A Horse on the Beach (C&C)

Ray Hines · Mar 15, 2015

I was between jobs, cabby, and parked up practising by BiF shots when this turned up. I've never shot a horse before and I didn't have the chance to get down onto the sand or get closer, so this was taken from the prom. I used a Pentax K-r with a TAMRON AF70-300mm F/4-5.6 LD MACRO set on Manual Mode. The sky and sea were pretty grey, but not so dull as to make it pointless taking the camera out.

The settings were f/8, 1/250, ISO 200, Auto WB, Centre Weight Metering and 133mm Focal Length

In the pp I wanted to get in closer and warm the photo up so it had a crop, levels adjustment and some form of Topaz Labs filter adjustment. But I can't remember which.

Here's the original JPEG, it was originally taken in RAW & JPEG, and the finished shot. Your thoughts, critique and suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Ray

(Shrunk to 1000px for the forum)

Sea Horse? (Explored # 392) by Ray. Hines, on Flickr

qleak · Mar 15, 2015

Ray,

I'm not really a fan of the processing on this one.

The compression or curves adjustment is taken a bit too far. IMHO the water is made too busy and looks better in the original.

Also the crop just doesn't fit, you only have a bit of the flat rock in frame at the bottom. it should either be more or none at all.

It's not a bad shot but I'd try again on the PP.

Designer · Mar 15, 2015

The crop could be a bit wider and the colors are unrealistic.

If you set your user preferences to allow editing, someone here could show you an alternate version for comparison.

bribrius · Mar 15, 2015

closer to the original jpeg and original crop. Nice photo to start with needs little attention imo..

Ray Hines · Mar 16, 2015

Thanks guys, I know what you mean about the pp. The original seemed too wide to me, but then that's me, I have a tendency to over crop. You're also right about the colour, the water looks wrong. But I thought the original looked too cold, what to do?

This shot has been quite popular on Flickr, but I find a few comments here better than 100+ Favs on there, keep them coming guys and gals, rip it apart if you want, I really don't mind. You learn nothing from "Nice Picture".

I've set "Allow Edit" now Designer, I thought it already was, Doh! Thanks mate.

Designer · Mar 16, 2015

Hi, Ray!

Yes, the original was too wide, but mainly behind your subjects. I cropped behind them and did what I could to try to achieve a good white balance, but I don't know if it is any better than your original.

In this version, the subjects appear to have more space in front of them, in which to "walk into".

Ray Hines · Mar 16, 2015

Thanks for that Designer, I like the crop. I notice you have kept the horse on the centre line, although you have cropped it to the right hand vertical of Rule of Thirds. You may have noticed I cropped to the lower intersection of RoT. I'm not averse to breaking the rules though

I might have more luck with the WB using the original RAW file, I'll give it a try.

Designer · Mar 16, 2015

The "rule of thirds" is not the only rule of composition, nor is it even the most important. In fact, I am seldom conscious of any of the composition "shortcuts" when I make adjustments.

If the subjects being on or close to the centerline bothers you more than say, balance for instance, then re-crop, but you should know why you are cropping and the result should be better, otherwise why do it?

Ray Hines · Mar 16, 2015

It seems to bother others more than me from comments I've had on other forums about other photos. If I have something like the horse in this shot I try to use the RoT but I'm not bound by it. I appreciate the suggestions.

Ray Hines · Mar 17, 2015

I think this is the best I can get it from the original RAW file. This has been cropped, very slight warming WB and minor clarity adjustment in LR. In PS I did slight adjustments to levels and a High Pass Filter sharpening, again minor. It's better than the original and the 1st processed shot, but not by much. Maybe I need to see the good points in a shot rather than always looking to improve(?) something. Or maybe I need to lower my standards

or throw more away.

Thanks for the help all, especially Designer, it's really appreciated.

Ray

qleak · Mar 17, 2015

Ray Hines said:
I think this is the best I can get it from the original RAW file. This has been cropped, very slight warming WB and minor clarity adjustment in LR. In PS I did slight adjustments to levels and a High Pass Filter sharpening, again minor. It's better than the original and the 1st processed shot, but not by much. Maybe I need to see the good points in a shot rather than always looking to improve(?) something. Or maybe I need to lower my standards or throw more away.

Thanks for the help all, especially Designer, it's really appreciated.

Ray

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