some holiday shots!

[greg hxc]

not particularly good photos but fun because of all the DOF / lighting / colors available on a tree! comments welcome, especially on whether you prefer the natural warm light, or the ultra white-balanced one of the first two. i think the white balance gave it a neat retro look. also really shut down the aperture and left it open for some time.

[gahspidy]

Greg, glad to see you back. I like the first two best. (The ones with the red star in the bg) The second one being my pick because of the clarity and the star like effects of the blue lights.

[greg hxc]

i like the stars too! i nailed the aperture down to 22 giving me that and the clarity.

how do you feel about the colors between the two?

[readingr]

Greg,

From the top I like the first 2 Star shapes. I like the colour in the first and the sharpness of the second. If I was buying them I would have a hard time chosing. Have you tried taking the 1st with the sharpness of the second? Could be a neat experiment.

The 3rd Not to sure about this one, I like the colours bu the baubles in the bottom left leave me fuzzy. Perhaps if they were sharp and you could see the reflections it would be better.

Last but not least I like this one and then I don't. I think its the black and orange beak thing in the background that puts me off. Perhaps if it was something more Christmassy like Santa It would look a lot better.

I will be experimenting on out tree tonight if I get peace at home!

[greg hxc]

awesome, hopefully we'll see some of yours soon! i encourage this as an assignment for anyone with a tree handy

my girlfriend has a thing for penguins (which is the beaked creature you're seeing) so i took that one for her. i like the fact that he's looming in the background although i'm not going to try and argue that it makes for a good photo.

as for those top two, those were the only shots i did that night and i didn't realize how much i'd like them. i personally love extreme depth of field, but i'd like to do what you said - reset the white balance to auto and shoot at f22. i'll see if i can reshoot and post back.

[gahspidy]

I still like the second one best. I would try upping the levels a bit and that should help bring out the colors a bit more as well.