Standing Tall...Cowboy at Large

[NJMAN]

This is one of my latest. This guy was so great to work with and a lot of fun to shoot. C&C always welcome. Thanks for looking. I really appreciate it!

Thank for looking!

NJ

 

[zendianah]

Whats your secret? Will you share. I'm working on HDR I havent nailed it like you have.

 

[just x joey]

HDR is turnign into the new selective coloring, oh no! i think this picture wuld have been fine normal, why the HDR? WHY?!

 

[NJMAN]

Whats your secret? Will you share. I'm working on HDR I havent nailed it like you have.

Hi zenny,
I wish I could tell that I have a secret, but I dont. Each image is different with me, and I go through slightly different steps each time depending on the type of image. In previous posts, I have mentioned that its really just a song and dance between the Illumination, Gamma, Light smoothing, and Strength controls. And that could change drastically or slightly with the next image. I appreciate your questions. If you have any more, please feel free to ask away.

HDR is turnign into the new selective coloring, oh no! i think this picture wuld have been fine normal, why the HDR? WHY?!

Not sure what you mean by the selective coloring. Why HDR? Well, there are a lot of reasons for me. I love to work with the increased dynamic range. To shed more light on the shadow areas and make the sky rich with color. To make the image more like what my eyes really saw. I also like to push it just enough to give it that "larger than life" look. I also like the different reactions that I get from posting these, such as the one you are giving now. I really appreciate you taking the time to comment. Thank you, justxjoey.

 

[Deadeye008]

Overall nice job. Was his shirt pink? It has a pink hue to it or maybe its just my monitor...Anybondy else see pink?

 

[NJMAN]

Thanks Deadeye. Yeah, I think there is a bit of a magenta hue there. Thanks for catching that. I need to whiten that up more. Thanks for commenting.

NJ

 

[heip]

Man, I think you found your niche!!!

 

[just x joey]

what i ment by the selective colorign thing is that its gettign over done. i havent seen any of your other images but this one jsut seems over the top as far as HDR goes, culd have made a great shot non hdr maybe. anyways, if you liek it thats what matters!

 

[NJMAN]

Man, I think you found your niche!!!

Thanks heip! It means a lot, thank you.

what i ment by the selective colorign thing is that its gettign over done. i havent seen any of your other images but this one jsut seems over the top as far as HDR goes, culd have made a great shot non hdr maybe. anyways, if you liek it thats what matters!

Thanks for the feedback joey. I know what your are saying. I am planning to post more from this series a little later, which are non HDR. I value your opinion, and thank you for the followup post.

 

[wildmaven]

Can you post the original, too?

 

[NJMAN]

Ok, here is the original. This is one of 3 exposures where the exposure meter was set to 0.

 

[oldnavy170]

NJ, I LOVE the HDR on this shot. I opened up the thread and then I seen the photo and I was "blown away". Wow, just wow!!!!!

I think HDR for this shot makes the guy stand out from the background and it also makes the sky look like its glowing.

 

[noescape]

Awesome picture... Don't know about the technicalities- but that guy is HOT...

lol

 

[NJMAN]

NJ, I LOVE the HDR on this shot. I opened up the thread and then I seen the photo and I was "blown away". Wow, just wow!!!!!

I think HDR for this shot makes the guy stand out from the background and it also makes the sky look like its glowing.

Thank you oldnavy. You are very kind!

Awesome picture... Don't know about the technicalities- but that guy is HOT...

lol

Thanks noescape! I will be sure to tell him that.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

OK, i'm going to give you my opinion and you can take it or leave it for all I care.

I think it's a good idea, but it was executed poorly. Even though you say it's not ok to edit, this one just has too much potential. I'm going to go over everything I did anyway.

You cranked the dials too far, it's glow in the dark, too contrasty, and too bright. The busy background distracts from the subject, and there's bad separation from the pass filters and the sunlight that you used as a kicker, even though he didn't need one. The illustration of his body is great, but the background not so much.

This would have been better executed if you had used your speedlight as a key light at camera right, 45 degrees left of your subject's chest for depth, then the sky would have provided appropriate fill and the direct light of the sun could be your kicker. Use gels as needed for color balancing. You underexpose the background a stop and a half and you're golden.

OK, so I grabbed both the original and the wonky one, stacked the layers, changed the opacity to where the background looked more natural. I than brought the levels down to about a 2 stops darker. I used a mask to erase the cowboy out of it for separation. Now, the sun as the kicker looks intentional for separation purposes. I than dodges, burned, and sponged the cowboy to where he looked more healthy and flattened the image. I than did a half-assed job of burning the glow in the dark parts so it was less obvious. This took all of about 5 minutes because i was fiddling around with other solutions.

With this, the cowboy is now the center of attention and is obvious. The background is almost non-issue (the glow-in-the-dark-background is still hot) and the cowboy looks more badass than ever. This is far from perfect, but it kind of illustrates what I meant with the lights, and with real time in PS, this could be alot better, but could not replace strobes.

Just may opinion though, and like I said, you can take it or leave it, it's up to you.

BY THE WAY, THIS DOES NOT MEAN ANYONE ELSE CAN CHOP UP THIS IMAGE WITHOUT THIS GUY'S PERMISSION. I just had an idea and had to illustrate it.