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Sony Forums Challenges | all galleries >> Challenge 107: Greeting Cards (hosted by MFC & Sonny Asehan) >> Challenge 107: Eligible > edit image
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06-DEC-2005 Helen Betts

Wonder Full Christmas
by Helen Betts

Ankara, Turkey

Well, I tried to lighten this up a bit (based on some good instructions but minimal PS skills). Don't know if I improved it or not, but it at least it provided many hours of a good learning experience!

Sony DSC-H1
5s f/5.6 at 12.4mm iso64 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time06-Dec-2005 01:47:18
MakeSony
ModelDSC-H1
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length12.4 mm
Exposure Time5.00 sec
Aperturef/5.6
ISO Equivalent64
Exposure Bias
White Balanceother (255)
Metering Modecenter weighted (2)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programmanual (1)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Jerry Curtis13-Dec-2005 02:05
Very cool, original and imaginative, Helen. Your patience must be limitless!
Miguel Garcia-Guzman 12-Dec-2005 05:06
Helen,

Your three images are very nice but this one is particularly unique and beautiful. I love the combination of colors, the blur background (barely able to see the tree, very original indeed) and the quality of light of this image. Really a great postcard.

Miguel
Katherine Stanback's Photos12-Dec-2005 01:04
That's really cool - I love the colors, and the way the lights seem so far in front of the tree!
Sony Forums Challenges11-Dec-2005 19:36
Helen, I hope you don't mind that I'm including the link here to your original version that's now in the "demo folder". It's nice to see how your time and effort payed off :) Here's the link to your original photo...
http://www.pbase.com/stfchallenge/image/53421476
MFC
Helen Betts11-Dec-2005 10:56
Thank you for all your comments! I often mention how the challenges are learnng tools, and this one certainly was no exception for me. Sinan, what a small world -- I'm just a surprised as you to find another person in Ankara on STF, and Ankarali at that! Are you any relation to Mayor Turgut Altinok in Keçiören? I interviewed him for an article last year. I've had more Sonys than I can count and would be happy to get together sometime to talk photography! Sevgiler, Helen
Sinan 11-Dec-2005 08:13
Hey, it is very surprising that we have somebody from Sony forum in Ankara here. Helen, this is really great creation from an xmas tree. I wish we could get together sometime to talk about anything in photography. Sinan Altinok, Ankara.
Guest 10-Dec-2005 21:54
Helen, I really like your results - a very abstract - not your usual Christmas tree look. Great results in spite of all your agonizing :-) Bev
roberta10-Dec-2005 03:18
Helen,
It works very well! Great idea and well done.
Helen Betts08-Dec-2005 07:29
Hi Melanie, glad you like the picture! What I did was set a relatively long exposure in just enough light to be able to actually see the tree, focus on something visible like an ornament and then rotate the camera in small circles for the duration of the exposure. You can get varous kinds of patterns depending on how you move the camera. It's quite fun to see what you come up with and no two images are the same. I found, though, that unless I really concentrated hard (like counting the number of rotations), about 3/4 of the way thru the exposure, I would involuntarily start to rotate the camera in the other direction! Kind of like not being able to pay my head and rub my stomach, LOL. Helen
mlynn 08-Dec-2005 01:04
Neat image Helen, love those colored squiggly lights. How did you do this again? --Melanie
Helen Betts07-Dec-2005 23:07
Thanks, everyone, for your comments and MFC in particular for all your patience. I've switched pictures to the wider version but I have more work to try to do on it. Stay tuned! Helen
Ann Chaikin07-Dec-2005 06:52
You did it great Helen. ;-) I like the fact you can see the tree here. Love the little squiggles too. This year I didn't do a tree so no squiggly tree light photos for me.
Guest 07-Dec-2005 02:55
Helen, both the images (this and original versions) are good but I prefer the original version in the link you provided. To me the light patterns mimics the shape of the tree better. I wouldn't worry about about the tree's ugly shape (as you put it) because the tree itself was nicely blurred.
Sony Forums Challenges07-Dec-2005 02:43
Helen, I like the larger version of the tree a bit more...maybe just try to brighten up the background behind the tree a little & try to put a small, white border around the image that connects with the bottom portion. Just a suggestion if you feel up to it...and if you like it. MFC
Helen Betts06-Dec-2005 07:24
Thank you Mike and Sonny for your comments. I sure am suffering the effects today of obsessing over this image most of last night :-)! Sonny, due to the small size of our apartment the tree is crammed into a corner, in between a window and a painting, and there was no way to get a full tree view because of furniture. So I picked the place where I could get as much of it as possible, with some light hitting it, and with at least a little blank wall surrounding it. My original version of this showed more treehttp://www.pbase.com/image/53225846 but I got to thinking that perhaps our fake tree had sort of an ugly shape and that maybe I should crop it tightly. I simply couldn't make up my mind at that time of night so, desperate to get to bed, posted the cropped one instead of the fuller version. Which do you prefer? (Wide version has a little more sharpening). For the record, I learned this technique in a Challenge long ago from Ann Chaikin, who did a wonderful, much more abstract-looking image of her tree. I've always wanted to try it like this (did one last year in the dark), with a recognizeable Christmas tree and the lights. Helen
Sony Forums Challenges06-Dec-2005 06:18
Helen, I really like the colorful designs you make with light and motion using Christmas trees...it very much looks like writing here. I also like the way the designs fill the frame in rows running along the diagonal with the dark,blurred tree in the background. A good technique, Helen, that makes a "wonderful" contemporary-styled greeting card. MFC
Sony Forums Challenges06-Dec-2005 02:21
Oops! I was logged in as STFCHALLENGE user. The previous comment was mine... Sonny
Sony Forums Challenges06-Dec-2005 02:19
I like the holiday colors that formed the shape of the tree. It is a very intriguing and interesting technique that I just tried it with our tree; moving the camera in a small circular pattern. I like the colors of your image better than mine as our tree only has white lights. I also used a faster speed (2 seconds). The only thing I would suggest is to include the entire tree to create a triange of lights. Thanks for sharing this technique, Helen - I learned something new today!