So this is a piece I’m putting together for the latest Blender Guru competition, the theme being Photorealism. Critiques?
very nice, the stapler though, needs to look as real as the rest
good though!
The camera angle and the proportions of the objects seem weird.
Can you be more specific?
@ COTorery: The idea with the stapler was that it was “accidentally” left in the scene. It’s supposed to contrast with all the older more elegant objects. I’ll see what I can do to make it more real.
The image link isnt working… 
Now it should work.
What is the focal length on the camera? It looks like you might still be using the default 35mm. Set it to 70mm - 135mm or so and back the camera away. It will compress the scene and make it look more like what people are used to with a photograph.
Looks pretty good, though the glass bowl seems to be casting very little shadow.
Here is an update. I was going to make the angle straight on, but decided against it as it would not be photo-realistic to have the cameraman missing in the mirror. Note that improved stapler, the tag “accidentally” left on the pitcher, and the slight bit of vignette.
Good approach! But it seems it will be better if you add some extra light in the scene to achieve hard shadows and caustics.
And what about reflections in the mirror (background)?
Yes, that’s from an environment image (.hdr). They do appear to be distorted, but I can solve the problem by blurring the image.
Edit: Nevermind, I solved it differently. You’ll see here in a moment.
An update:
A few things that caught my eye
First, proportions, my first thought is that the stapler is too small. Measure them out in blender units an compare (or switch your set up to metric/imperial) and compare them
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The detail surrounding the mirror almost looks like plastic. Work on the material a little. Adding some texture with a bit of irregularities would help as well.
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The mirror, although not a 100 percent glossy shader still needs some work. I like were you were going with it, but scale it back a little,
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The jug looks like pewter, and there are a few imperfections which is nice, maybe take that up a notch.
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The lighting, I’m guessing there is a large white emitting plane to the left. This is the dominate lighting in the scene. This is hurting all the materials except perhaps the glass. This maybe is what’s hurting the mirror frame, and seems to be the only thing affecting the reflections on the jug. Fake the lighting as little as possible. Really, tweak the lighting first, then work on the shaders. They may fall into place faster.
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A little compositing would help, I would make it look like it was taken with an old 35 mm camera just to increase the feel or atmosphere.
Pay an attention to a surface of table. From that angle it have to reflect something. Or simply add specular map to it to break uniformity of texture.
How’s this?
The main showstoper is the reflection of the background. It shouldn’t be blurred because DOF doesn’t affect the reflection in that way. I know it’s the hdr itself, but you should put an actual background either made of geometry or a picture instead of using the hdr for that purpose.
Some great improvements in the jug, for some reason the bottom of it looks like it is superimposed on the image. I have no idea why, and no solution. Overall the jug is top notch though.
Mirror looks better, I did like what you did with it originally and now you cleaned it up like a new mirror. it would be up to you if you want to split the difference between where you are now and where you started, I think you could and have a good effect.
The mirrors frame still looks a little plastic. It kinda looks a little bit more like painted metal than original, but the spec seems to be a bit high still.
Can I see one rendered with say double the passes and caustics on. I feel like there should be caustics in the bowl shadow, just a guess though.
Overall some good improvements. I’m don’t really know what dof in a mirror does, I am going to research it. Wish I had a dslr to play with now.
I don’t know if you want advice on the composition of the scene, but you do have about a month left on this. The scene looks spartan and very much like a still life one would paint in an intro class. Some more objects (aka clutter) on the table, and something that tells us concretely what the table is used for. Just some thoughts since you have lots of time
Looking good. You fixed the reflection in the mirror which makes a huge difference.
@Strangerman - Actually, that is not the case. When photographing a reflection, an image that is a long distance away will still be blurred if it is outside of your DOF just as if you were photographing it straight on.
What is the vase supposed to be made of? If its translucent, its should have a thickness to it. This can be added with the solidify modifier. This will make the refractions more accurate. Although there probably is some fresnel trick involved as well. I think the vase also could use more shadow variation. Are you going to add more to the scene its rather boring and there isn’t much to work with yet. Still lifes tend to have a variety of shapes and textures to them, and are well composed.