Airstream lights

[Coyotepsych]

I own a 1972 Airstream camper, and these are the lights that hang on our awning (cuz, for those of you who are not camper/trailer owners, it's part of the "culture" to deck out your camper awning with strings of lights). I thought it was fun that we found Airstream lights. What do you think of the shot? I wondered about a change in angle or focus...

[jiminyClickit]

Coyotepsych,

If I could only do one thing to change the impact of your photo, I'd crank up the color, a bit of saturation, some contrast, looking for the reflected blue under each light to brighten, and the orange running light and awning stripes.

[Nicole]

I think maybe I'd change the focus to the closer lights instead of the middle / far lights... Because the focus isn't towards the front, the first light seems a bit overwhelming for lack of focus, but that's just me. Otherwise, I think it's kind of funky

[Coyotepsych]

Thank you, both, for the good ideas! Nicole, I had some of those same thoughts - thinking that first light is kind of distracting being out of focus. Maybe I'll try the shot again next time we go camping and play with it.

JiminyC, good ideas! I am a Photoshop dunce , but am not afraid to play around and see what I can do. (layering? what the...) those two elements of play are thankfully, elementary.

Here's a crop and color adjustment, and then one with just color adjustment. What do you think now?

[Murtasma]

Cute lights I would have done some selective focusing with this image. Try to focus on the left most camper and shoot at a higher f-stop if you have more light next time. It would be nice to see the whole line in focus. You can always add some blur in post processing near the end of the the camper line to add a little depth.

Those are some cute little lights.

[clockdoc]

Here's a challenge, shoot the lights again (using a tripod) but take three or four exposures, changing the focus so that you have all lights in focus combining the multiple shots. Then, use the Group Shot application I mentioned a few days ago when I posted the Car Wash photo :
( http://research.microsoft.com/projects/GroupShot/ ) to combine the sharpest sections of each one. Another idea may be to shoot the lights lit up at dusk. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[purplepixie]

I like your 2nd edit - the colour looks great. Very groovy lights indeed - a collector myself. Just for fun, try shooting them at night when they're lit up.

[tzimmerman]

I would try a different crop on that.....one that has the closest and most out of focus light......just about the back windows of it so you can tell its a part of the string...and maybe about to the middle of the airstream window so as to catch the reflection in it...which I like.

Also...you might play with removing the awning support....will take a little cloning and healing but you should be able to pull it off pretty easily, and that would be another tool thats good to learn to use in photoshop. I am not much more advanced than you...layers and blending baffles me most times.....but the cloning and healing brushes are pretty easy.

The color turned out great on the other 2 shots.

[Coyotepsych]

thanks, everyone!! Some fun post-processing ideas to try. I'll give 'er another go with the camera next time we go camping - am excited to try to catch them when they are lit up.

They are some funky little lights, and go nicely with our funky old camper. I'm also partial to our "ghetto" method of clothespinning them to the awning. Most other folks have some fancy velcro strap things that hook into the awning track. Maybe next time I'll also photograph our two plastic pink flamingos that camp with us and sit behind their little sections of white plastic fencing.

[purplepixie]

Looking forward to some more pics - happy playing (and camping)