Favorite Photo Friday: From Here to Mandala

I thought that I'd show you

the process behind my mandala "photos."

First, you start with a regular shot.

This one happens to be a close-up

of one tiny piece of a very large installation

of glass by artist Dale Chihuly.

Here are the details on this shot:

I used my Nikon D200 with the 18 - 200 mm lens.

ISO set at 400.   

f/stop was 6.3   

Shutter speed  1/160 second

Focal length was 170 mm

255 mm if compared to 35 mm

I used the center weighted average

 metering mode (in camera)

The flash was disabled.

I didn't alter the shot in Photoshop.
The image above is right out of the camera.

BUT THEN

I couldn't help myself.

I just had to play.

1. first I opened the original photo 

 in Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

(haven't upgraded to the new version).

2. Using one of the drop-down menus,

I created a kaleidoscope effect.

There are all sorts of creative choices in this menu

and I manipulate them while seeing the effect

on screen, so I can't tell you exactly

what the settings were.

Since I can't leave well enough alone,

I opened the kaleidoscope shot

in CameraBag

and turned it into a "polaroid."

EASY PEASY.