Barrel Racer

What improvements can I work on. Thank you, Carol

This is a tough shot and I really wish that people would actually weigh in on this a little. A shot like this could be really amazing but I don't know exactly how. Right now I feel like it is missing the right feeling. Everything feels very flat and your blowing the highlights. Your also just on the verge of losing detail in the shadows and that's the hard part. There is a huge contrast range in the shot. First off lose the light in the upper left of the frame. Then in the future I would try shooting in RAW [if your not already] bringing the exposure down by around 1 stop [when you shoot next time] then double processing the RAW file. Get the exposure right for the highlights in camera then see if you can process the RAW once for the overall scene and once to get just a little detail in the shadows. If you actually shot this image in RAW you might be able to just do the overall processing from what you have now since you can usually bring down the exposure pretty effectively and you might be able to save the detail in the shirt. Then for the second processing leave the shadows where they are now. After combining the two shots I might then try some coloring and see if you can get more of a mood. It already might be great after bringing the exposure down and combining the shots though.

Carol, this is a good capture of a fast moving horse. Well done!