Horses - C&C Process & Results

I don't know why but lately I've been second-guessing myself quite a bit. It seems as though when I post a shot that I'm really pleased with and feel is something that's going straight to frame and into my wall, the responses are at best lukewarm. And then, I'll post something that to my eyes looks like a throwaway shot, and it's very well received.

Confusing.

It feels like I've become so wrapped up in my own photographs that I've lost all perspective on which images are worth following and which are pedestrian.

Which brings me to this image, it's a shot that I've always felt was lovely and just needed a little gentle massaging to turn it into something spectacular. It's always reminded me of an old commercial for Jontue perfume (specifically, a quick frame at the 15 second mark), and I finally got down to working on it and share the results.

First absolutely straight out of camera. Very early morning, lighting and colors are somewhat flat. Also, in the background upper right those are telephone wires which are out of focus but still foul the image for me.

Edits to follow.

Rad

Canon 5D
f/5.6
1/160
ISO 800
300mm (Canon 70-300DO)

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So here is the first event that I did, pretty much a straight up color edit, enhanced the contrast, bumps the colors a little bit, and cropped it a little bit tighter.

And while I was at it, I ran a monochrome version of it as well.

Overall I think they look quite lovely and it was the color version that I printed and my wife adores.

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But I got looking at it and the whole feel of it was a little bit "crunchy" for what I thought the feel of the photograph should be. Duplicated the layer, ran a Gaussian blur in and set the blend mode for that layer to Soft Light.

Much more what I was going for, and did the same process on the monochrome, and I like it as well.

Now the real question, since it seems as though I lost the ability to edit my own shots (as evidenced by the two threads mentioned above), I have no idea if they turned out well or not, so I'm asking you, Critique Corner, was the shop worth pursuing in the first place and did it turn out to be worth looking at.

Rad

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Love the processed ones. Nice shot!

First black and white would be my fav, though its going to depend entirely on the feeling you're going for. The top middle horse seems to be the main distraction in the pic to me. I think if you cloned the white out of the eye it would loose some of that crazy look its got going on. Other than that, nice job

Radtech1 wrote in post #13418664
I don't know why but lately I've been second-guessing myself quite a bit. It seems as though when I post a shot that I'm really pleased with and feel is something that's going straight to frame and into my wall, the responses are at best lukewarm. And then, I'll post something that to my eyes looks like a throwaway shot, and it's very well received.

Confusing.

...

I really think your initial reaction to your posted shots in those two threads was correct.

I really like your last set of edited images in this thread. Colors look appropriate. I would have preferred a wider view but this works.

I think I like crunchy versions better (I keep changing my mind while I am writing this post...) It is quite hard to say.. black and white looks better crunchy, but color versions are both very good.
To me.

I like the shot...and the second pairing. My only nit is the fact that you cut off the hooves...would have been much better to have them in the frame. Slightly wider on the right side as well...

I love the shot, beautiful... This is my edit, I wanted to give it a sunny feel!

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I like the added punch and the B&W edits. I wish the horse's feet weren't cut off.

I think the 1st 2 edits are the best, I really like the b&w version, looks cool!I didn't like as much the added blur version.