WEEKLY THEME: Sun and Snow White Beauty

Well I've been struggling with this theme, trying to come up with something suitable.

As I Didn't know who we are honoring, his work I've looked at is intense and uniquely beautiful.

still not sure I managed one to fit the theme, but here goes...

this is a friends horse, Cricket, out on her 40 acres amongst the Piñon trees in central New Mexico.

the light was exquisite, sun just going down on the end of 2 days of gloom and snow.

all of the light hitting her lines and edges was natural, and the eye catchlight.

the color behind her was also the sun playing off the landscape.

i loved the detail in the snow and foliage in the FG.

so for this theme in PP....

Through Topaz Adjust 5 I did exposure correction, small detail finder, then the dark night ghostly texture/color, then a mild color pop and denoise.

back in PSE levels and sharpen.

taken handheld, no flash, this is full frame.

i may try to get one more photo in for the theme. Forgive me for still not being around, I've been prepping unexpectedly for another surgery happening this Friday.

Very nice scene Linz. I might consider cloning out or darkening the two purplish branches on the right. I really like the rim lighting on the horse. Good luck with your surgery.

I really like the way you captured this. Framing the horse with the trees and the light on the foreground vegetation set it off very nicely. The backlighting is good, too. I wondered about toning down both the highlights (especially the blaze) and the shadows, and this is what I came up with.

Very nice, and I like what Dennis did with it.

I love the rim lighting, Linz and the scene is beautiful. I think you could open up the shadows a little on the horse but I see a lot of posterization on Dennis' repost so maybe that isn't a viable option. I guess you could do a slight blur on the body?
Good luck with your surgery!
Take care:S3:

Thanks to all, and to Dennis for the input and Rework.

the original photo is quite awesome, I've printed it for the horses owner.

my trouble came in trying to convert it to something über OOTB for this theme , I'm just not nearly as creative as Dave was, Cheryl, Jackie, soooo many more.

so in using the ghostly night topaz adjust,that's what blasted the whites and gave the purple glows.

will post another tomorrow. Thanks for the thoughts, friendships, advice, and comradery!

I like how the horse is framed by the trees and the light. Lovely rim lighting. I also like the position of the horse's head--looking back--perfect for a portrait. I like the darkness of the image. I'm bothered by the very light area at the bottom as it pulls me away from the horse, and I'd clone out the purple branches on the right. It would be nice to see the original image.

I too, would be interested in the original image. Sometimes less is more. Really nice how the horse's head is framed & the lovely alert look with the catch light in the eye.

Good luck on your procedure.

I like the composition and rim lighting. I like Dennis's version which opens up the dark areas.

Very nice image, well worth working on! Many of the presets on these programs are not kind to tonalities.

Best of luck with the surgery!

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

I actually love the original of this photo, and I do believe less is more most of the time.

Played with another photo today for this theme, might post tomorrow.

Probably should have just left this one out of this theme, just too hard to change what it is into something more creative.

Would love your thoughts on the original as well.

Agreed. I'd think about cropping some on one side or the other, to get the horse out of the middle. Left would be logical but that leaves the OOF stuff and cuts the nice BG. Frustrating when that happens. But just cropping out that vertical trunk on the L isn't a big penalty. Maybe I'd crop out the white sky. Nice image, though! Sometimes it doesn't pay to try to do the artistic filters, but it is always a learning experience. How else to learn when to do them?

Thanks Diane!

Was pretty happy with it, small things to fix.... but taken with a broken camera, I'll take it.... Same camera that I posted about back in November on the ETL forum, went to get fixed, result was that the Lens Assembly had been put in backwards!

Got it back, took it to New Orleans, some things got better, some got way worse, couldn't zoom at all, had to have bright bright light for no noise. Its back at shop once more, then replaced if they can't fix the issues.

That sounds bizarre. I don't remember the earlier post. What camera? Who did the "repair"?

The post was of a Harris Hawk, posted in ETL. I will PM you

Frustrating to have a camera that is not working properly, especially after getting it fixed.
Here is a version of the OP for your consideration. I don't mind the horse being in the center of the image. I'm more bothered by the purplish branches and blurred green on the right. I cropped the image, getting rid of the sky and some of the blurred branches. I cloned out the purple ones, and some snow on the ground. I blurred the edges and applied a vignette, darkening the edges and brightening the horse's head.

WOW Anita, Thank you, very impressive!!

Did you use LR to darken edges and brighten the head? Love the coloring.

This pic was before camera was sent off the first time. You are right, frustrating and exasperating. Before I realized there was an issue the same camera won a macro shot at the state fair, and my Dog, Ginger's picture here in OOTB.
Seems that it only does well in Macro with glaring high light.

Though I must say it was satisfying to find something wrong with the camera such as it was... since during the festival I was calling my Father over and over (profession photographer) and his answer to me was finally "You Just Need to Learn to Use it."

Yeah he's a fix it kind of person so was quite speechless at the diagnosed first problem....... YAY it's not me! That was my reaction... LOL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LinzRiverBalmer

WOW Anita, Thank you, very impressive!!

Did you use LR to darken edges and brighten the head? Love the coloring.

This pic was before camera was sent off the first time. You are right, frustrating and exasperating. Before I realized there was an issue the same camera won a macro shot at the state fair, and my Dog, Ginger's picture here in OOTB.
Seems that it only does well in Macro with glaring high light.

Though I must say it was satisfying to find something wrong with the camera such as it was... since during the festival I was calling my Father over and over (profession photographer) and his answer to me was finally "You Just Need to Learn to Use it."

Yeah he's a fix it kind of person so was quite speechless at the diagnosed first problem....... YAY it's not me! That was my reaction... LOL

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Liz: The coloring is yours. All I did re. color was to convert the color profile to sRGB. I did the blurring and vignetting in Color Efex Pro. I did more vignetting and lightening and cloning in Adobe Elements. I could have done it all in Adobe Elements. Glad you like it.

Linz, I really like the Rp of this image, such beautiful colorations. Diane is spot on in that the Topaz presets are usually pretty harsh. I don't think I've ever used a "stock" preset succesfully. I also like what Anita did, the burning in forces focus on the subject. Best of luck with your surgery and hope to see more!