Need some finishing advice on a couple of pics

scottcolbath

A couple of pics and a couple of questions........

I took both of these last year at the rodeo during the annual Gold Rush Days celebration in my town, Wickenburg, Az.



Original: http://wookiee.smugmug.com/photos/455517158_6dHBC-O.jpg





Original: http://wookiee.smugmug.com/photos/253157114_HnXaD-O.jpg



There's a photo contest for the locals that is being put on by the local paper. These two are the pics I think are the best bets for inclusion in the contest.

I feel that the sharpness and colors of these pics is good, yet I think the barrel racer pic could use some cropping and I am stumped as to the best crop. When the barrel racer pic is blown up, the details are nice. You can see the dirt flying and a look of determination on the rider's face. I don't like the spectators in the background. They could be cleanly cropped out by the green walls in the background.

The kid picture has a shadow up near the top right corner I don't like. I don't know if I like his hands not being complete in the pic. What I like about it is that it's a nice candid shot that captures the fun of the rodeo.

Any pic entered in this contest needs to be center mounted on a backing board measuring 11 X 14 inches.

How say you? Lay in to me. I have thick skin.

Thanks,
S.C.

pathfinder

SC, since you provided the originals, I took the liberty of cropping and some minor editing as I would prefer it. If you prefer me not to do this, I will take the images down/

I cropped the rider, and cloned a bit of the fence in to simplify the image some. I selected the very dark shadows of her face and screen blended a second copy to lighten her face so some detail is visible. I sharpened and added a mild vignette.

This is more what I had in mind - cropped to 11x14



For the child, I cropped it much tighter also, as I did not think it would lose that much. I darkened the background with a curve and lightened the shadows of his face with shadow/highlight.

Here is it to an 11x14 crop.

scottcolbath

Pathfinder, I love the kid crop, it's real nice. But the barrel racer's face looks like she is a burn victim, although I do love the crop. The shadows on her face in the original were a tough call. Adding light would lead me to what you have done....Not a really bad thing, but it's not as natural as I want. Leaving it dark means we lose some detail. Tough call.

Thanks. I appreciate the input and have no issues with your working on the originals.

S.C.

pathfinder

scottcolbath wrote:

Pathfinder, I love the kid crop, it's real nice. But the barrel racer's face looks like she is a burn victim, although I do love the crop. The shadows on her face in the original were a tough call. Adding light would lead me to what you have done....Not a really bad thing, but it's not as natural as I want. Leaving it dark means we lose some detail. Tough call.

Thanks. I appreciate the input and have no issues with your working on the originals.

S.C.

I agree that her face was very dark, after brightening did get pretty noisy. It was a close call for me also.. I could probably have done a de-noising on her face to even it out a bit, but did not at this late hour.

scottcolbath

pathfinder wrote:

I agree that her face was very dark, after brightening did get pretty noisy. It was a close call for me also.. I could probably have done a de-noising on her face to even it out a bit, but did not at this late hour.

So you think her face can be saved? I never would have considered that and just gone for the dark face.

I guess I need to spend more time in PS.

S.C.

pathfinder

Was she shot in RAW? Her face is pretty far under exposed, and as you can see, that is where the noise is

I think what you do with her face depends on what is the destination for this image. I think for newsprint it can be made acceptable. For an 8x10 print I doubt it. I just thought it was worth trying to save, because her face was so dark in the shadow of her hat brim that it bugged me.

Shadowed faces can be quite artistic but in a rodeo shot, not so much

scottcolbath

pathfinder wrote:

Was she shot in RAW? Her face is pretty far under exposed, and as you can see, that is where the noise is

I think what you do with her face depends on what is the destination for this image. I think for newsprint it can be made acceptable. For an 8x10 print I doubt it. I just thought it was worth trying to save, because her face was so dark in the shadow of her hat brim that it bugged me.

Shadowed faces can be quite artistic but in a rodeo shot, not so much

I have the original raw. I could try to pull some light out of her face.

S.C.

Jfive

I like the PP and cropped images better.