A journal of sorts.

I am an avid photographer with a love for digital processing. The Bearded One and I have become "Townies" once again and are in the process of transforming our suburban nest into a peaceful refuge.
This blog is where I like to stash things. An assortment of random thoughts, a recipe or two, a few of my favorite photos, and the processing thereof.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Tuesday... another day closer.

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Cottage Living

Counting down the days till Christmas. I actually got the Christmas cards off into the mail. As mentioned in an earlier post I had picked up a pack of large christmas cards at the local thrift store. They hadn't been used,  were fine as is, and at 99 cents a bargain, however I always like to put a little something personal together. I took a picture of the Christmas cabin, fiddled with it in photoshop and then ran to fed-ex (kinkos) and had them print me a couple sheets on card stock. A little double-sided tape to affix my art dejour' and wah lah!!! Of course when they turn the cards over and see the Unicef logo it might be a dead give away. Next they will probably peel off my artwork to see the original underneath before they toss it. I would. Curious happens... No matter. I can cross that task off my list.

Before and After project 365

In search of "Bokeh" for my today's project photo

 

So, what is bokeh, exactly? Simply, when someone talks about “bokeh” they are referring to the out of focus portion of a photograph, usually the background, especially highlights in the background that can appear as blurry circles. Bokeh comes from the Japanese word boke which means blur (Wikipedia: Bokeh). When photographers discuss bokeh they are talking about its aesthetic quality.

The use of Bokeh is always popular around this time of year because christmas lights with the right lens and settings can create amazing effects. As per normal my take is a usually a little strange but you have to find it where you can.

Before

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This was taken this afternoon through the window of the "Old Cabin" which is all decked out for Christmas. I had to get far enough away from the christmas tree and have something to focus on, thus the jars in the window. This right out of the camera is okay but I always like to tweak.

After

 

Bokehthroughballjar

I've simply bumped up the contrast (darkened the dark, lightened the light) just to make it pop. The bright colors were already in the photo it's just a matter of layering and bumping up the exposure using a mask to paint in the light.

Here's another example of christmas Bokeh...

Milo bokeh

Thanks Milo for letting me use you as a guinea pig.

Hmmm... Pause for Thought


 

 

Until next time...

 

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