Horsing Around

[NormanSelvaraju]

1. In what area is critique to be sought?
Post Processing!
And anything else.
I did quite a bit of manipulation using Camera Raw 5.7. It turned out to be much better than the original.
Hoping to hear from the CS forumers as to how it can be improved further

2. What one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
To capture my nephew having fun. Mainly his expression while riding a pony.

3. Under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Early afternoon. Dim light (Just stopped raining)

4.What the Critique seeker personally thinks of the picture?
I liked the image. But i thought the exposure and the colours very pretty bad upon first glance on the computer when I got back home. I managed to recover the colours that I wanted to show during post processing. And I managed to reduce to Green/Yellow Luminance to near 0 so as to reduce the distraction of the background of trees without affecting the main subject. Overall, I like it. I think its the best piece of post-processing that I have done so far. But I know that it can still be better. Added post crop vigneting to further focus on the subject.


[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/normanselvaraju/8707611306/] IMG_2994 by Norman Selvaraju, on Flickr[/URL]

 

[thoongeng]

It's a good moment captured... nice expression with catchlights in the eyes

I would have preferred a wider view... not cutting off the boy's legs and show more of the pony

I took a peek at the exif data: 1/125s, F7.1, ISO400
You may want to try shooting wide open so that the background is blurred which is I feel is better for subject separation rather than selective desaturation... selective desaturation while it worked here, is more subjective and I feel it looked a bit unnatural here
Alternatively you can find a cleaner background however the moment might be lost ;p

The post-crop vignetting is also a bit obvious here... you might want to play around the sliders a bit so the transition does not look so abrupt (though I read that older versions of camera RAW did not do that good a job regarding natural looking vignetting)

Sorry nitpicking a bit here it's still a rather good moment captured, the most important thing is that you like it. Thanks for sharing

 

[NormanSelvaraju]

It's a good moment captured... nice expression with catchlights in the eyes

I would have preferred a wider view... not cutting off the boy's legs and show more of the pony

I took a peek at the exif data: 1/125s, F7.1, ISO400
You may want to try shooting wide open so that the background is blurred which is I feel is better for subject separation rather than selective desaturation... selective desaturation while it worked here, is more subjective and I feel it looked a bit unnatural here
Alternatively you can find a cleaner background however the moment might be lost ;p

The post-crop vignetting is also a bit obvious here... you might want to play around the sliders a bit so the transition does not look so abrupt (though I read that older versions of camera RAW did not do that good a job regarding natural looking vignetting)

Sorry nitpicking a bit here it's still a rather good moment captured, the most important thing is that you like it. Thanks for sharing

Thoongeng >>
Its not nit-picking at all! Its valuable feedback for me. Thanks for the comments!
You are right about going wide open. Going to the max of 2.8 would have produced a nice bokeh given the relatively far background.
On hindsight, the vignetting is a tad too much. Thank for pointing it out. Haha. I think i got a little too carried away with the slider. Yeah, Camera Raw 6 is supposed to have better algorithms and more controls for the vignetting. Haven't made the transition yet. And yeah I have the tendency of chopping body parts off. Still haven't gotten over that bad habit. Shall work on it!

Thanks for dropping by!

 

[zaren]

There seems to be a bit of yellow cast in the image posted. Will suggest removing it to achieve more natural skin tones, and also agree with the comments above about throwing the background more out of focus to accentuate the main subject.

 

[NormanSelvaraju]

Zaren >> Yeah you are right. I never realized that there was too much yellow, until you processed it! Great work.
And the bokeh does indeed make the subject stand out. Thanks for the tip Zaren! And i like your version better!

 

[goderictia]

The subject has got strong black outlines around it.

1) So using a magnetic tracer (hotkey L) thingy in Photoshop, you can trace out just your subject.
2) Then inverse the selection
3) Then use blur > motion blur to create the ride horse effect etc.

you can google about this to create artificial bokeh. BOKEHLICIOUS!!!

 

[NormanSelvaraju]

Goderictia>>>. Oh! So that's how you do it. I shall try it out later. My Photoshop knowledge is quite poor. I'm only just figuring out Camera Raw 5.7. Your instructional procedure will certainly be helpful though. More Bokeh comin right up. Haha.

 

[Shizuma]

your base capture is pretty good . i personally feel the depth of field gave relevant context to the environment.
very nice.

zoom is good enough that the expression is centerstage. i personally feel that is the angle is wider then the expression may be lost in the space.

 

[NormanSelvaraju]

Shizuma>> Thank you so much for the positive comments. And thank you for the constant guidance ever since I first posted! The advice that you gave me helped a lot. I'm glad I managed to capture the moment too.

This was the best shot in terms of composition amongst the others I took of my nephew on the pony. Hence I decided to process it to give it more life.

This improvement (albeit small) is a result of the constructive feedback from you and the other regulars here at CS. Thanks again. And there is more to come!

Cheers.