danger_nelson's photostream

I was pretty unhappy with this photo. I was trying to follow this example, which I really wanted to do for a while now:

strobist.blogspot.com/2006/06/developing-idea-part-2-comp...

but I had a hell of a time soldering the leads onto the screw (the bottom I soldered no problem). I don't know if it was the wrong metal. Burnt my finger, and I was done with that little experiment. So this photo is a composite of two images. The bulb was duct taped to a dowel (black felt in the background). For the lit shot a lamp base was screwed into the bulb and the image shot in manual @ f8. base was then removed, illuminated with another CFL (I have no idea how to color balance my flash to CFL) and the second image was taken. Of course the dowel fell after the first shot, so the unlit light bulb's perspective was incorrect. So what was supposed to be a nice clean shot became a lesson in photoshop saving your ass.

PS was as follows:
-import
-each adjustment done in ACR (white balance, exposure, contrast)
-open each image in PS as smart objects (to allow for later adjustments in ACR as needed)
-dust spot removal
- put each image in its own layer
-aligned images (dropped lit bulb layer opacity to 50%, manually align, opacity back to 100%)
-corrected perspective with free transform
-layer mask the top layer
- paint out the unlit bulb

Photo taken at bubble pond in Acadia National Park. 3 shots 0, +2, -2 Ev processed in photomatix and sharpened in photoshop.