacrificing anything in the foreground.
Overall/my opinion - I think this got lost on the viewers. As stated above, maybe a slightly different angle to the subject may have made it pop out of the background more and not appear flat. Again, a faster shutter speed may also yhave helped with the glares on the arm.
Photographer found comment helpful.
