Foal and owner portrait

[joemags]

Hello,

This is another from a session with my niece about a month ago in South Carolina. My last post was my niece and the mother of this foal.

Anyway, all comments are appreciated and thanks for looking.

EOS 1V
Sigma 300mm 2.8
Tripod
Off Camera Wireless Fill Flash at -2/3 stop
Approx f/4 at 1/250th
Kodak 400BW
cropped left and right to 8x10 format

[Liz]

Joe - it's so good to see you around here - and posting some of your great work.

This is a beautiful image. There is nothing I would change. The composition, contrast - everything looks great. You sure picked a winner with this lens. Of course, it's in the right hands! ;)

Your niece is lovely.

I hope all is well with Matthew.

Liz

Hello,

This is another from a session with my niece about a month ago in South Carolina. My last post was my niece and the mother of this foal.

Anyway, all comments are appreciated and thanks for looking.

EOS 1V
Sigma 300mm 2.8
Tripod
Off Camera Wireless Fill Flash at -2/3 stop
Approx f/4 at 1/250th
Kodak 400BW
cropped left and right to 8x10 format

[joemags]

Yeah, I really got lucky in picking up this lens a few years ago used for a really good price. It has really become my go to guy. It takes some discipline (tripod, cable release etc...) to get the best from it, plus it's huge and heavy but I just love it. Matthew is doing well. I plan on taking a new photo of him this weekend and I will be sure to post it. The proud poppa that I am and all.

I hope all is well with you. Sharon and Matthew say hello!

Take Care,
Joe

[Seb]

Hello,

This is another from a session with my niece about a month ago in South Carolina. My last post was my niece and the mother of this foal.

Anyway, all comments are appreciated and thanks for looking.

EOS 1V
Sigma 300mm 2.8
Tripod
Off Camera Wireless Fill Flash at -2/3 stop
Approx f/4 at 1/250th
Kodak 400BW
cropped left and right to 8x10 format

Hello Joe, welcome back,

Your picture is quite striking. The tones and the lighting take it to the next level.
Nevertheless,there is one small thing that distract me: I notice that you have used selective sharpening on the eyes of your beautiful nice and the pony (which was tastefully executed on your niece). Hovewer, since the pony is proeminent in the picture and that he have big eyes, his gaze almost become overwhelming, I think that slightly backing off the sharpening on the pony eye would be beneficial in this case.

regards

Seb

[joemags]

That’s a very insightful take on it. I actually sharpened both of their heads in their entirety. Kind of a big V shape from his ears down to his nose and back up to cover her entire head. When I sharpened the entire photo it introduced noise into the out of focus background so that’s why I went selective. All this being said though, this currently looks about as close to the original lab print as I could get. My point of critical focus was on his eye. I do see what you are saying about his intense gaze. I will definitely go back and try to soften his eye a bit. This will be the first time I’ve ever intentionally softened part of an image! I have very basic Photoshop skills and this will be a good opportunity for me to learn something new about Photoshop. This is the critique forum at its best as I would never have really noticed this without you pointing it out.

Thanks again Seb and take care,
Joe