RacerDan Loc: Virden Illinois

Canon 60D, custom wb(I think), .6 seconds,F4, ISO 1600

Hat, beard, and suit are snow white, tree lights are LED blue

set custom wb with white paper, I think I did it right, should I be able to get pure white on the hat, suit, and beard or is it going to pick up the glow from the candle?

This is my first try at candle light, been at it since 4AM and not making mush headway. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

candle light

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

The candle is only a source of light here and not part of the subject, Santa,... The candle is way over exposed and not all there... so crop just a tad to the right of the flowers on the right. This gets rid of most of the Christmas tree... but so!? The tree is not focus of photo and is out of focus...distractingly. then crop just below the flowers on the left. Leave the dark on the left alone because it ads depth... dimension... to the photo.

Download a trial copy of Topaz detail and Topaz Clarity. Detail will bring out details of face and beard. Clarity will allow you to adjust the luminosity (brightness), saturation, of the yellow of the beard. Also, the tint can be adjusted ... but I like the colors the way they are.. the purple and the orange and yellow complement well.

Not a great shot the way it is, but the parts are there and with post can be a very good shot.

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

You did pretty good Dan.
The colours are fine.
I wouldn't have the candle in the image but would have the tree in. The tree just screams "Christmas Time", it provides context.
The focus point is on the flowers in Santas hands.
It needs to be his eyes. It can be anywhere else as well but his eyes need to be in focus.

Nightski

The composition here if you omit the candle is lovely. Do you have the chance to try the shot again, Dan? I too love the idea of it. I think if your candle is a little further away. It is a little too bright on the Santa. I love the warm glow of the Santa in front of the cool blue of the tree. The Santa is soft however. You need a tripod for this shot to get sharp focus. Turn the ISO down a little, the noise is not helping the sharpness. Can you go to f2.8 to compensate? Or even if you have a longer shutter speed, I think that would work, but at such a high ISO it's very noisy.

RacerDan Loc: Virden Illinois

Everyone likes the colors except me and I'm trying to get rid of them. In the first shot I didn't worry about focus and composition I was looking for a white Santa. The attached is more like what I wanted, but I don't know how I got there. All I did was zoom in, unplug the tree, and focus better. This still not the composition I'm looking for but as you can see the sun came up and messed up my back ground, I'll try again tonight.

Thank you for the comments and sugestion, I think I will be playing with this one for a few days.

1206

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Hi, Dan! If you wanted the whites to be white, and you tried to set a custom WB using a sheet of white paper, I don't think it "took." If it had, indeed the color on Santa should have been relatively accurate despite being candle-lit. Because candle light is very warm—down at the red-orange end of the spectrum—if you custom balance for a white-white it's going to cause all the other colors in the picture to skew pretty wildly to the cool end, and still might not yield a "true" white, but it should be close.

I'm inclined to wonder, though, why you want to get a good white in a candlelit picture except as an exercise to see if you can do it? I'm sure you can do it, but the basic idea of the picture (as I see it) is a pretty candlelit still-life. The color (I believe) should be warm. I would not mind at all seeing the entire candle—the main light—in the picture. That would be pretty hard to hold; you'd have to expose for the candle and then bring up the shadows, unless you have one of those cool graduated neutral density filters which could be used to keep the candle from overexposing while letting the rest come up. I think the tree definitely needs to be there, lit. You had a focus (or camera movement) issue in the first picture you posted, which you corrected in the second one, so you're on the right track.

I think the first shot has a lot of charming potential. It is overexposed and unsharp, but I think the basic idea is good. If you really, really want the whites white then try again to get that custom white balance, and crop out the candle, but if I were making it I'd try to include the whole candle, balance the light with a graduated ND (I don't happen to own one but if I wanted this shot I might go buy one), and let the warm candle light dominate. :D

RacerDan Loc: Virden Illinois

Chuck, you are the 4th of 4 that has told me that I'm heading in the wrong direction. I without a creative bone in my body will wise up and listen to what you people are telling me. I just did a little review of the postings of all 4 of you and have respect for the creativity and knowledge of all of you.

Some of my work is acceptable but none artistic, but with the help of members of the hog it will move in the right direction. Thank you all.

Pierre H.J. Dumais Loc: Mississippi Mills, Ont.

I very much like the idea of trying new approaches and good for you. That makes photo life really interesting.
The only thing I can suggest is, try a neutral grey card, instead of white paper, and see where that brings you.

Pierre

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Dan go back to sleep and Santa will come.. leave (white) milk and cookies. But with that auto trip camera, use a 5000 - 5400 K* temperature light to get white. (Walmart Daylight CFL are 5000K ) You used a candle and that gives the yellow effect.. incandescent carbon particles and some sodium will do that. The "white" reflects the yellow shined on it. Nothin' wrong with candle light it is beautiful as taken .... artistic is to change the yellow to white. True reproduction is to accept reality and learn to love the beautiful yellow lighting.

If you insist, use the eyedropper to pickup white/yellow and then use color change (exchange) tool from the tools on left of your edit screen. On PSP-X6 I set the tolerance at 38% opacity at 94%. Presto-changeO it works; Santa has white hair and beard just like me.

IMO and several others, the yellow is very attractive, not artistic rather suggests "Santa By Candle-Light" ... humm Santa may be Chinese considering most of the gifts is made in China.

I also used Topaz Detail to bring out micro and medium contrast, then used Topaz Clarity to adjust the exposure, contrast, color luminosity saturation and tint, but only slightly.

I used the flood tool to fill the lights with blue sampled from the blue in the photos, since they were burned out (no pun intended). As was suggested by others, cropping some on left and right to remove the candel.

If you wish I can post the results, otherwise I assume that it not to your liking. With out your permission I can not do it as rules state.

Dan, you say you are not creative??? Well, sorry you have taken a very artistic creative Santa and you should be proud of it, very well done, we all agree except for you.... how modest! You really did well accept it.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Dan, I would like to address the color balance issue. The picture has two problems in that regard: the foreground and the background. Each has different lighting and the difference is too large to get both right in the same shot with the existing light alone. If you do not have a good way of setting the white balance, then use auto and take your chances. Using a piece of "white" paper does not do it. There are whites and there are whites. And I am not a fan of gray cards. However, if you want to use either, then buy those manufactured for photographic use.

If you want to capture the scene's white balance, the most reliable tools are a color temperature meter and an Expodisc. The former is expensive and slow, the latter cheap and fast. In either event, you will set the white balance to the Santa Claus because it is brighter, bigger and the center of attention. Even though I have used the Expodisc happily for about four years, this is not a paid endorsement. Using the Expodisc is a lot easier and more reliable than fixing the white balance in post-processing.

Now for the problem of different color temperatures. I would turn to post-processing for this. Since I do not know your skill level here, my recommendations may not match your interest or skill level. If that is so, then I apologize in advance. I would mask off the background and adjust the color balance of the foreground and background separately. A more complicated approach would be to mount the camera on a tripod and shoot two pictures. The white balance of the first would be set to the foreground, the other, to the background. Mask the first in post-processing and use the second for the background. You can also use a flash and control the color temperature that way.

As for composition, I would stick to your shot but crop out the candle.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

RacerDan Loc: Virden Illinois

feel free to change anything, time permitting I would just like to know how you do what you do. As far as color goes my knowledge is limited to blue and yellow makes green(I think). My mode of operation is that if it dosen't work get a bigger hammer. Ever now and then even a blind hog comes up with an acorn. Living in central Illinois this is a good time of year to sit in front of the computer and learn something. This is my first time playing with candles and I just had no idea what to expect knowing so little about color and light.
I thank you for your kind comments and suggestions. My brother is coming in this afternoon from the east coast, so I, going to lose a few days but will be back trying ASAP.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

[quote=RacerDan] .... As far as color goes my knowledge is limited to blue and yellow makes green(I think). (you do not need to know that even)

My mode of operation is that if it dosen't work get a bigger hammer.

(Dan, As I recall from HSchool days... "If it doesn't fit, force it, if it does not force get a bigger hammer, if that does not work F-it")

This is my first time playing with candles and I just had no idea what to expect knowing so little about color and light. ( Dan the yellow is beautiful accept it as an alternative, also if you wish use the eye dropper and swap color tool and make one with white.. easy... and if it does not work to suit you so what, you have lost nothing and learned a lot. Goggle "color swap tool" ) " Topazlabs add on programs are excellent and save time and frustration .... Topaz is that Bigger Hammer

Enjoy your visit from your brother... d/p