Standing in the Light

[Barbara Ponder]

Another from my horse series. CC always welcomed and appreciated.

[rpcrowe]

I love this but, on my monitor the mid portions of the horses legs seem to disappear into the background...

[Barbara Ponder]

I know! I think it was the way the spotlight hit her as she stood there. Any suggestions on how I might get more detail? I did some dodging but did not help much and I was afraid to do much more.

[Shadowman]

Nice capture.

[Barbara Ponder]

Thanks John!

[rpcrowe]

I know! I think it was the way the spotlight hit her as she stood there. Any suggestions on how I might get more detail? I did some dodging but did not help much and I was afraid to do much more.

Barbara, if you have the NIK Plug-Ins with your editing program, you might try selecting the area in question using control points in NIK Viveza and then playing around with the shadows, brightness, contrast and structure sliders. This "might" help you show some detail in the legs.

I tried it with a copy of your image from the one you posted and got a bit of detail but the color was messed up. I think that working from the original (especially a RAW original) might just do the trick...

[Barbara Ponder]

Thanks Richard! I will try that!

[IzzieK]

Barbara, are these kinds 'special horses'...I am curious because of the stature and length of the body as a comparison to the head. Or it is just me? I find that the legs and body seems to be sort of 'compressed' and legs short than usual horses...I am not critiquing your photography and processing because they are good and nicely exposed. The lighting has already been explained in other posts too so no question there for me. Just the form, shape of the body of the horse. In another post in the group photo, this wasn't evident, but here it is...just curious...

[Barbara Ponder]

Barbara, are these kinds 'special horses'...I am curious because of the stature and length of the body as a comparison to the head. Or it is just me? I find that the legs and body seems to be sort of 'compressed' and legs short than usual horses...I am not critiquing your photography and processing because they are good and nicely exposed. The lighting has already been explained in other posts too so no question there for me. Just the form, shape of the body of the horse. In another post in the group photo, this wasn't evident, but here it is...just curious...

Izzie I think the darkness in the middle(and perhaps the angle at which it is standing) makes them even shorter than they are but yes this a special breed of horse used in bronc riding. They are a draft horse crosses, breed for the purpose of use in rodeo bronc and saddle bronc riding, and are stocky and tend to have shorter legs and odd head shape, not like an elegant quarter horse although those can be used as well.

[IzzieK]

Interesting, Barbara...thank you for the info. I've been hanging out with the wrong crowd so I have not seen those kinds -- just quarter horses...