Star Burst Christmas Lights

Dec12

Celebrating the one and only 12 (day), 12 (month) 12 (year)!
Over at "I Heart Faces" today was a tutorial on how to create a "Star Burst" effect with Christmas lights. Since I wanted to include a moving object in my version I had to make some adjustments.

First I set my camera up according to the instructions.

Settings: manual, 30 sec, ISO 100, F22, flash on Lens 50mm

This produces a great star burst effect. What happens though if your dog (or a person) decides to move during the 30 second exposure?! The result in a great star burst tree and a very blurry dog! Another little surprize, if your dog gets bored and decides to get up and leave before the 30 second exposure is up - well then this is what you get.

20121212-ghost
Kodee Ghost!
So to solve my problem, I took a photograph of just the tree using the above settings. Then I took a second photograph, focusing on Becky and changed my settings to ensure I would have a nice sharp image of her.

Settings: manual, 100 sec, ISO 100, F2.4, flash on Lens 50mm

To get my final photograph, I combined the star burst tree and the sharp focused photo of Becky together.

20121212-Edits

Did you know Kodee and Becky have their own blog? From December 1 - 24, I am creating my own"Dog Inspired Advent Calendar" and taking a photo a day of Kodee and Becky 

View my 2012 Advent Calendar Collection


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Joining the fun at:


and
 then, she {snapped}  Camera Critters

10 comments:

houndstooth said...

I love how that turned out! I'm going to have to do that now, you know. :P I actually have a setting in my camera that will create that effect, though, without the long exposure. I did some fun ghost photos of Bunny on purpose, though, a while back. It's a cool effect!

DogBreedz - Pet Photography by Peggy Mundell said...

Beautiful result! Great job merging the two pix and the end photo is just darling! <3

Connie Smiley said...

You certainly ended up with a perfect shot! Will it be your Christmas card? Thanks for passing on the tutorial--that may come in handy.

EG CameraGirl said...

Love the sparkles! Merry Christmas!!

Unknown said...

Hello there, i'm Milo :)
I love that picture, it's ace!
Milo :)

KB said...

I love the ghost photo! I've tried to use that technique to make a spooky and cool photo of dogs or people but haven't perfected it yet (long exposure with the person/dog staying for only part of the exposure).

Your final photo was gorgeous!

Ruby said...

Oh, I like it!! Very cool.

Kisses,
Ruby

SimplyBelle said...

I love how that turned out! And so glad I'm not the only one with a dog who refuses to sit for christmas photos! Glad you found a trick, will have to try it onmy little ones!

Judy said...

I love your new header!!! They are having so much fun in the snow!!
Merry Christmas to you and yours!!

Karen said...

Pretty cool!

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