A soft approach to improve the image?

[Bryant]

I was not happy with my the original image, the name is relevant if you view it in my album. So I have been playing around with it in photoshop. The idea was to let the horse speak for itself in being such a magnificent animal by creating an understatement. By that I mean tone it down so that the image does not jump out at you. I would like your thoughts and tips.





[IMG]http://cdn.cambridgeincolour.com/for...attach/jpg.gif[/IMG]

[Ross]

I think your subject woud be more magnificent if it is standing between other animals around.

[Donald]

I think that's a very, very good piece of work. You did not have a good starting point with that background. But you've done a very clever bit of work with it.

[Suzanne]

Bryant, you've picked a subject that is near and dear to my heart. Horses can be quite difficult to photograph and I think you did quite well. Not only that but you've picked a particularly lovely individual to shoot. My suggestion, if I understand what you were going for correctly, is that if you brought the angle of the camera down just a bit, not totally looking up at him, it would give him more presence. This is a draft breed and one of the things that makes them so powerful is there sheer size. I agree with Ross that it would have worked better with a little context, and so I like #1 better. Though I like the thought of the context being blurred or knocked back just a little bit. #2 (forgive me) reminds me of a "Breyer Horse" advertisement. Kind of floating in a cloud. They are earthy animals and unless your going to go in a totally artsy direction, usually look best when "grounded". Ive attached my favorite painting for your and my inspiration.
This is The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur 1855 My absolute favorite painting. She has to dress and pretend to be a man to get her work accepted in the world of art at the time. This painting is HUGE too LOVE IT!

[wilgk]

I am another softie for Horses!
Out of your 2 images, which are both lovely, I prefer the first one, but how would it look with maybe some soft-focus or vignette effect, but still some context?

[Bryant]

As a group you all suggest I needed to have placed my image in context! . . . My aim was to remove "context" and to give a more ethereal feel to the image. What I see and what I felt at the time was a very gentle giant who towered over me, and followed me everywhere placing herself alongside myself, at times even touching me, but just standing there. My feelings of uncertainty and at times fear were quickly dispelled and as time progressed I became enchanted by her tenderness and by the end of the shoot felt shear love for this magnificent animal who simply wanted to relate. The full context of this incident can be found in my album on my personal site here in CIC.

So this image was a reflection of how I felt about her at the time I was walking away never to see her again. Its experiences like this that leave life long impressions and this image will always be a reminder to me of those special moments we shared in the middle of that paddock.

What you have done is to help me put my feelings into context and should have been said in the introduction, thank you. ( Hope its O.K. for a feller to be romantic and to peer up at his loves and place them on a pedestal ?).

[Donald]

Hope its O.K. for a feller to be romantic and to peer up at his loves and place them on a pedestal ?.

Thank G.. for a male who's got guts enough to reveal emotion and tenderness and celebrate it.

Some of us operate almost full-time on emotion like this.