I saw some photos similar to this near Christmas on flickr, and I knew what I was going to shoot for my 365 project on Valentine's Day. Much to my surprise, this challenge comes up, so I get a 2 for 1 deal.
My setup included placing the candy canes in the snow, propping the camera on a tripod, and trying out dozens of different lighting styles. Unfortunately, mother nature wasn't playing nice, and kept the sun behind the clouds (I was hoping for a nice sparkly shot with a good shadow). So I had to get out my flash and a variety of different modifiers/angles until I got something I liked.
I'm no expert editor, so I'm guessing this may fall in the standings compared to what some creative people will come up with.
Post Processing:
* White Balance
* Increase Recovery, Black Point, and Brightness
* Topaz Adjust
* Topaz Detail
* Increase Definition
* Increase Saturation
* S-curve
* Burn the shadow slightly to make it pop out ever so slightly
* Export as TIFF
* Resize to 800 px
* Sharpen Edges
* Save as JPEG
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Did a very nice job handleing the snow and shadows.. love that you retained the little crystal glistening ice... The only thing that bothers me a little about his is the snow in the forground is a tish out of focus, it confused my eye, because you have a leading triangle to the heart but my eye wanted to go to the side of the heart where the focus is criper on the snow.. Over all though this is one of my fav shots, you've done well with the comosition, light, and shadow!
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