Sharpness: USM (2,210,4)
Select Horse - layer
- Dig Camera Noise Reduction
Invert selection - layer
- Neat Image
- Clone blemish by nose
- Clone fench reflection bottom of eyes
- Dodge small dirt mark on collar of shirt
- Color Adjust RGB (R 0, G 0, B -3)
Merge All (Flatten)
Fill Flash +15
Brightness & Contrast: HMS(5, 5, 0)
Color Balance: Color Temp 5700
Color Adjust RGB (R -10, G 0, B -2)
Color Adjust Levels
Color Adjust HSL (Y -20, G -30, R -30)
Select white patch horse forehead - Color Adjust HSL (Cyan -40)
Select eyes - Color Adjust HSL (Cyan +50)
Crop
Resize
Save as JPG
Originally I wasn't going to enter this challenge. I didn't want to put somebody in the family thru all the posing and lighting setup, etc...besides, that's not really my strong point. Plus I really don't have any lighting equipment, backdrops, etc...
My wife was giving one of the neighbor kids a riding lesson and my stepdaughter (MK in photo) was there as well. I took along the camera when I went outside with the Perspective 2 challenge in mind. One thing led to another and I couldn't pass up some regular photo op's...caught MK cooing to her horse, she caught me taking pictures, and voila! She is very photogenic and LOVES to have her picture taken. Later as I was going thru the pics I saw this and said "OK, I can enter this". Hope it goes over well. Thinking maybe I can garner a 6 out of this one. One can always hope - yes? ;^)
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The first thing I noticed in this image was that the horse's face was cut off at the bottom. I know that the subject is the girl and not the horse but that is very disctracting. Perhaps a wider crop would have been better in this situation. Perhaps an even closer crop, just the girl's face would have worked too because this is such a nice expression.
I like the expression on the girl's face. The light is good and she is properly exposed without any blown highlights, specially on the tshirt where it would have been easy to do so, good job. I think the eyes could benefit from a little bit of dodging, just a tiny bit.
If you have any questions or comments about this critique, please feel free to PM me.
it's hard to get a lot of light when your subject is facing away from the sun. but it's better than risking weird shadows from the sun. the way to remedy the lack of light is to use a reflector like a piece of white three-ply board.
On my monitor there seems to be a bit too much of a bluecast overall, especially around the white t-shirt. I do like your composition however. Nice job.
It's not a technically perfect photograph (thank goodness), but it is a really good portrait. The viewer can't help but smile at her happiness and her apparent close bond with her horse. 7
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