Balance?

(Ghastly) Krueger · Apr 10, 2007

Hi,

Please let me know whot you think about the balance in this shot.
I know the exposure is poor, I have to work no that...

Thanks!

AJ Jewell · Apr 10, 2007

Wow, what a shot. So many themes here. "Old vs New". If your asking about the composition, I love it!

The exposure could be fixed in PS easily.

Zatodragon · Apr 10, 2007

I like the shot! I Might crop it to the bottom edge is closer to the car's tire, but that's only if you want to exaggerate the distance between the two. Also, if the car was a little closer, might of help be even more balanced, but thats me being nit-picky.

It looks great though!

Sw1tchFX · Apr 10, 2007

This shot would have been great if it wasn't blown out. The horse's head leads your eye right to the car, and the car has some motion in it meaning that it's really booking it.

It's just way too bright.

The_Traveler · Apr 10, 2007

When I first saw this, I though 'wow. what a grab.' Although this shot is overexposed, it is a really impressively composed and very interesting shot - maybe as interesting as I've seen here. Lots of interesting things, lots of questions, lots of iconic pieces. The featureless but attention-grabbing sky is the problem.

The composition of the shot, as is, is good but, if this were mine and I was really pushed to try and improve the composition, I would try cropping to remove sky while maintaining the three main objects of interest, the man on the horse the crouching man and the approaching car.

The following try is certainly not ideal - and maybe not even better - but its the best I could come up with. Cropping seems to make the crouching man more prominent yet the man on the horse still is clearly identifiable - hat, western wear, saddle, quirt.

hazzayoungn · Apr 10, 2007

love the composition. cropped, stamped and showed the rest

jimiismydaddy · Apr 10, 2007

Getting rid of the crouching guy looks a lot better to me. Very nice capture.

julius · Apr 11, 2007

I feel that this shot is well composed and well balanced. In my opinion it does not necessarily need a crop, perhaps lifting the bottom of the frame a little like others have, but I certainly wouldn't take anything from the top and would not crop out any of the dust from behind the car.

Here is my edit

PNA · Apr 11, 2007

I took out the trees on the right......

(Ghastly) Krueger · Apr 11, 2007

AJ Jewell said:
Wow, what a shot. So many themes here. "Old vs New". If your asking about the composition, I love it!

Thanks. that's pretty mucho what I was going for.

The exposure could be fixed in PS easily.

I'm afraid not, since it's so blown out, I'd get greys instead of whites, but no detail...

Zatodragon said:
I like the shot! I Might crop it to the bottom edge is closer to the car's tire, but that's only if you want to exaggerate the distance between the two. Also, if the car was a little closer, might of help be even more balanced, but thats me being nit-picky.

It looks great though!

Thank you very much. I understand what you say about the crop.
It was hard to get the car in the right position (passing by at around 100mph

). To be honest I just saw the guy in the horse come by, take a few steps back (I was using a long-ish lens) and shoot a burst when the car went by. After that, the rider just went on his way and I had no chance to try again with the next car.

Sw1tchFX said:
This shot would have been great if it wasn't blown out. The horse's head leads your eye right to the car, and the car has some motion in it meaning that it's really booking it.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

It's just way too bright.

*Hangs head* I know.

(Ghastly) Krueger · Apr 11, 2007

The_Traveler said:
When I first saw this, I though 'wow. what a grab.' Although this shot is overexposed, it is a really impressively composed and very interesting shot - maybe as interesting as I've seen here. Lots of interesting things, lots of questions, lots of iconic pieces.

Thanks

The composition of the shot, as is, is good but, if this were mine and I was really pushed to try and improve the composition, I would try cropping to remove sky while maintaining the three main objects of interest, the man on the horse the crouching man and the approaching car.

Understood. When cropping, I concentrate in including interesting stuff... I should take a look into removing unnecesary stuff. Thanks for your feedback.

(Ghastly) Krueger · Apr 11, 2007

hazzayoungn said:
love the composition. cropped, stamped and showed the rest

Thank you. Reduced brightness, increased contrast. Will do it my self and see the results.

And I have to practice cloning and stamping... it does look better without the guy crouching.

jimiismydaddy said:
Getting rid of the crouching guy looks a lot better to me. Very nice capture.

Thanks

julius said:
I feel that this shot is well composed and well balanced. In my opinion it does not necessarily need a crop, perhaps lifting the bottom of the frame a little like others have, but I certainly wouldn't take anything from the top and would not crop out any of the dust from behind the car.

Thank you

Here is my edit

This looks very nice! Would you mind telling me what you did to improve the exposure? My attempts led to a grey and dull image.

PNA said:
I took out the trees on the right......

Thanks. I understand, removing stuff again.

Thanks again everybody. You've been a lot of help. :mrgreen:

(Ghastly) Krueger · Apr 11, 2007

Now a question that may be hard to answer (but I need all help I can get

)

What could have caused the over exposure?
I know it would be a guessing game, let me refrase that. What are possible causes for over exposure? I used the shutter speed priority program since I'm still not confident in exposing manually...

julius · Apr 11, 2007

I am using photoshop cs2.

I did a pretty quick edit. Went to image<adjustments<curves, clicked on auto.

Then Image<adjustments<Shadow/Highlight. Pulled shadow down to 0% and highlights up to around 25-30%

Then it was looking a little dull so I went back into curves and pulled it around a bit to give it a little more contrast.

Regarding exposure, shooting in aperture priority is great. Assuming your shooting digital, you have the ability to look at your shots after each frame. If you are having some problems with exposure find the +/- EV adjuster on your camera. Take a test shot, check out the lcd and adjust the +/- EV to change the exposure times while staying at the same aperture.

You may also be able to set your camera to bracket. In this mode it will take multiple exposures of the same image. eg. every time you take a shot it will save 3 on your card. This can be very handy for important shots.

If you don't have access to any of these modes you will probably have to shoot manual every once in a while, which isn't actually that hard. Just take a shot in aperture priority, check the lcd, switch to manual (the aperture should stay the same), and shorten the shutter speed. Shoot again, check lcd repeat.

(Ghastly) Krueger · Apr 12, 2007

julius said:
I am using photoshop cs2.

I did a pretty quick edit. Went to image<adjustments<curves, clicked on auto.

Then Image<adjustments<Shadow/Highlight. Pulled shadow down to 0% and highlights up to around 25-30%

Then it was looking a little dull so I went back into curves and pulled it around a bit to give it a little more contrast.

Great, thanks. I'll give it a try myself to get the feeling. :thumbup:

Regarding exposure, shooting in aperture priority is great.

I understand that, but I still don't get the feeling for it, and in this kind of circumstances I need to change the settings fairly quickly. Ineed to practice shooting in aperture priority and manual, that is a fact.

Assuming your shooting digital

Sorry I wasn't specific. This was shot in film and the negative was scanned directly. I only have a POS digital.

You may also be able to set your camera to bracket.

Yes, but with the car going by my frame of view in a little over a second, I'd get the different appertures for completely different pictures.

Thanks!