Really lousy light.. turn lemons into lemonaid?

I don't know if I should trash this class.. or present them as "artistic" expression. What do you think: thumbs up or thumbs down?

I was shooting almost directly into the sun (it got even worse). (yes, I have a lens hood and I was hiding under the judge's stand to prevent sun spots) The late day shadows were a lot darker than mid-day shadows.. so I was caught off guard and most of these were underexposed. (I've processed the dickens out of them in Lightroom) The dust that was kicked up created a 'fog' since the backlight highlighted it. (even the lens, set on AI Servio was having a tough time with the focus) ... but ... the rim light was nice. (since that's about the only thing you can see!)

Now, I've seen some *artistic* cowboy photos that were technically underexposed, yet had some nice rimlight. .. I'm almost thinking of trying to turn these grainy, soft image lemons into lemonaid and present them as *artistic*. ... LOL. It's either that, or trash the entire class. What would you do?

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I don't think it is lousy light. It's just from the wrong direction. I just played around with the normal stuff. Increased blacks, contrast, saturation. Mine has a green tint to it but that is easily fixed.

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Looks like tough light. I don't think the second two are too bad though, but the first one it's certainly harsh. I'm guessing you shoot jpeg for these events? Do you use PS at all? If so, maybe try out the shadows/highlight filter on them and see what you can do.

It was a challange. disappointing .. .. I try to shoot so I won't have to do much pp. .. but then I run the pix through Lightroom first just to be sure .. then tweek them (Levels/unsharp mask, etc) in PS after that if they need it. .. I know in marketing, you tell people what to think.. so I put some nonsense on the site that mentioned 'artistic'.. and enjoying 'something different'.. LOL .. I'm so tired right now, it might be best that I don't worry about it .. at least not for another couple of weeks. I was worried about it this morning.. but I'm not now. (as soon as I finish the pix for this show, I've got to finish the five days of shooting the fair horse shows .. and I've got a charity working cow horse event tomorrow.. it's for St. Jude's (kids w/cancer).. so I can't say 'no' to that!) .. and I've been invited to shoot at a branding on sunday. Hope we get some good stuff. .. Just wanted to say thanks to you both for the replies.

My effort in Lightroom 2.

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I like that. .. what did you do?

The first thing I did was to warm the white balance. The original looked a little 'green' to me (+13). Then I added a bit to the blacks and then used the new adjustment brush (auto mask on) to lower the exposure on the wooden background (-1.00). The adjustment brush was then used with 'clarity' and 'sharpness' (each at about 60, new masks for each) to adjust the horse and rider without affecting the rest of the photo.

I bumped up the 'vibrance' and selected 'strong contrast' under the tone curve.

One run through Noiseware Pro (default setting) and I was done. That was the one thing I had to leave lightroom for.

Frankly, I tried working the image because Lightroom 2 just came out and I was eager to try out the new features---especially the adjustment brush. You will probably do better than this after some experimentation. Lightroom is now pretty powerful and very user friendly. The adjusts took me about 15 minutes because I was experimenting and just learning.

Try this site for videos on lightroom 2: http://www.photoshopus​er.com/lightroom2/

The video on the adjustment brush gives you an idea of how powerful and fast that feature can be.

Your post is very timely. I have been considering a purchase of noiseware for eons. So many post great results with it. Thanks.

Pat

Check out the adjustment brush video. It is sweet and easy.

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