taken in RAW
B&W conversion
curves
duotones
burning and dodging
minor cloning of some defects
brightnes and contrast
Noice Ninja
sharpening with USM
cropped
border added
saved for web
Statistics
Place: 11 out of 91 Avg (all users): 6.7558 Avg (commenters): 7.7500 Avg (participants): 6.7619 Avg (non-participants): 6.7538 Views since voting: 1930 Views during voting: 383 Votes: 172 Comments: 27 Favorites: 5 (view)
I'm really surprised this one didn't place higher. I thought it was spectacular; One of my favorites in the challenge. The sky just looks so... epic. I would love to have a print of this. Fantastic job.
I noticed a few people commented on the blown out sun. I personally think it's perfect. ;) Without the pure white of the sun, the tones would only range from black to light brown. You need some touches of pure white or else the image doesn't have enough contrast. Also, having the white sun at the top of the image gives an atmosphere of bright daylight. It feels like high noon, perfect for the cowboy theme. Cropping out that sun, I think, would make this image loose a great deal of it's impact. Just my personal thoughts. :) In any case this is a very beautiful image!
I'm a sucker for clouds, and leaving these in really gives a feeling of vastness to the scene. I like the tones as well. One of my favorites so far. Coming back to bump this up a notch. Hope to see this on the front page!
You have some strong compositional elements and I like the mood you are creating here. First off there are sepia/yellow tones to the photo that invoke the idea of an era gone by, the ol' west and also that of an old yellowing photograph showing us this moment in time. I like that you composed the shot such that the horse is walking away and about to disappear over the hill. To me it symbolizes a vanishing breed/time which plays into the title. The age where cowboys rode horses on the open plains is now vanished like this horse who is about to vanish over the hill out of our sight. Tonal range is good with good dynamic range between the contrasts of the relatively lighter tones of the sky in comparision to the darker tones of the ground plane. The biggest weakness that holds this photo back from a stellar category is that blown out sun and the clouds surrounding it. It does not add to the composition but it does distract by marring an otherwise aesthetically pleasing image. My suggestion would be to crop the top 1/3 of the photo out thereby making this a square composition without the sun. It would still show a vast expanse of sky plus the tighter crop will call greater attention to your main subject.
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