Rodeo (3)

Some PS work to offset the unaethetical background...

 

Thanks for your comments and critics

Exellent work. beautiful colors and compo.

could you explain me why are you using PS to make this awful blur?

why won't you use narrow DOF that comes from your DSLR insted? I bet it would look more natural!

I must say - if you haven't used blur in PS I might have fall in love with this capture :)

 

PS sorry for my bad grammar :)

Thanks for your comments, friends

 

Lukasz : as I see (from your home page) that you are beginning in photography I will answer your question and explain to you WHY I had to use PS : Getting a narrow DOF directly in this shooting situation is just IMPOSSIBLE ! EXCEPT if you are the happy owner of a 400mm F 2.8 (around 10000 US $ !) (or even better a 600mm F4...around 15000$!) AND if your shooting point is not further than approx 20 meters...

Unfortunately I was far from the rider first, and even more unfortunately I dont own a 400mm F2.8 ! Even shooting with my 200mm F2.8, with F5.6 aperture, the DOF was too large (DOF is extended by digital SLR far more than films and the further you are from the subject the larger is the DOF at the same aperture). Consequently I have choosen to use PS to get, for my choice, a better result than having a crowded unaesthetical background...but I fully understand that one may not like the result! If I would have had the choice to do otherwise I would have done it, obviously...

 

JP

I live in Texas, rode in rodeos, and own a D70. Been trying for a shot like this for two years.

 

Terrific job.

 

About the blur. Only a trained eye would notice its an effect...and its fairly natural looking.

 

I understood the explanation you gave the other fellow...and the cost of lenses that would naturally create it.

 

I may do a painting based on this shot.

 

Great Job.

Another great picture! I love the movement and the short DOF.

Just a primitive smudge. Come on now.

An excellent photo with perfect composition beautiful color and motion. Great work !

I think this is a wonderful capture....the moment, the action, colors, the light, the contrast are all superb...blurr is OK for me and it add aesthetics...two improvements I can see: the transition from the focussed area to the blurred area is a bit abrupt (probably better to choose a more progessive transition but not so easy as to preserve the horse legs in focus)...as a second improvement: I would have like to see more of the dust in movement (i.e. less crop at the bottom) as it adds a lot to the dynamics of the frozen action.

What can I say? Only this - the real masterpiece!!!

Congratulations...

Fascinating colours and perfect PS-work! Beate

Very well taken, cheers Jana

Magnificent shot

Best Regards Roger

Wonderful shot Jean Pierre. Great color , sharpness and excellent capture of

movement. It is a Fantastic shot!

Regards Andrea

I think that was a wonderful shot but I think that your PS work has killed it: edges aren't nice. I'm not a manipulation expert neither but I still believe that often, doing nothing is the best to do.
Sorry to look hard, but looking at the high quality of your portfolio, this one is really weird.
The work you did on "slide stop" is far finer.

An excellent action shot. IMHO the PS blur is fine, and only adds to the overall quality of the photo by bringing the horse and the rider out of what would otherwise have been a messy background. I too would have liked to see a bit more of the flying dust at the bottom of the picture.

Wow!

What a shot!

 

Ulrika

wonderful photo indeed. I still have untrained eye and I thought you had some great glass but after reading I agree with you hehe :-) until THAT glass keep on with your great photos :-)

Hindsight is 20/20, but for the next time, there is an old trick that may work. It used to be called “front focusing”. You don’t focus on the subject; you focus in front of it. The depth of field causes the subject to still be in focus, but the background is blurred out. You would have to do some calculations to find out how much nearer to focus on.

JP, Awesome action shot. Glad to know you understand Aperture priority shooting. When the tools you are working with at the moment don't do the job, all the way, then PS is the next step! The blur is just a bit too unrealistic. Use the blur, but be careful not to over do it. The color and composition is excellent. I get the "fury"! Expression on the cowpokes face is great! The lighting is great too!

JP, I agree with your reply. No doubt this is wonderful picture and results with 200mm is awesome. Yes here 400 would fit better than 200mm. but this is also not a bad shot at all.

NICE SHOT!

KEEP IT UP

Simply Wonderful. The picture leaves its impact on one's mind.

great capture!

A dramatic shot, spoiled with clumsy PS work! The blur looks totally fake. The subjects are blurred into the background layer, and the blur ends abruptly at three levels around the dirt. To correct it, start with the unblurred background. Clone out the cowboy and horse. Select everything down to the dirt, and feather the selection broadly downwards. Then do your blur. Note that a gaussian blur doesn't look like a lens blur (including the blur created on your retina when the lens in your eye is out of focus). However, photoediting software publishers seem not to have figured this out. Because of this, any blurring you do like this will look fake, even if more skillfully executed.

Well it could have been a good shot if it wasn't for the blur. That's all.