Taken on the Candlelight Christmas Home Tour in Buchanan, VA. This annual event features about half a dozen private homes (different every year) who go all out with holiday decorations and allow the public to tour their house (usually older homes, but some newer ones as well). This particular house, Mill Creek Manor, was FILLED with candles - and I mean FILLED. The staircase was beautiful and I thought of this challenge (of course I had several other shots to choose from as well!) - this seemed the most unique and appropriate. I hope I've done it justice.
PP included:
straighten horizon
Neat Image
clone brush
blending brush
selective layers of tint brush, dodge/burn brush, change hue, color sat, sepia filter
save for Web
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Should have done better. Lighting is very well controlled in this shot. Exposure could not have been easy since it appears you were handheld (walking tour...). The framing of the staircase is excellent. I really like how you offset its placement just a little and not more. The candle on the seat is a nice lead in. You are drawn to the stairs, look at that candle and the follow it right up. Almost like you are walking down the hall and around the bannister yourself. And the light at the top takes you off the stairway. Very nice lead through. The post processing helps make this as well. More color would be distracting and less would be flat. A very nice balance between desat/sepia and color tone. Well done Mr. Carter!
Great idea, and the b&w works great here. However, I find the light in the lower left seriously distracts from the image and naturally holds my eyes back from working their way up the stairs
Love the angle of the composition. The eye naturally follows the trail of lights as they line the stairs. The slight sepia tone here gives it a feel of a time gone past - a good memory. As much as the sepia tone adds to the mood - I still wonder what the color version would have looked like. My only critique on this photo is that there appears to be another source of light or candle on the bottom left of the image. This not only distracts attention away from the main focus but also serves to break the visual linear trail of the candles lining the steps.
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