Wonderful example of what was asked of you for this assignment. For starters your fist image lacks in areas such as composition, a main area of focus, a message, a design concept and many other areas as well. Your second image however, has much better composition, more interesting yet simple color control, it uses pattern and also plays with the idea of depth. Where your first image is flat, 2 dimensional and boring, your second image comes alive with color, perspective and nice overall composition.
However, there are a couple of things I want you to keep your eye out for. For starters be incredibly careful of “amputation”. This is the idea of ‘cutting off” objects using one or many of the 4 walls of your photograph. In your “beast” shot you’ve amputated both the top and bottom corners of the shelving unit. In your beauty picture you’ve cut off a design with the right side of the frame.
It should be noted that amputation can’t always be avoided, but there are better times to use it than others. The main goal is to ensure the image looks organized, intentional and under the control of the photographer (not the other way around). In these images I feel the amputations look unintentional. This is easily the single biggest mistake that photographers make when they are first learning about composition. We go into more detail about it in an upcoming lesson, but I wanted you to start being aware of it now.
Secondly, always be aware of the shadows in your photographers. Remember, that if they are hard shadows they end up creating shapes and adding “objects” to your image. They completely change the composition and design of your photograph so it’s important to be aware of lighting all of the time as well. Again, shadows are not always a mistake, but they need to be planned into your photograph as any other object would. You always need to ask yourself ‘does this element enhance or detract from my photograph?”. If the answer is “detract” then you need to find ways through lighting or your camera positioning to get rid of the distracting elements.
Other than that, this is a great first assignment!