The theme for this Assignment is "Holidaze". Shoot anything you want.

Guidelines (just to keep us all on track)

* Photo(s) must relate to the Theme in some way. Creative relation to the theme is certainly allowed (and encouraged). Anything that is related in some way is legal.
* Assignment is open from Friday December 21st to January 4th. giving you 2 weeks.
* Only photos that have been shot within the assignment date range are allowed.
* No signup is required, participation is encouraged regardless of skill or equipment level (after all, its not the camera, it’s the photographer,)…we’re here to have fun.
* Photo size limit: 800px on the longest side
* Basically, photograph however you like and normally do…whatever photography is to you. As many (or few) bodies/lenses/formats//Post-processing as you’d like. Sticking to basic PP is encouraged, tho’.
* If you’d like, post brief but relevant photo information and note PP (if any) is done (*Free GIMP software*). Maintain EXIF data if possible.
* Keep comments on topic, constructive, and considerate.
* Have fun!

I will try this time.

Change it to "Holidaze" Matt.

Wow, that took me a good 30 seconds to figure out that what I was looking at was exactly what you described. I had to step back to see that your star light was actually a "star light". There's a lot to keep your eye busy in there, and the more I scan it the more I like it.

With a 1/40 sec exposure wide open at f2.8 and ISO 100, I wonder how much brighter it appeared to the naked eye?

Thanks for the catch and fix... I get CnP happy at times...

Originally Posted by ride5000

what do we win?

Nothing, this is HW... check out the challenges section to find out the real challenge. - Begins Jan 1st FYI!

This is Lila the Christmas Elf:

^ great shot Mark.

Thanks! There are a bunch more that I am going through. Sometimes I feel like all I have pictures of is my goddaughter! She is very photogenic, though.

^ Mark, quick Q on looking at it in more, did you run it through any abnormal PP? Seems a bit noisy... I know its ISO 1100 but just seems high or is that the infamous Nikon noise complaints ive heard of? Just curious.

It is noisy, though the D200 generally is a little cleaner than that. I did some color adjustment b/c my white balance was off and I wasn't shooting RAW (before people get cranky, I was just shooting while we were opening presents--no need to get all serious).

I like everything in the photo but the noise. I don't have NN, so I don't have a really good way to clean it up. At the end of the day, I don't know that it matters for this photo.

Which is all to say--Matt, I am perplexed by the type of noise, also. And, even though Nikons don't handle noise as well as Canons, I don't think that's what's being exhibited here.

Yea its a great shot, shes adorable. Seemed odd to me thats all. Was just wondering if by change your PP order was the culprit.

I don't generally shoot over ISO 800 on the D200 because it just gets annoyingly noisy after that. I was shooting at high ISO yesterday because I didn't really want to use flash, and because I wanted to experiment with ISOs >800 on the D200, since I'm still learning my way around the new camera. Some came out great, some not so much. Up to 800, it's fantastic. 800-1600, it's noticeable, but not terrible.

Also, the original was not exposed very well, and I was hoping I could save it. Her face is probably a stop darker in the original, so when I corrected the exposure in PP, it is essentially ISO 3200 noise. B/c she's backlit, I should have used flash, but like I said, I was already conspicuous enough with the D200 with 17-55 combo and didn't want to annoy my goddaughter's family too much.



Anyway, back to the holidays!

Here is an on-topic example of how well the D200 can do when used more carefully. This photo is at ISO 1600 and looks much cleaner than the first photo I posted. This is with some USM, but no NR.

^ Thats much better. Thats why I was super confused. Freakin adorable in the santa outfit!

I'm repping Christmas... TEXAS STYLE!!!

^ Nice shot.

Here's mine - exif is intact, c&c welcome:

^ wow, what a ton of kids in one small area!

times running out PPL!!!

Originally Posted by subimatt

times running out PPL!!!

Really? There's 5 days left by my watch.


I don't wear a watch. But still, we have till the 4th, right?

Originally Posted by tardypizza

Really? There's 5 days left by my watch.


I don't wear a watch. But still, we have till the 4th, right?

Yea, but Im sure most people are going to be out late tonight and use tomorrow for full recovery... Just making sure people dont forget!

Yay! Finally submitting something!



-K

One more from me:

Cutting the numbers to draw for our Chinese Christmas.

^ great shots all of you!

OK, I have 2 from our family Xmas get together (actually shot on Xmas):

Originally Posted by SubieBoobie

WOW! What a great shot in that 2nd one! I feel like I'm there. Huge area and a great fireplace.

yeah, it's my wife's aunt'uncle's new place. 5,500sf McMansion. That room is awesome, but the rest is 4 bedrooms and basically that room, the kitchen (that you can just see the edge of at the bottom) and an entrance. It's waaaay too big, but that one room w/ the kitchen is awesome. I also like that shot because my wife, Mom, MIL and Dad are all in it.

Well, these are my BIL and my FIL. They each bought each other a Phillies Jersey for their favorite player, I guess, independent from each other. IOW, neither of them knew the other one was getting a jersey for him. BIL has Utley, FIL has Howard.

No processing, not even cropping, evidently. I just wanted to get one photo in, and this is all I have available at the moment.

Originally Posted by DotGrl03

^ wow, what a ton of kids in one small area!

BTW, that's NOT my house. I thought I'd clarify.

My wife and her BF have bought each other THE SAME GIFT both of the last 2 years.

Last year: Apples to Apples
This year: Cooking/hiding foods cook book with Seinfields wife.

Apples to Apples rock!

BTW, did you spy the hot item of the year in my photo?

Funny thing about that was that there was no waiting involved in the procurement of the item. Dumb luck all the way!

Finally found a few minutes of spare time (I actually had to steal some time from work, don't tell) to get some PP done. A day late, but all shot within the HW timeframe. Sue me.

The local Griswalds:






Niece:





Nephew:





Nephew:







And what holiday isn't complete without some football?

Good work, Ted.

every attempt I've ever made to take pics of my lights have turned out so crappy...





+12345 for pic #1 of lights

Ted, your pics look weird, almost like they were HDR'd. They look kinda flat/lacking contrast, and maybe oversharpened (especially the boy with the helmet and football). What gives?

Originally Posted by mkfotos

Ted, your pics look weird, almost like they were HDR'd. They look kinda flat/lacking contrast, and maybe oversharpened (especially the boy with the helmet and football). What gives?

Your monitor? They look great on my end.

The football shoot may seem oversharpened but that's because of the extreme background separation. I actually didn't apply my normal sharpening routine after resizing that shot.

The only one that really lacks contrast to my eye is the 3rd shot (the first nephew) and that's because it's basically a little underexposed to avoid blowout (you can see what it did to the helmet). There was an extremely bright window to his left that made for very tricky light. It's not an ideal exposure, but I wanted the mood more than the perfect light. Basically the same harsh lighting conditions for the football shot, all the sunlight was coming from the right, but I did what I could to avoid blowout.

I may re-PP these on a different monitor just to double check, but this is all on my usual work monitor where all my product and bike shots are done. I dunno, they really look fine to me.

Hmm, ok, well my monitor is calibrated, and all your other pics look great, but for this batch, which is why I thought it was weird. Oh well...

Come to think of it, they remind me of Adobe RGB files being displayed in sRGB color space.