First attempt at "art" photography(3 img, 160Kb)

[tirediron]

Hello all... this is my first attempt at "art" photography. It's not my normal area of interest, but this particular decoration had been calling to me for a long time saying that there was a photograph in it, I'm just not sure if I found it. I would like thoughts and input as to what would improve the photo, or what others might have done, whether the colours work or not, etc.... I have posted three images, the original and two variations. Thoughts on which is better etc...

This is the original image

This is variation one, with the highlights touched up and a light blue background

Variation 2, multi-coloured bacground and refelction removed

 

[seven]

I like the second one. The first one's colour is kind of bland, and the third one has too many colours. The second one brings out the red nicely.

 

[mentos_007]

well, the reflection on those are important. when reducing it, you made the object flat and unnatural. try to play with light more to avoid some boring shadows and so on. just... spend a few hours on the one subject and you will come up with something interesting