By now, you know the drill with our monthly Photo Challenges. We give you a topic, you impress us with your awesome photography. December's challenge was to mix flash with natural light. Predictably, there were tons of great portraits in the mix, but there are a few surprises as well. Check out the gallery to get inspired, then head over to our contest page to participate in this month's competitions.

The official contest winner will be announced in a future issue of Popular Photography, so check the newsstands!

By Samantha Oulavong

I did two versions of this. The first one she wore a blue prom dress that was low cut. Unfortunately the color of her skin didn't create enough contrast against the lightness of the glitter, so I photographed her again wearing her black cardigan. Chloe was back lit by the sun, to make sure that her picture isn't so hazy and to make the glitters "pop" I photographed her with a 580 EXII flash filtered with an umbrella that was placed 45 degree from her to her right side. Flash on manual mode.

• CAMERA: Canon 5D MKII
• FOCAL LENGTH: 100
• SHUTTER SPEED: 1/250 sec.
• LENS: Canon 100 mm f/2.8
• ISO: 125
• APERTURE (F-STOP): f/2.8