Snowman and Sleighbell

[in2mtns]

So I was playing with my wife's Christmas tree and got this shot. I am a total newbie to all of this so please C&C. Shot in .JPG on a Nikon D80 / 18-135mm. No photoshop ...... yet (what would you suggest).

[clockdoc]

Hi and welcome to the group. Happy to see another D80 'shooter' out there. I like your reflection shot. Good eye for the abstract. You may want to see if you can work around avoiding the out of focus snowman's arm as it tends to be distracting. May be a tad bit undrexposed as viewed on my monitor.
When you said, No Photoshop...yet" did you mean you have Photoshop but did not use it or you don't have any photo software? If not, the free Picasa software by Google is a good learning tool as well as some limited manipulations available through IrfanView (www.irfanview.com). Again, welcome to the group.

[in2mtns]

Hi - thanks for the welcome. With the "No Photoshop ... yet" I mean that I have access to CS2 on m work machine, but I'm very new to the program and just learning to use it. I picked up the Adobe classroom in a book and intend to go through that in the next few weeks.

[morfasie]

Originally Posted by in2mtns

Hi - thanks for the welcome. With the "No Photoshop ... yet" I mean that I have access to CS2 on m work machine, but I'm very new to the program and just learning to use it. I picked up the Adobe classroom in a book and intend to go through that in the next few weeks.

Nice shot, must agree about the arm, good focus and nice colours!

[FrankenPengie]

I think it's great. A little crop could avoid the arm being a distraction but I would certainly leave the arm and back of the head in. My eye goes straight over it and to the facing reflection. The star punched out of the bell is in perfect position to eliminate the photographer. Great job!

Edit: Okay, so I can see your head. But it doesn't stick out as being your head.

[Aperthetic]

I might have cropped it a little up from the bottom, but I'd definitely keep the out of focus head and arm....I love it! It frame the ornament nicely. I'd also cool the photo down a bit becomes it seems overly warm in my opinion. Nice focus as well.

[in2mtns]

Ok here is the imaged cropped and using the auto adjustments in PS. I also tried cloning out "the photographer" so I'm not as obvious in the reflection.

Please C&C the update.

[clockdoc]

The cropped version is much better. Thanks for taking the time to recrop and post.

[Manila_Joe]

The crop is very nice. I like the DOF. I think the snowman is perfect where it is and it is out of focus enough that it does not distract me from what is the focus.