few horse jumping shots

[FrankMi]

Hi Frank,

Sorry but my rough english does not allow me to understand your question. If you have any idea of special post processing feel free to submit it.

Thanks for your comment

Thierry, I really like the B & W shots just the way they are. My question was about technique. If you wanted to reduce the impact of the background, would leaving just the main subject in color, perhaps a more muted tone, and making the background B & W achieve your purpose? I have only a novice skill on PS but I was thinking of something like this.

[tb72]

Thanks Frank

I understand now. We call it "partial desaturation". To be honnest I am not a great addict of such post processing but the idea stay of interest

[dbmurrell]

Hi Thierry. Very nice shots! I agree that your second shot is the better of the two, and from an equestrian photography point of view, the advantage in #2 is the horse's position -- you want the horse's knees together and ears forward as he goes over the rails. Your #2 shot is a very traditional capture for the hunter/jumper event, and I think its very nice compositionally.

I do like the tighter crop -- as long as the horse has somewhere to go in the frame.

As for the BW vs. color option -- I'm not sure I agree with others that the BW is the clear winner. The color variant shows a better separation between the horse and the trees. The striping on the rails is moderately distracting to be sure in the color version, which is why some folks will prefer the BW. I'm not much of a fan of selective de-saturation, so I think I would also avoid that route. Another possibility might be to use a "fall away" exposure gradient in the lower portion of the image to draw the eye away from the striping. Sporting events are notoriously messy, so I applaud your efforts to keep at it. Good luck!

[Manfred M]

Hi Thierry. Very nice shots! I agree that your second shot is the better of the two, and from an equestrian photography point of view, the advantage in #2 is the horse's position -- you want the horse's knees together and ears forward as he goes over the rails. Your #2 shot is a very traditional capture for the hunter/jumper event, and I think its very nice compositionally.

I do like the tighter crop -- as long as the horse has somewhere to go in the frame.

As for the BW vs. color option -- I'm not sure I agree with others that the BW is the clear winner. The color variant shows a better separation between the horse and the trees. The striping on the rails is moderately distracting to be sure in the color version, which is why some folks will prefer the BW. I'm not much of a fan of selective de-saturation, so I think I would also avoid that route. Another possibility might be to use a "fall away" exposure gradient in the lower portion of the image to draw the eye away from the striping. Sporting events are notoriously messy, so I applaud your efforts to keep at it. Good luck!

Welcome to CiC, Dave. You will note that this thread is almost 5 years old. Thierry has not been back to this site since the middle of 2012, so I rather doubt he will see your comment.

People do come and go (and sometimes pop back for a visit), but generally older posts tend not to get a lot of attention, especially the ones where someone has posted some images. Some of the technical posts can have longer life spans.