Merry Christmas Everybody by Terry Grealey

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used a Sony Alpha A350 for the shot. This was the last shot I took with this camera, as I upgraded to the A380.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Exp = 1.6 seconds
Apeture = f5.6
Focal length = 45mm
ISO = 100
The shot was taken with a manual focus.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
The original shot was taken in RAW and because Photoshop doesn't recognise Sony raw files, I had to convert the file to jpeg using Sony Image Suite. Then I did my usual tweeking (saturation, sharpness, etc) using Photoshop CS4.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject was centred around the unusual Christmas tree baubles that depicted the countries of the world, in an attempt to show the global message of Christmas (Peace on earth kinda thing).

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
Again my initial thought was, how great would it be to incorporate the image to depict peace on earth. The depth of field was provided by the lights on my Christmas tree.

More Light by Barb Dickie

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Nikon d300s and 50mm f/1.4 lens, Manfrotto tripod. The three champagne glasses are filled with sparkling water and placed on a homemade light table. Small Christmas tree lights provide the coloured lights. Homemade bokeh filter alter the shape of the bokehs.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
The final image is a montage of four:
The glasses on the light table (background image) - 50mm 1.4 lens at f2.8, 1/90 sec, iso 400.
Bokeh image 1 (circles - no bokeh filter) - 50mm lens, ISO 400, f/1.4, 1/50 sec (under exposed 2 full stops)
Bokeh image 2 (snowflakes with bokeh filter) - 50mm lens, ISO 400, f/1.4, 1/30 sec (under exposed 2 full stops)
Bokeh image 3 (hearts with bokeh filter) - 50mm lens, ISO 400, f/1.4, 1/20 sec (under exposed 2 full stops)

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Basic adjustments of each of the 4 images made in Lightroom 2. Final montage created in Photoshop 2. All done in layers. Some cloning, opacity reduction, transforming of each bokeh layer.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The photo is a festive take on sparkling water.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
It was in answer to Flickr Group “Our Daily Challenge’s” topic – More Light on December 23. I felt that an image making use of a light table with the addition of three different bubble bokehs would qualify as more.

I have been experimenting with my new light table and bokeh filter and thought a montage using the two new tools was in order and Christmas/New Year provides a relevant context. I had seen many images using bokehs as bubbles and thought I would try my hand.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
I kept losing the bubbles in the glasses and I drank the water and refilled but gave up as it was impossible to attain a uniform bubble density. I was thinking if this had been champagne, I never would have completed the image.

Splash by Vlad Solomon

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 400D with the canon 50mm f/1.8 mounted on it, Canon 580 EX II flash, Cactus KF36 flash, Cactus V4 radio triggers, colored gels, tripod and a cable release.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
50mm, F/8, 1/160 shutter speed, ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop CS3

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
A martini glass with water and an olive in it, shot at the moment an ice cube is being dropped in.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I had just received this glass as a gift, and i absolutely loved the elegance of it's shape so I knew it would make a great subject for a splash shot like this.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
This is the longest shot I have done so far, took me about 5-6 hours to get what i wanted. It took so much because I had to time pressing the shutter release exactly as the ice cube hit the water and made a splash. I have a lot of shots in which I caught the cube in the air. And of course, after every shot I had to clean up the water from the glass plate under the martini glass.

Patrick in deep space by Mike Keeling

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Nikon D300, Tamron 180mm macro lens, a piece of black aluminum, spray bottle of water and a flashlight.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Focal Length 180 mm, ISO Speed 200, exposure 0.8, aperture f/29.0. The higher the f/ the smaller the dots.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I am computer illiterate. My Dell came with ACDSee.

Horses by Frau Isaeva

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 50D, lens 50mm

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
F/5.6, 1/60 sec

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I think none. I just cropped it in iPhoto.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
Shrimps in action

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I love sea food, so I shoot it :-))))

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
They are hanging in fact, but I think everyone can see that.

Smokey by Bruno Wokalek

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used a Nikon D80 with the 100 mm Cosina macro lens (yeah, a really cheep one...), and a Metz 48 flash.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
The camera was set to an aperture of f/11 and 1/125 sec, ISO was 100. Strobist info: Metz 48 with 1/64 power into small softbox, behind the glasses pointing towards the cam. Triggered with RF 602.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Photoshop CS4 for some brightness and color adjustment on the glass bottles. The pictures of the smoke were inverted (they were originally white smoke on black background) and the colors were adjusted via hue/saturation.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
On the photo you can see some small glasses (about 5cm tall) filled with colored water. I used here different colored ink, my trials with food color were not good, because they were not transparent and brilliant enough. The smoke pictures were shot with a joss stick.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
Originally I made the shot with the bottles and the smoke on different days, but found them a bit boring alone. So I decided to combine them into one picture to get it more interesting.

Inspoon Inspired by Adrián Vidal

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Digital Canon 300D, 18-55mm and natural light.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Aperture: f/5.6, exposure: 1/80 sec, ISO 100, focal length: 22 mm, exposure mode: manual.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop CS5.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject of the photo is a spoon. This was a task for a photography class.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
The photography teacher gave us a homework. We had to take a picture, no matter the style, technique, with or without retouch, with a common theme "A Spoon".

Clearly the task was not only to photograph a spoon, but also to come up with a good idea, to bring out something original, with some plastic and aesthetic level and most importantly of all - to realize this idea. I am very pleased with the result, not only with how it looks, but rather by the fact that it got exactly how I proposed it in my imagination. It is my little private success.

Untitled by Alexandru Balan

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Olympus SP-570uz

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
ISO 100, 1/125, f/4.0, 9.8mm focal length

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Photoshop for contrast

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject is two morning glory flowers

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I wanted the light to glow through petals,to have their own source of light from the center and to illuminate the darkness around.

Pick A Straw by Ngaire Naran

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used my Canon 40D camera plus two lights. One was a halogen desk lamp and another a small torch. I used my 50mm f/1.8 lens for this shot - I love this lens as it is so fast and sharp. Because I don't have any off camera flash units, I use torches and lamps for all my lighting and I find that this does the job OK.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Exposure 1/640 sec, Aperture f/1.8, ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Just PICNIK (I have since bought myself Photoshop CS5 but for this shot I just used the editing tools in Picnik)

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject was a bunch of straws (yellow ones actually!)

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
It was one of those days when I still hadn't taken my shot for my 365 project and was running out of inspiration. Often I get ideas from Flickr and as I had seen a few straw shots, that gave me the inspiration I lacked.

So how did I go about taking the shot - well I used a shallow DOF and shone my desk lamp from above - I think sitting on a wooden desk affected the colour further down the straws. I also shone my little torch light at the base of the straws which were sitting in a small glass jar. I had envisaged the shot coming out differently, but then thought that this foggy effect looked OK.

While I was in Picnik adding the frame, I thought, "hmm, what else can I play around with here?" So I ended up inverting the shot and then playing around with the tint... and that is what I ended up posting.

Ghost in the Machine - Madonna by Erika Iris Simmons

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon Rebel. The cassette tape photographs work well with soft lighting and flash.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
F9, ISO 200

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Sometimes I use Lightroom but I never photoshop my images.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject is a portrait of Madonna made out of cassette tape

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
This is a part of my "Ghost in the Machine" series where I have many portraits out of cassette tape or old recycled film.

Seasons change, friends move away, and life goes on from day to day... by Jennifer Rachelle

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used a Nikon D5000, 18-55mm lens and a SB900 Nikon Flash.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
The f stop was f/6.3 , ISO 200, Exposure 1/160 sec.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used CS3 for post processing.

Q4. What was the subject of the photo?
The subject of the photo was a leaf on a rock bench at a park.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I was looking for something to resemble Autumnal Equinox due to a challenge in another group. It was quite difficult being in South Texas because most leaves have not started to change. I drove for about an hour trying to figure out how I wanted to show the seasons changing. I was about to give up when I found this leaf and was amazed at the two sides reflecting the Autumnal Equinox better than what I was originally visualizing for the challenge.