Sun/Shadow Help

[Saddlebreds4me]

Hi Everyone...it's been a while since I've been back on the boards - damn health issues and work always get in the way...

I was hoping I could call on some of you PP experts to help me with this photo - I like it of the horse (rider from my perspective doesn't matter all that much because he is the trainer...an owner would be more of a concern). It was clearly a sunny day and I'm not a big fan of PP work but with such harsh shadows I've got to touch it up, I'm just not entirely sure how to do it. With darker images I can use fill light, but with strong shadows I was wondering if someone might be so kind as to take this image and put it into their program and teach me some shadow techniques.

I was shooting both 'into' the sun (not directly) but 'away' from the sun as well.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[astrostu]

What are you looking to lighten up? The horse's face? If it were me, I would do an elliptical marquee, feather it, and then try to adjust the levels up a bit.

 

[Saddlebreds4me]

Ok I will give the vignettes a try - I guess I was looking to lessen the harshness of the shadows when I don't have a choice but to shoot on a bright sunny day.

Thank you for your response - I will play with that and see what it looks like.

 

[gsgary]

Sorry but if i had shot that i would have deleted it, it's out of focus, what focus are you using i would expect a D700 to be sharper than that, i don't think the shadows are too bad, Don't worry about shooting into the sun you can get great shots this is nearly straight into the sun http://gsgary.smugmug.com/photos/293474510_CMZ6j-L.jpg

 

[c0ps]

Is this what you had in mind?

 

[Saddlebreds4me]

C0ps...what did you do? I think the shadows look less harsh to be sure but the photo itself looks 'yellower' or 'greener' - is this a white balance issue?

Thank you for taking the time, if you wouldn't mind sharing with me how you got there...even better!


gsgary...thanks for the advice and beautiful photo! I wasn't really looking at the sharpness or focus - I was studying the shadows - shooting a saddle horse is quite a challenge - timing and cadence is everything I liked those aspects of this horse in this shot - is it clear? absolutely not. Thanks again for your help.

 

[gravity0]

C0ps...what did you do? I think the shadows look less harsh to be sure but the photo itself looks 'yellower' or 'greener' - is this a white balance issue?

Thank you for taking the time, if you wouldn't mind sharing with me how you got there...even better!


gsgary...thanks for the advice and beautiful photo! I wasn't really looking at the sharpness or focus - I was studying the shadows - shooting a saddle horse is quite a challenge - timing and cadence is everything I liked those aspects of this horse in this shot - is it clear? absolutely not. Thanks again for your help.

Yeah C0ps What did you do to that to make it pop. I'm curious too.

 

[foned]

warmth + fill light + exposure increase?

 

[c0ps]

C0ps...what did you do? I think the shadows look less harsh to be sure but the photo itself looks 'yellower' or 'greener' - is this a white balance issue?

Thank you for taking the time, if you wouldn't mind sharing with me how you got there...even better!

Well, Im not to happy with my results, would of been much better if the image was bigger and with less noise, or better yet in raw format lol. The histogram shows that there alote of clipping wich can not be regained. so saying that I first..
1. did a auto contrast , auto level.
2. used curves to adjust most of the photo
3. you guessed it right saddlerbreds4me, I turned up the yellows and the greens.
4. noise reduction
5. unsharpen mask
6. faded the mask
7. touched up with dodge and burn.

I'm just learning photoshop, so I'm sure somone with alote more knowledge of the program can come up with much better results.

 

[Saddlebreds4me]

I don't use photoshop, I have it but I don't use it...I use Lightroom - but the changes you made to lighten the dark areas are nice. Thank you for coming back to explain what you did.

I appreciate the feedback.

 

[Saddlebreds4me]

Speaking of noise...this is an area I need more help in - if you were typically shooting on a day like this (high sun, lots of shadows, and a horse trotting fairly quickly in front of you) can someone suggest an approximate ISO setting to reduce the noise as much as possible?

Thanks!

 

[c0ps]

hmmm, I guess if i wanted the back ground blurred I'd try 1/250 f/8 shutter 400 and as the subject comes by me Id move my camera with the subject as I snap the picture.

If I wanted everything in focuse i would use 1/800 f/22 shutter 400 have the camera already set up in focus of where the subject will be coming by, and snap a picture when the subject reaches my focused spot.

Id be curious to see what others would use. Anyone?

 

[Saddlebreds4me]

My apologies, at the risk of sounding ignorant - when you are talking about setting up your camera in the one spot are you suggesting you only take one photo vs. having your shutter set to rapid fire? Remember, in my horse world they way that the horse is at the top of his stride is what we want (this horse, from a stride standpoint, isn't going to get any better in this photo) - which means studying in as much as you can, the cadence of the horse as he/she is trotting - you have to QUICKLY size up how the horse moves to get a one off shot at the top of his/her stride. Does that make sense? Or would you set it to multiple frames in that one spot where the camera is focused?

I'm hoping that makes sense...please let me know if I'm not.

Thanks again!

 

[Mgw189]

Here is my version... Did a little curves adjustment and then a little dodging and burning.

 

[Saddlebreds4me]

mgw189 - this looks really nice! Yours and c0ps's look really good - yours looks a little less green and yellow - thank you for taking the time to play with it - it's much appreciated!