I've made some adjustments to my first attempt.
Picked up a black sheet (gonna have to invest in an iron I think haha) though I'm not sure if there's a trick to making it look blacker or if it's cause it's a cheap sheet (thinking of trying a blackout curtain next time). I used a box with a white gloss on it to hold the sheet vertically that you can see showing through top right, gonna swap that out for next time).
I added an astrolabe I had kicking around as well to fill it out a bit more. I moved the light around, and tried to highlight the shadow from the sextant (top right with all the lenses), it reminds me of a ship so I wanted to focus on that a bit. The shadow from the sundial/compass was remiscent of a ship's sail as well.
Overall I like this one more than my first. The shadows were more deliberate this time. I tried to boost up the reflections on the lens of the spyglass but it kinda ruined the rest and lost the 'ship' shadow so I gave up on it.
Any advice would be really appreciated. I'm just starting out so I'm currentyl shooting in auto so that's my next focus (get it?). I'm loving trying to figure out a fully controlled environment so I think I might have to drop some cash on some better lighting, I'm just using a couple cheap usb led lights that I put some paper over as a diffuser.
Makes sense thank you. I see what you guys are saying, and the more I compare the more I feel like I over-corrected trying to improve. I'm studying getting off auto and I think I should try and find a middle ground between the two. Thanks again!