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horse's paradise

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:21 am
by springm
I found this traditional orchard 10 bike-minutes away from my home. It was cloudy that morning and the light not as accentuated as I would have hoped for, but it turned out to really support that soft mood. And the next day rain set in and all that beautiful blossoms were swept to the ground.

Lessons learned: a) don't procrastinate and b) do the shooting immediately and don't rely on a 2nd opportunity :)

Image

I converted this in bibble5, carefully sharpening only certain areas and intensifying the reds only in the upper region. still beta, bibble5 turns out to be a really valuable tool. Only for the cloning out of a fencepost I had to finally resort to the gimp.

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:30 am
by harveyzone
springm wrote:I found this traditional orchard 10 bike-minutes away from my home. It was cloudy that morning and the light not as accentuated as I would have hoped for, but it turned out to really support that soft mood. And the next day rain set in and all that beautiful blossoms were swept to the ground.

Lessons learned: a) don't procrastinate and b) do the shooting immediately and don't rely on a 2nd opportunity :)
Absolutely. A lesson for life :)
springm wrote: I converted this in bibble5, carefully sharpening only certain areas and intensifying the reds only in the upper region. still beta, bibble5 turns out to be a really valuable tool. Only for the cloning out of a fencepost I had to finally resort to the gimp.
A lovely spring shot.

The back of the horse is blown out, (or, at least, looks it on this rubbish monitor!), which is a shame. Is it there in the RAW data, or is it lost forever? :(

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:44 am
by springm
harveyzone wrote:The back of the horse is blown out, (or, at least, looks it on this rubbish monitor!), which is a shame. Is it there in the RAW data, or is it lost forever? :(
Possably some losses during resize, it does not have much visible structure due to the blur/out-of-focus. But it is quite away from pure white. And of course there is raw. Never leave the house without raw! (At least never again. The rare cases (twice!) where I modified this setting and forgot to check are lesson enough)

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:19 pm
by Dr. Harout
Agree with the lessons.
Overall the shot is great, but I agree with Tom about the horse.

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 2:08 am
by David Kilpatrick
If you could recover the horse highlight detail, this is a potential poster image. It could earn a lot of money.

David

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:43 am
by springm
(C)Raw rulez! Visited the original file, and with very carefully applied bibble5 (that really rocks) highlight recovery in small regions on the horse I got

Image

That core sharpness is constantly amazing me. I guess the 70-300G is to blame for this?

Marketing this beast is something completely different. I have no clue besides the basic feeling that alamy then might not be the best place for it.

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 9:47 am
by aster
Lovely photo composition Springm.

That I can definitely say... :D

Yildiz

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 10:41 am
by David Kilpatrick
Even the close-up clip looks good. This shot would be best marketed directly to a card, calendar or poster company - Athena (though their shops have been closing, maybe they have been hit by the recession), Hallmark, whatever.

You could try using Imagekind.com - it looks about the best of the poster/print sale sites. I am not that impressed with any of them actually, seems that photo hosting sites like Smugmug with printing options can be more useful.

David

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 10:42 am
by David Kilpatrick
Oh, and please do send me this for the magazine gallery. It's one I definitely promise to use if sent.
David

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 10:20 pm
by springm
Thanks to all for the encouraging comments. It's that kind of a pat on the back that probably everybody needs from time to time.

@David: thanks for the hints, gallery entry is on the way.

Here is the new version:

Image

I replaced my online gallery entry with this one, but replacing is not the right word. Copied the additional info, deleted it, uploaded the new one (four times, fighting with the space limit) and added the information anew. phew.

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 1:03 am
by paulmurphy
Lovely shot Markus, the version with the recovered highlight detail has a nice feel to it.

Also makes a good case for shooting RAW, especially when there is a large contrast in the scene.

Cheers

Murph

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 1:30 am
by Javelin
the horse has a nice glow to him. very pretty

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 12:12 pm
by stevecim
That is such a top shot. I can only dream of taking photos like that :)

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 2:36 am
by KevinBarrett
That's wonderful use of the OOF area to make that horse glow! There seems to be a lot of shiny white bokeh behind the horse, as well. Was there a break in the trees back there or is there some kind of optical phenomenon going on that I don't know to recognize?

Re: horse's paradise

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 12:57 pm
by Greg Beetham
Yes Kevin I spotted that in the original, but after much deliberation I came to the conclusion it's probably some out of focus flowers in the tree directly behind the horse, I didn't pay it much further mind after that although it was initially a bit peculiar....great composition tho....brilliant blossoms.
Greg