Horses in the NEIGHborhood. C&C on PP please

[IronMaskDuval]

A couple of horses stopped in front of my driveway today, so I took a picture. I haven't read any tutorials on B&W conversions yet, so I am a bit clueless as how to do it well. Can you give me some C&C?

 

[CdTSnap]

I think its nice, i probably would have done it landscape and put the horse off to the side a little, also the background glow around the horses head is a bit to much. Its just o obvious that its not natural lens blur if you know what i mean. Good contrast though

 

[IronMaskDuval]

I think its nice, i probably would have done it landscape and put the horse off to the side a little, also the background glow around the horses head is a bit to much. Its just o obvious that its not natural lens blur if you know what i mean. Good contrast though

I was wondering about that. I masked and painted over the mask at 0% hardness. Should I have increased the hardness to control the "bleeding" to prevent that glow? I have a few landscape shots, but I thought the horse's beauty would be significantly diminished has I put the humans in there.

 

[CdTSnap]

I think its nice, i probably would have done it landscape and put the horse off to the side a little, also the background glow around the horses head is a bit to much. Its just o obvious that its not natural lens blur if you know what i mean. Good contrast though

I was wondering about that. I masked and painted over the mask at 0% hardness. Should I have increased the hardness to control the "bleeding" to prevent that glow? I have a few landscape shots, but I thought the horse's beauty would be significantly diminished has I put the humans in there.

Im sure theres a function for background blur in Photoshop (im on CS6) , not sure what version your using but it allows masking and works quite well, otherwise lower the f-stop

 

[IronMaskDuval]

I think its nice, i probably would have done it landscape and put the horse off to the side a little, also the background glow around the horses head is a bit to much. Its just o obvious that its not natural lens blur if you know what i mean. Good contrast though

I was wondering about that. I masked and painted over the mask at 0% hardness. Should I have increased the hardness to control the "bleeding" to prevent that glow? I have a few landscape shots, but I thought the horse's beauty would be significantly diminished has I put the humans in there.

Im sure theres a function for background blur in Photoshop (im on CS6) , not sure what version your using but it allows masking and works quite well, otherwise lower the f-stop

The blur from the lens was perfectly acceptable. I was just trying to get some practice in.

 

[Rick58]

I have to say, I don't care for the background but the horse, itself, is terrific. I love the contrast. Wouldn't change a thing, just ditch the background

 

[IronMaskDuval]

I have to say, I don't care for the background but the horse, itself, is terrific. I love the contrast. Wouldn't change a thing, just ditch the background

Thanks rick

 

[IronMaskDuval]

I have to say, I don't care for the background but the horse, itself, is terrific. I love the contrast. Wouldn't change a thing, just ditch the background

I fixed it and posted the original photo.

 

[Rick58]

I think you're close but not quite there. I played with your photo a little. I lightened the trees to tied them in closer to the rest of the background. Then I selected the background and applied the slight blur.

 

[IronMaskDuval]

I think you're close but not quite there. I played with your photo a little. I lightened the trees to tied them in closer to the rest of the background. Then I selected the background and applied the slight blur.

How to you select the background without getting the individual strands of hair in the selection? Is it just lasso/ quick select and then refine edge, or am I missing something?

 

[Rick58]

I edit with Paintshop Pro, and for this I used the freehand selection tool. The selection is feathered in, so you have to keep it far enough away so you don't blur the edge of the horse.

 

[CdTSnap]

Thats heaps better than the first one IMO

 

[mishele]

This photo sucks and you smell.

 

[IronMaskDuval]

This photo sucks and you smell.

bout time

 

[BrickHouse]

[h=2]Horses in the NEIGHborhood[/h]

Yep. You went there.