Big Bright Light Show

Every year from shortly after Thanksgiving until shortly after New Year's, Rochester, Michigan, has its Big Bright Light Show. Many of the buildings on Main Street and some side streets are covered with lighted colored bulbs for six hours every evening. I made the first of what will likely be several forays with my photo gear a couple days ago.

Nikon D3s, ISO 800, f/25 (for the starbursts), zoom at 58mm, eight exposure HDR at 1 EV intervals

post-processing

• Photomatix
• Adobe Camera Raw -- Clarity; tweaking of Saturation and Luminance (largely to tone down the red and blue lights, which were competing for attention with the lamp at the near side of the doorway)
• Topaz Simplify -- Watercolor II modified with increased Dynamics to brighten the colored lights, which were too dark, otherwise, after the standard preset
• Nik Viveza -- tone down the blue light at the left edge
• Nik Color Efex -- Darken/Lighten Center centered on the near lamp
• Digital Film Tools Rays and Red Giant Knoll Light Factory -- added light rays from lamp
• Curves -- lighten midtones and highlights
• Fractalius -- two B&W layers based on the former Sketch preset, Multiply blend mode
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- Stylize Line Art B&W layer, Divide blend mode to add white detailing

Dennis, this is a treasure:S3: I love the effects that you've given it and the diagonal and horizontal lines in the composition.

Dennis, I agree that the rays really top this off and I especially like the way the lantern anchors the comp. Sounds like you'll have fun with this subject. Look forward to more. :S3:

Beautiful work, Dennis. It's such fun to photograph the Christmas lights :S3:

This is great Dennis. A simply expression of warmth and joy. The lighting is great. What is that purple thingy on the left margin...........I might have cloned that out. Not a biggie though. Beautiful, it's a feast of lights........would make a really nice card.

Dennis, This is fantastic. I love the light rays on the lamp. Ditto Jay on the purple thingy. You have created a wonderful holiday feel here!

The purple thingy used to be a very bright blue thingy related to a blue bulb just to the left of that edge. During processing, I toned it way down and considered it getting rid of it altogether. The only thing that stopped me was that I wanted the edge of the lantern to be seen rather than disappearing into the shadow that would've been there if I'd cloned it out. It's the part of the image that bothers me, too, so I might work on it some more. Thanks for your comments about that.

Fantastic colors! I like how I can look through the lamp to its other side. Good job on the rays of light. The smaller lights seem to be twinkling. Agree about the purple thingy. Great job.