I went on a photowalk tonight around the hotel to find something interesting for today’s photograph.  I was on the second floor of the hotel lobby when I spotted this light fixture hanging over the check in desk below.  I snapped a few shots and hoped for the best.

It was not until I brought the photograph into Photoshop and started to play around with my new Wacom tablet and onOne PhotoTool 2 package that I was able to unlock the potential of this image.  The first effect I applied was the upward ghosting of the light.  This is most easily seen right above the light shades as a sort of lit fog.  My next step was to add a defocus effect around the outside edges.  The Wacom tablet and pen came in handy here when I needed to mask out the effect from the left-most and right-most lights on the fixture.  The pen allowed me to work quickly but accurately to make sure the defocusing effect did not impair these two lights.  Lastly, I applied the film frame around the image.  I picked this particular frame because it adds an eerie feeling to the old style chandelier.