Family Christmas (Westy 52)

This is number 52 of the 52 week project.

It had to be something Christmasy to end the year:

I chose a Macro shot of a Christmas ornament - As it summed up waiting for Christmas, and also included the family.

I set the ornament up with the Christmas tree as a background;

Using the 105 macro at f4 threw it completely out of focus, but still gave enough of a feeling of fairy lights that I was after.

The image was then imported into Photoshop. I applied a 'Monday Morning' filter to the image, which desaturated the colour, as well as adding a dreamy like effect.

I then applied a layer mask and painted in where I wanted the original colour and sharpness to show through (the stockings).

Pleased with the result.

Three Today (Westy 52)

It had to be a shot of Megan's Birthday this week;

D300 + 18-200vr with a single SB-900 with Fong Lightsphere II Cloud.

Set the flash to 'slow' sync to stop it ruining the glow from the sparkler and candles.

Reduce background levels in CS4 and added a slight glow to Megan's eyes to emphasis the glow.

I also had to clone one of the candle flames (it had gone out in the original shot).

Smoke and Mirrors (Westy 52)

Playing smoke this week;

I set-up a joss stick against a black backdrop.

It was lit by a single SB-900 firing into a softbox - The trick was to try to light the smoke, without spilling light onto the background.

To do this I aimed the softbox to the side, almost slightly behind the smoke - Being careful not to cause lens flare (a bit of trial and error!)

With the smaller aperture needed to capture the plumes of smoke properly (focusing is tough to say the least!) you lose quite a bit of light.

In order to freeze the motion of the constantly-moving smoke, you need quite a fast shutter time. I aimed for 1/125 or faster.

I shot in full manual to get the smoke as bright as possible without blowing out the highlights.

Taking the photos is just the start in this project - Photoshop is where they are transformed.

I cropped the image, rotating where I think it suited, and then used levels to adjust the contrast of the images.

Some work well with the Black background (as the main image), some I Inverted to give a black smoke of white background look (like this example)

To colourise the smoke, I used the hue and saturation tool. You can apply the colour to the whole image in one go, because your white or black background will be unaffected by this tool.

I prefer to colour parts of the image by making a selection of a part of the smoke, with feather set to 200px.

These are very much 'first attempts' but I pleased with how they went.

Tea for Two (Westy 52)

Really struggled for inspiration this week, but was saved by the Christmas Fayre at Caitlin's school on Sunday.

There were a couple of rides, including the girls' favourite (The Teacups) - This gave me a chance to practice my panning technique.

I pre-focused on the girls before the ride started, and then following them round, panning and shooting each time they passed me.

I must admit to having a few 'misses' but was pleased the the results from this shot.

Shot taken handheld with the D300 + 18-200vr.

Slightly adjusted levels in Photoshop.