I gave it my best shot...

melody1 · August 26, 2015

Portraits are not my thing, but I was asked to do a very special shoot for a friend. I was nervous as all get out for this! Only had a little bit of battery on the MacBook to work on the plane ride home today, but I'd love some feedback before I get too far into the PP. Working between a new computer and an older one and I'm second guessing which monitor I want to trust.

Reflections By Brian · August 27, 2015

There's something about the second one I like but I can't put my finger on it. I like the pose and feel of the first one but the flowers on the horse and the hands appear a bit bright and draws my eye to them instead of the the woman's face. Nice Job though.

melody1 · August 27, 2015

Thank you for the CC! I'll give the first another shot in the morning and see what I come up with. I appreciate the nice words on the second. The color/white balance of both look okay?

Looking forward to thoughts from others, too!

Sam · August 27, 2015

The color looks good on my monitor.

I like the emotion and honesty of the first image although many might point out it is busy with the girls hand covering the horses nose and and forcing the head down. The hair across her face is also distracting, but over all i bet she loves this one.

The second really evokes a mood of quietness and anticipation with horse and girl facing a new bright sunny day. You can't pose horse and person for this, you just have to be at the right place at the right time.

Sam

cmason · August 27, 2015

For some reason, I feel that the first one needs to have some of the horse's body showing, as it looks like a horses head poking thru a hole. Just a hint of his body might even things out a bit.

Nice work!

melody1 · August 27, 2015

Thank you both. Work (the real job, if you will) has kept me busy today but I have a lot of shots to work on tonight and I will take all of your suggestions into consideration. This was a really, really fun shoot in a lot of ways. Helps to have photogenic subjects, for sure.

double_entendre · August 28, 2015

I can't really offer c&c per se--totally unqualified--but I wanted to lob in the comment that these are among the few pics I had to share with my redheaded wife. She was a show jumper back in the day and the photos remind me of her. I shared them with her and she immediately identified the Arab and loved the pictures.

I really like the second photo. The lighting and "surrealism" (1) are lovely. Makes me think of heading off for an early morning ride.

(1) Sorry. Three glasses of wine and the word I'm searching for is not leaping to mind.

junglejim · August 28, 2015

If the first picture was of my daughter or more likely grand daughter thats the picture I would want. I certain.y am not an expert about the technical aspects but it says here is a woman that loves this horse. If that is what you were trying to do I'd give it a A+

Qarik · August 28, 2015

the energy from the shots are great..really nice candid type grabs even thought they may not have been candid. as far as the PP, I wish i could see something in the background in the 1st shot...blackness bothers me a bit. In the 2nd shot, I wihs I could see more of the horses behind. The tail is very bright and looks touch artificial the way it pops out. But pretty decent over all.

puzzledpaul · August 28, 2015

I'd be surprised if the client doesn't like both shots, for reasons already given, but some things attract my attention.

In 1, neither the hair over face or featureless background bother me - the former adds to an 'informal' feel, and the latter concentrates the eye onto the main subject(s)
However, the garland (or whatever the horsey term for it is) is an eye pull imo. Initially I was wondering about how to tone down the white elements - but I think a crop - to get rid of the LH half would also be worth considering / trying?
ie crop just to the right of where it goes over the horse's neck ... maybe end up with a square or 5 x 4 crop?

Re the horse's 'pose'

... I'm no fan of these critters, but I spent many Saturdays in their presence when yngr daughter went riding and ended up having to take pix of the darned things. One thing that was always mentioned was ...get the ears pointing forwards ... to the extent that car keys were often jangled off cam to get the nag's attention.

In 2 there's something very pleasing about about the 2 raised heels and also an overall sort of symmetry of outline curves. Personally I like the way the tail breaks up what would otherwise be tending towards a combined (and possibly slightly confused?) silhouette.

I reckon you could easily crop out a lot of the LHS though as I don't think that really adds anything ... maybe just to the right of the dark green foliage and (probably) again end up with 5 x 4 crop.

Colours look ok on my 9 yr old uncalibated LT, btw.

pp

edit
Crop suggestions were made by reducing the size of the browser window and actually moving the pics around to see what the effect was ... rather than just random comments etc.

CCoop · August 31, 2015

"Otherworldly" describes #2 as the figures are silhouetted against a lush and magical place. And I love the rim highlights of the horse's tail which allows some separation between the two. Lovely.

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I gave it my best shot...

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