A game of 9 ball any one?

[Hazeb1]

[ggt]

Oh, I really like this composition! The black ball is just off center as is the 9. The colors are well balanced, IMHO. The only hard shadow is on the blue ball to the right front. I wonder if the balls could be a little sharper? Perhaps this is a lesson in polarization--I'm still having trouble with the whole concept.

[Hazeb1]

Thank you for the input Gretchen. I shot this at F2.8 trying to make the "9" the focus. It is cropped quite a bit. Here is the uncropped version. I shot the same subject at F4, f5.6 and f8. For some reason I ended up prefering the softer cropped-in version.

[Donald]

Thanks you to both above for that exchange. I hope others find it as helpful and informative as I have in terms of the sort of options to consider for a shot like this.

I like it and can understand the thinking behind going for the softer option.

[dan marchant]

Aggggghhh too much time spent on teh interwebs - I saw that first shot an immediately thought "which emoticon is that?"