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Wm. Bates | all galleries >> Picture a Day for a Year of Wanda Gallery >> Click here for Wanda In December Gallery > Wanda12_13_04.jpg
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13-DEC-2004

Wanda12_13_04.jpg

We spent the evening looking at Christmas lights. These lights are in a pond in a town close to us. The lighting for Wanda was from a nearby street lamp.


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Wm. Bates09-Jul-2005 02:48
I always have loved looking at Christmas lights. Whenever I am annoyed by all the traffic generated by our neighbors light display (they really go all out) I try to remember to look at the lights through the eyes of a child. When I was a child, I loved it when My daddy would drive us around the neighborhood to look at all the pretty lights.

The only difficult thing about posing for this picture was that My bum was freezing on that cold , hard rock!

Wanda
Wm. Bates17-Dec-2004 15:56
Ellis, when shooting in RAW really no white balance is selected by the camera. You pick the white balance when you convert the file to a tiff or jpeg. Correcting is just a matter of making a selection or adjusting a slider with your RAW conversion software. If you set a custom white balance with the camera and just pick custom from the menu when converting it will get you very close and saves a little time. If you haven't played with RAW files with your 10D then give it a try. Get a free trial copy of CaptureOne LE raw conversion software. You most likely will not shoot jpegs again.
Wm. Bates17-Dec-2004 15:47
Ian, this is the same pond Wes photographed.
Guest 17-Dec-2004 13:31
Nice shot Bill but the right foreground is a little distracting. Not much you could do about that I suppose, short of masking it.
Is this the same lights Wes photographed on the 2nd Dec?
ellisjames17-Dec-2004 08:37
Bill, Although the posted image turned out nicely, I noticed (in other comments) that you mentioned that the RAW photo reflected "awful green" lighting etc. For comparison, would you post an example of what the non-adjusted original looked like? Perhaps not in the POD gallery but maybe a side directory showing what the original result was and maybe additional- progressives of what was done to "correct" the shot?
A reference to a good site of such processing insights would be appreciated.

Thanks for the continued family effort.
(10D, good glass, student skills in Arizona).
Guest 15-Dec-2004 18:07
A great shot!

She's a great model to stay still for 2.5 seconds.
Wm. Bates15-Dec-2004 04:28
The trees are frames on rafts.
Ed Preston15-Dec-2004 03:46
Wm, GREAT as always. Are the trees on small rafts or something? or did you put them on the water like you did with Wanda coming down the stairs? I wish I knew as much about phtography as most of the people on PBase, but I'm lucky, I have a son-in-law whom is pretty good and I can useraly get him to retouch something for me if needed. (the best of both worlds)
Craig 15-Dec-2004 01:17
Gosh! Such great pictures... Wanda is special.. Such beautiful eyes and the camera seems to find her beauty both inner as well as outer... Great work
John Storjohann 14-Dec-2004 17:30
Don't know why this hit me...Wanda...how the heck did you sit that still for 2 seconds? I'm bad about fidgeting anytime, let alone for a long exposure.
Wm. Bates14-Dec-2004 17:15
We tried some with a fill flash. Even with the flash diffused and set at two stops below ambient light the photos had that "they used a flash look".
Paul Dovie Jr14-Dec-2004 17:11
Great shot, what if you would have used a fill flash to Wanda, to you think the rest would have washed out??
Wm. Bates14-Dec-2004 14:39
Sigma makes a handful of really nice lenses and they make more that are real junk. I would do lots of research and studying before buying any lens no matter the manufacturer.
Jack J Maniscalco14-Dec-2004 14:29
I have always been fond of reflection scenes. I especially like the way the lights seemed to have stretched across the water.

Also, since I have recently come back to photography, it's good to know Sigma lens can produce some nice work.

Merry Christmas, Wanda & Bill!
Wm. Bates14-Dec-2004 14:11
It has been in the high 40's and 50's the last few days and down near freezing at nights but we still have a little snow in the yard. This pond is fed by a few warm springs and almost never freezes over. The only really bad thing about the lighting was the color of the street light. It was a yucky yellow green. It made the color correction a pain in the neck. I should have done a custom white balance.

I have been very happy with the Sigma 15-30. It is very sharp for a wide angle zoom. Build quality is very good.
John Storjohann 14-Dec-2004 13:54
I really like this image..tricky lighting situation, well handled. No snow? No ice? Must be warmer up your way than I thought! How do you like the Sigma lens?
Guest 14-Dec-2004 13:33
Great holiday shot.
Guest 14-Dec-2004 10:49
Thank you both for helping us get more into the holiday spirit . . . nicely done!
Cliff14-Dec-2004 08:45
Difficult light but nicely done.