I was experimenting with fruit drops (as in dropping them into the water) and found the brolly reflection was too distracting
e.g.
Red Cherry by C.Jones Photography, on Flickr
Then came across food colouring in the kitchen and decided to experiment.
The final image had tweaks, fill light and some sharpening and saturation. You're the 2nd person to have commented about the colour looking like it's printed on the glass. Very odd, I can't get my head around that. My histogram shows a fairly well to high exposed shot, so perhaps the slight clipping with the background 'white' has made it look 'flatter' if you know what I mean?
And yes, I've used 2 strobe, crossed of 2 even lighting through a 40cm brolly. Needed the higher ISO to keep the background 'white', even with reflector, it's still a tat bit grey. Plus, the noise adds an element of 'blood' IMO. Was a tangent experiment whilst messing around, got an image I rather like thus entered for competition
I love the look of the cherry in that
On the one you've entered the dye looks great but there was something about it that just felt a little strange when I sat and looked at it. I think it's the fact you used a wine glass. The patterns that come out at the bottom of the picture from the curved sides seem to impose on the image in a way that doesn't match with the sharpness and delicacy of the dye. Perhaps if you used a straight sided glass like a highball?
This is all obviously my own opinion, and I probably don't have anywhere near enough knowledge or experience so feel free to ignore anything I've said
