52Frames Hold A Light Weekly Photo Challenge

The subject for the 52Frames photo challenge this week was “hold a light.” It took a while for me to come up with an option, and I would need my husband’s help. We have a Holtkotter dining room lamp that sits on the sideboard. It is perfectly round, and when taking a photo from above it could pass for the moon. Then another image was taken - this time with my husband “holding” the lamp. I still didn’t know how it would look until I started to make the composite photo. Both the lamp and the hand were isolated and layered together - it took a bit of patience to get it just right. Then a black backdrop was added to give it a dynamic contrast. It looked good but still needed something. So I started to play around with some additional elements and the snow flake effect looked really good - and I liked it more than the black and white version. Overall it looked almost real compared to some of the more artificial choices. A water effect was also tried, with and without snowflakes, but in the end the original idea stuck. It just looked cleaner and neater. Usually for each challenge several photos are taken and my husband and I try to agree on the best option. I think he preferred the water element, but the snowflakes just looked so much better.