Environmental Portraits

Took a couple of shots of a mate of mine.. He's into Mountain Biking, so I thought we'd incorporate that into the portraits. Feel free to rip them to bits, i'm here to learn after all..

2 shots, 2 finishes.
1.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oLg8​4C

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oLfp​wv

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oLg7​dP

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/p3Hn​Ty

I like where these are going, but I would bump up the shadows a bit. The tires are getting lost in the darkness, and mountain biking is often all about the tires. on those first couple with the great big blue sky, I'd photoshop a dramatic sky into them for that "bad ass" factor (I'm a graphic designer, so I have a HARD TIME leaving things be. Sorry. It's my nature!!) or crop them a bit closer because the expansive sky isn't really adding much (I think that is throwing off the compositions for me, too, looking at them again). Looking good, though!!

Thanks. I may have a bit more of a play with it. My PP skills aren't the best, so should probably put more time into that side of things. I don't like to take any more than 10 minutes on processing really, but I'm sure that's more about me being lazy than anything else lol!

I prefer the natural looking edits much more.

The 2nd shot is better because the sun isn't in the equation like it is in the first photo. When the sun gets low, put it at the back of your subject for a nice rim light and use your flash to fill in the shadows on your subject

Bike's too clean. I can show you pics of mine if you need an example.

BrickR wrote in post #17134218
I prefer the natural looking edits much more.

The 2nd shot is better because the sun isn't in the equation like it is in the first photo. When the sun gets low, put it at the back of your subject for a nice rim light and use your flash to fill in the shadows on your subject

Yeah, I prefer full colour too, but he liked the desaturated look, as he felt he stood out more!?!

I think I'd prefer the second, if it wasn't for the pose. I did try to backlight him, but the sun was still a little too high, and I just got massive flare! I also only had my 430ex with me, and it wasn't really standing up to the sun, so just opted for a reflector in the first pic (need a bigger one though, as I couldn't light the foreground as well as the subject hehe!)

WhidbeyHiker wrote in post #17134235
Bike's too clean. I can show you pics of mine if you need an example.

I've got a dirty one of my own lol! He'd only just cleaned it, as he'd been out the day before, but to be honest, I didn't even give that a thought.