Nice Job!!! there isn't much you can improve on but i would make it less dark. Great job over all!!

:o)

Gotta luv the experimentation and pushing oneself.

Nice concept Kayla ... once again.

Particularly like your use of vignetting around the border/framing. I even tried duplicating it ... as you will see ... and failed miserably in achieving the result that you did with your image here.

Now then ...

Some thoughts for you, hope you don't mind.

And since they say a picture is worth a thousand words ... annnnnd by illustrating my thoughts your life expectancy is increased by a factor of five from the time saved that would have been spent reading those same thousand words :oP ... here you go; a rework of your image above.

Actually, one more version ... here. Colour differences between the two for the most part and for comparative purposes.

Your camera seems to be more than capable of such a macro. Save a couple of caveats. And here I am wondering if you used or setup things, such that you could avail yourself of the self-timer option to avoid any camera shake?

I can see the texture on the cards ... nice. Clarity and detail is good. Just wonder if it could be kicked up a bit.

That said ... and in my humble opinion ... perhaps the composition could be tightened up some. The placement of the Joker card itself, might have been tempted to align some of it's own lines created by the card's edges ... with some other cards and their respective 'lines' that are within frame. And rotated the Joker counterclockwise for a better presentation to your viewers.

I cropped your original to where I feel I found a better balance of elements and placement of the Joker card itself within the overall composition.

I'll leave the success and judgement of such in your hands and eyes.

I agree with the above comments, in that and insofar as the lighting is concerned. Has a definite mood and feel now, think you could kick up the contrast somewhat. Things as they are now, are a little flat. Either deeper blacks ... or ... as one rework illustrates I hope ... bring up the whites somewhat.

Going back to my intial thoughts and impressions ... good good concept. Think you could find another approach and a complimentary and companion image to go along with this one here.

A revisit, if you will.

The edits/post-sweetening I did in Photoshop ... were, but not limited to ... use of the diffuse filter on a separate layer worked the best overall in terms of brightening things up. Some Selective Colour and Hue/Saturation adjustments. And a bunch of other stuff to create some more depth I feel through the 'blur' that you see.

Long story ... ahem ... short, compositional changes would have head the list. Good idea/concept ... stabilize or try to stabilize the camera some more ... perhaps a direct change in lighting and that in and of itself would eliminate a bunch of things.

So ... some more creative fodder for thought for you.

I sincerely hope you don't mind that I edited and then uploaded the reworks for your eyes as examples. If you have a problem with your image; reworked ... being uploaded to my imageshack account ... please let me know and down it comes. It is more or less, a private account. However, your decision. So ...

In summary ... get a bit closer, watch the camera movement/shake ... and if so inclined ... another take, perhaps to go along with your image here. So ...

Shuffle ... and deal a hand, will ya?

A good good job and certainly, a challenging image in my mind. It wasn't until I had your image in Photoshop that it became apparent that the arrangement of the other cards works rather well as you have presented it to us. Just need to bring some more attention to ... The Joker.

:o)

I smiled when I saw the content of the photo. Sometimes the most common...simple things...can really be photographed like "art". Thanks for sharing with us.

cool pic...love it...going in my faves :)

There is something real nice about someone trying out their photo skills on everyday things. I enjoy doing that in still life every now and then. And being these are playing cards, I really like the idea...and that particular Joker is so unique.
I'd love to see you do something else with 'him'..maybe put him together with something even more unique.Thanx so much..verena