So I was at Mom's on Christmas Eve and Day. I told my sister about the challenge and she said "Oh....I have a 12 Days of Christmas Santa". She collects Santas, has 100's and puts a selection out each year.
I originally shot this at Mom's on Christmas Day. I set up some wrapping paper as a background and shot the figure on the dining room table using daylight from bay windows. But it was handheld and I was too tired (I never sleep well at Mom's or anywhere else for that matter) to hold the camera steady and the image was not as sharp as I would like.
I got a microwave for Christmas and had made arrangements to go and pick it up on New Year's Eve and give my sister a present that had not arrived in time. Bev and I went to a church out by Mom's. We had a real long lunch from which I suffered from information input overload and we finally left and went to Mom's. I gave Barb her present and picked up the microwave. I also asked to borrow the Santa and she said OK.
I re-shot in studio with a black background thinking colors would pop better and my lighting on any wrapping paper would suck. I toyed with a couple of different compositions and decided full on would do best.
Post: Convert from raw in PSElements 3.0 with a +0.33 exposure compensation. Layer adjusments for levels, brightness/contrast and hue/saturation. Layer of curves adjustment. Lots of dust on the black velvet background so I selected and reset the black to lose all of that. Dodged the bottom of the skirt and then burnt the background there. Hopefully it is even cause I just cannot tell on this monitor sometimes. The color need a little oomph so I did a layer of hue/saturation then a small dose of Kyoto Color twice. Sharpen. Resize. Sharpen.
PS: Happy New Year Everyone!
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