lamplight

[Dennis Bishop]

This lamp graces the lobby of a venerable hotel on Ohio's Marblehead Peninsula. I spent many hours with my camera in and around the hotel last summer and couldn't resist the lamp.

Nikon D3s, ISO 200, f/8, nine-exposure HDR at 1 EV intervals, zoom lens at 55mm

processing highlights

• Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset, partially masked
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Color blend mode, 48% opacity
• Belle Fleur texture -- Hard Light, 24%
• Fractalius -- saved black & white preset, Multiply, 54%, partially masked
• Simplify -- saved edges preset; one layer Multiply, 71%, masked; other layer Divide, 33%, inverted mask
• Snap Art -- saved Line Art preset, line color from table; one layer Multiply, 17%, masked; other layer Divide, 11%, inverted mask
• Digital Film Tools Rays -- one layer Luminosity, 63%, masked; other layer Linear Light, 8%, same mask

[Wendy Kates]

This is lovely, Dennis. I like the repeating pinks and greens throughout the image...in the BG, the lamp and (in the case of the pinks / reds) the wood. The light is very well exposed (thanks to nine exposures, no doubt!). Your post-processing enhances the sense of time and place that the lamp evokes.

[Anita Bower]

It is a lovely lamp. I especially like the simplicity of this image. Nice gentle glow emanating from it. Your treatment makes it look beautiful, which is probably is: just enough details to see the floral designs, but soft enough to feel like a painting. Lovely highlights. I assume you intended the image to be predominantly green. (I'm starting to experiment with Topaz Simplify Lines, thanks to you.)

[Dennis Bishop]

Thanks for your comments, Anita. You mentioned the predominance of the green. I might've considered changing the wall color to violet, but that would've (I think) done away with the salmon color from the lamp, and I didn't want to lose it.

[Mitch Carucci]

Aside from the warm elegance of this still life, you were really able to capture the "glow". A lot of processing went into this, but the results are wonderful.

[Nancy Bell]

Mitch used the word I wanted; this is elegant! I really, REALLY want a video of you processing one of your images!!

[Anita Bower]

Mitch used the word I wanted; this is elegant! I really, REALLY want a video of you processing one of your images!!

Nancy has a great idea!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Really beautiful light and processing Dennis. The rays emanating from the lamp are gorgeous. I think it could use just a touch a CCW rotation.

[Dennis Bishop]

Really beautiful light and processing Dennis. The rays emanating from the lamp are gorgeous. I think it could use just a touch a CCW rotation.

Thanks, Jackie. Although I use a hot-shoe bubble level when I shoot, I opened the image, again, and dragged a vertical guide into the lamp for reference. Although that's still pretty subjective, it looked okay to me. The chimney isn't centered, though. Perhaps that's why it doesn't look plumb.