Shepherd holding animal while the calf sucks

[The amateur]

This is one of those photographs that you capture with a bit of luck, but which are only possible when you are in the right place at the right time.

However, it didn't go entirely well, or at least, it didn't go as I would have liked it to go, as I would have liked there not to be such a strong backlight, which led to an under-exposure of the entire scene.
I really like the action when the shepherd is holding the animal while the calf is suckling. On the left, an animal watches the scene.

I tried to save the photo, but it seems to me that I didn't manage to do it completely. I am learning to work with the curves, but I find such an approach terribly difficult, especially when you want to recover a certain and specific point and, when selecting it, it doesn't stay there, but rather next to it, which spoils everything. But anyway... I'll keep trying.

[DanK]

Antonio,

I hope you won't mind this comment. I mean it only in a positive way.

In my opinion, it's clearly time for you to learn more about editing. You have a very good eye and produce some stunning captures, but then you get stuck trying to finish them. To paraphrase Ansel Adams, the capture is the score, while the final edited image is the performance.

This is not a particularly difficult image to edit, once you know the basics. It mostly just needs dodging and burning. The curves tool is one of the most basic and important tools, so if you are not yet comfortable using it, it's time (in my opinion) to devote time to learning more about editing.

One very basic issue is whether you use what's called a "parametric" editor like Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw or a "pixel" editor like photoshop because I would handle this image differently in those two types of software. In Lightroom, I would rely mostly on the adjustment brush (now accessed through the masking function), although I think the software might do a decent job of selecting the sky using its automatic sky selection function. In photoshop, I would use a curves layer with a black mask and a brush. I use those examples only to show that for people to give you suggestions about how to edit, it would be helpful to know what software you use.

If (and only if) this would be helpful you: If you post the original, I'd be happy to try editing it tomorrow, when we expect to be stuck at home because of a snow and ice storm and can explain what I did when I'm done. This assumes we don't lose power during the storm. But please don't bother if this wouldn't be helpful.

Dan

[Geoff F]

I can accept the difficult light, which is part of real life. Maybe a touch of shadow brightness and highlight reduction, selectively applied, could be an improvement; but I would be more concerned about cropping out the right side sheep. To my way of thinking, it is adding distraction and complication to the overall scene balance.

[The amateur]

Dan, I couldn't be bothered with your comments in general and particularly with this one that seems particularly relevant to me.

So let's go in parts: I use LR and PS both updated (at least for now) with the latest refinements. I rarely use Smart Objects because of the dimensions they reach.
I usually focus on LR and go through the process recording successive SnapShots that allow me to review, evaluate and compare previous situations. All this disappears when the image comes from PS in tif format, however, still allowing some complementary procedures.

Bellow a jpg copy of the original raw.
As Dan can see, the sky is clearly overexposed and the main subject - person and animals - are obviously underexposed. While recovering something from the sky seems particularly difficult, the shadows are not so much, although it is essential to take care of the contours between these two large areas.
I think I know the basics but as I usually say the program is a kilometer long and I only know a millimeter, that is, I only know that I know nothing !
I am looking forward to seeing your edition and I sincerely hope that there is no power outage that could prevent this and other works.
-
Geoff, thank you for your contribution. In terms of framing, I know that I have a great tendency to use wide angles and show large areas, but these sometimes incorporate enough information that is necessary to understand the context in which the main subject is inserted. Points of view...
In this case and now that Geoff has drawn attention to the framing, I can clearly see that the figure is centered - it happened to have noticed this before but then I became careless - and that a cut on the right side can only benefit the image for the reasons explained.
Especially since by making this cut I uncenter the main action and avoid the part of the sky that is more aggressive and problematic.
To both of you my thanks for taking the trouble to write these lines and for contributing to the quality of this forum and photography in general.

Cheers !

[DanK]

Antonio,

I spent a little while doing a quick edit. I don't think mine is much different from yours, but I think it might be a slightly better direction. Here's what I did:

In Lightroom:

1. I let LR select the sky. I darkened that with the exposure slider and increased saturation a little
2. I selected the sky a second time and inverted the mask (three dots to the right), which gave me a mask for everything except the sky. On that curve tool, I increased shadows all the way, decreased whites all the way, and decreased highlights by 28. I also made a small adjustment using the curve tool to increase midtone contrast for everything but the sky. However, I moved the refine saturation slider all the way to the left to avoid increasing saturation. I think the last is one of the big differences between mine and yours.

I then sent it with LR adjustments to Photoshop, where I did the following:

--I used a brush to dodge (lighten) the man and the goat far left
--I used a brush to burn (darken) the bright areas at the top of the light-colored sheep.
--I burned the top and top right corner.
--In increased midtone contrast very slightly for the whole image using a curve.
--I used a brush and mask with the curve too to further increase midtone contrast only for the main.

The results so far are not that different from yours. However, darkening the brighter parts of the sheep avoids having those areas distract.

Dan

[The amateur]

Dan,
I'm truly grateful for the time and effort you dedicated to processing my photograph, and especially for the detailed explanation of the steps involved.

But since Dan worked with a JPEG file, the result wasn't quite as spectacular as I'd hoped, and I believe it may not surpass my own version.
The shepherd's face appears overly contrasted, giving it a somewhat harsh look. The animal he's holding has a slightly strange texture, and the sky lost a lot of detail.

I'm confident that if Dan had been able to work with the original RAW image, could have easily exceeded the image quality I achieved. I have no doubt about that.
However, with a JPEG, the processing potential is clearly much lower, so the result wasn't what we both were aiming for.

Nevertheless, I learned something from this experience, and perhaps Dan did too.
I've been watching selected YouTube videos and reading about Curves, and I'm already making a few mistakes that will improve with practice.
-
I'd like to bring up another point that seems relevant in defense of my image. We often get caught up in technical details, but the essential thing is to convey an atmosphere, a look, a message, a feeling... and sometimes a face that's darker on one side than the other, or an overly bright pillar, or the strong colour of a dress (to name a few examples that comes to mind) aren't as important as they might seem due to the importance of the hole.

However, that doesn't mean we should present subpar images. The important is that we like them, while still pleasing those who support us, which serves as an incentive and motivation.

Once again, Dan, thank you so much for your work and advice.

[DanK]

Dan,
I'm truly grateful for the time and effort you dedicated to processing my photograph, and especially for the detailed explanation of the steps involved.

But since Dan worked with a JPEG file, the result wasn't quite as spectacular as I'd hoped, and I believe it may not surpass my own version.
The shepherd's face appears overly contrasted, giving it a somewhat harsh look. The animal he's holding has a slightly strange texture, and the sky lost a lot of detail.

I'm confident that if Dan had been able to work with the original RAW image, could have easily exceeded the image quality I achieved. I have no doubt about that.
However, with a JPEG, the processing potential is clearly much lower, so the result wasn't what we both were aiming for.

Nevertheless, I learned something from this experience, and perhaps Dan did too.
I've been watching selected YouTube videos and reading about Curves, and I'm already making a few mistakes that will improve with practice.
-
I'd like to bring up another point that seems relevant in defense of my image. We often get caught up in technical details, but the essential thing is to convey an atmosphere, a look, a message, a feeling... and sometimes a face that's darker on one side than the other, or an overly bright pillar, or the strong colour of a dress (to name a few examples that comes to mind) aren't as important as they might seem due to the importance of the hole.

However, that doesn't mean we should present subpar images. The important is that we like them, while still pleasing those who support us, which serves as an incentive and motivation.

Once again, Dan, thank you so much for your work and advice.

Antonio,

To be clear, I wasn't suggesting learning more about editing to obtain some specific result. I was suggesting it so that you can come closer to the results YOU want.

The curves tool is both fundamental and very powerful. It can be used to increase or decrease midtone contrast, to lighten or darken the image as a whole, to lighten or darken areas of particular brightness, to change white and black points, and for dodging and burning.

One limitation is that changing contrast with a curve (or any other simple tonality tool) also changes saturation. That's sometimes what you want, but often it isn't.

Until recently, to increase midtone contrast with a curve while not increasing saturation, you had to use Photoshop--most easily, by making the blend mode of the curves layer "luminosity" rather than "normal". In the most recent version, Lightroom makes this possible, using the "refine saturation" slider I mentioned, which is at the bottom of the curves panel. Slide it all the way to the right, and you get a normal curve, saturation included. Slide it all the way to the left, and you get contrast affecting only brightness, not color. You can easily play this and decide where on that continuum you want the image to be. You can also do this with masks, not just globally.

Dan

[The amateur]

Thank you once again, Dan, for your extensive and thoughtful comment.

There is one aspect that I consider particularly important for you to know: sometimes I may not fully understand the content of the texts I read, which can lead to mistakes and misinterpretations. I apologise for this; as English is not my native language, such occurrences are only but natural.

I have clearly grasped the potential of curves, yet I must confess that I still find it challenging and labourious to follow this approach. I recently - today - read the text available on this website and found it quite engaging. Although the images are somewhat outdated, these does not detract from the learning process.

Moreover, Dan, you know that some of my photographs thus far are quite acceptable, even though Curves have not been used. However, there always comes a time when we decide to learn more in order to overcome the challenges we encounter or to reduce the time needed to process a task.

Cheers !

[escape]

For me, the man's face is the most interesting part of the image. I didn't notice that he wore two gold hoop earrings on his rugged face until I zoomed in. There are several options for cropping; each will highlight a different aspect of the image. For processing, I generally use auto and presets and add minor refinements to them. Keeping it simple. Overall. I like this image, Antonio. Where did you take it?

[The amateur]

In India, Daniel !