There Must Be...
...An Angel :)
#MacroMonday
#Bells
I guess it must be Macro Monday. And as it happens, it's also Earworm Monday once again :) But first things first (the earworm will be playing nonstop in your heads now anyway), there really is an angel in this image.
Have you ever heard of those people who never put away their Christmas decoration, because they love all the lights and decorations so much that they celebrate the entire year? I'm not one of them, but in order to participate in the "Bells" theme, I had to get the ladder and climb up to the subceiling to get one of those carefully wrapped-up Christmas Bells. Because these are the only bells I have at home: porcelain (and one made of glass) bells as Christmas tree decoration. German porcelain manufacturer Hutschenreuther (which now belongs to Rosenthal) makes, among other things, seasonal collector's editions for Christmas and Easter, and through the years we've collected quite many Christmas baubles and bells. The bell in my image, however, is the above mentioned single glass bell (manufactured by Rosenthal); it was designed by Danish artist Bjørn Wiinblad (1918-2006) who was one of Rosenthal's chief designers for almost 50 years.
The bell is made of clear glass and it's decorated with golden stars and a harp-playing angel. The backside of the angel is the golden background on the right part of my photo. The bell has a beautifully high, clear, kind of joyous sound ('Tis the season!) created by the small clapper which dangles on a small, 4 cm / 1,5 inches long, silver chain. When I saw the chain, I immediately thought "bokeh!", and since the bell itself is rather big (it has a diameter of 5 cm / 1,9 inches and, at 9 cm / 3,5 inches height, is also too big for the MM frame), I decided to focus on the clapper inside of the bell which is made of a small glass ball that is 0,8 cm / 0,31 inches in diameter.
The image is a manual focus stacking made of only four images (combined in Helicon Focus), because I wanted the clapper to be sharp all over. As illumination I've used two LED lamps, one directed against a golden-coated piece of cardboard (which I've kept from a chocolate marshmallow box – the "golden" cardboard makes a great reflector), and the other lamp was equipped with a blue glass tealight holder for some nice blue light. Processed in HDR Efex and Luminar AI. HDR Efex often is like a photographic surprise bag, results vary between "magnificent" and "downright horrible", depending on the respective image. Here, HDR Efex kind of worked wonders and brought out the clapper's glass texture really beautifully. As finishing touches, I've slightly tweaked the colours' saturation and luminosity, and added a subtle glow in Luminar AI.
Happy Macro Monday, Everyone, stay safe and healthy – and don't forget: There's always a reason to celebrate the season :)
There Must Be...
...An Angel :)
#MacroMonday
#Bells
I guess it must be Macro Monday. And as it happens, it's also Earworm Monday once again :) But first things first (the earworm will be playing nonstop in your heads now anyway), there really is an angel in this image.
Have you ever heard of those people who never put away their Christmas decoration, because they love all the lights and decorations so much that they celebrate the entire year? I'm not one of them, but in order to participate in the "Bells" theme, I had to get the ladder and climb up to the subceiling to get one of those carefully wrapped-up Christmas Bells. Because these are the only bells I have at home: porcelain (and one made of glass) bells as Christmas tree decoration. German porcelain manufacturer Hutschenreuther (which now belongs to Rosenthal) makes, among other things, seasonal collector's editions for Christmas and Easter, and through the years we've collected quite many Christmas baubles and bells. The bell in my image, however, is the above mentioned single glass bell (manufactured by Rosenthal); it was designed by Danish artist Bjørn Wiinblad (1918-2006) who was one of Rosenthal's chief designers for almost 50 years.
The bell is made of clear glass and it's decorated with golden stars and a harp-playing angel. The backside of the angel is the golden background on the right part of my photo. The bell has a beautifully high, clear, kind of joyous sound ('Tis the season!) created by the small clapper which dangles on a small, 4 cm / 1,5 inches long, silver chain. When I saw the chain, I immediately thought "bokeh!", and since the bell itself is rather big (it has a diameter of 5 cm / 1,9 inches and, at 9 cm / 3,5 inches height, is also too big for the MM frame), I decided to focus on the clapper inside of the bell which is made of a small glass ball that is 0,8 cm / 0,31 inches in diameter.
The image is a manual focus stacking made of only four images (combined in Helicon Focus), because I wanted the clapper to be sharp all over. As illumination I've used two LED lamps, one directed against a golden-coated piece of cardboard (which I've kept from a chocolate marshmallow box – the "golden" cardboard makes a great reflector), and the other lamp was equipped with a blue glass tealight holder for some nice blue light. Processed in HDR Efex and Luminar AI. HDR Efex often is like a photographic surprise bag, results vary between "magnificent" and "downright horrible", depending on the respective image. Here, HDR Efex kind of worked wonders and brought out the clapper's glass texture really beautifully. As finishing touches, I've slightly tweaked the colours' saturation and luminosity, and added a subtle glow in Luminar AI.
Happy Macro Monday, Everyone, stay safe and healthy – and don't forget: There's always a reason to celebrate the season :)