I like the car against the barren hillside, it definitely speaks apocalypse. However, IMHO, the horse adds nothing and detracts from the simplicity and starkness of the image. Especially since it's walking out of the picture.
Perhaps a vertical crop right at the horses rear, and maybe take out a bit of the foreground. Other than that, it's a nice composition and does tell a bit of story.
The title for this came after it was shot, basically the horse happened to be in the same frame as the van. I thought it added to the concept a bit because it was unbridled... a sort of post-doomsday-animals-roam-the-world feel.
Here's the crop you suggested, I'd be interested to hear what people think of the two different shots.
second crop is MUCH better, now for the levels.... the subject is obv the car/truck, but the eyes go to the horizon. figure out how you can draw more attention to the van
The original conversion to B/W was done trying to balance for detail in the horse, without that it was time for a new conversion... here's something different:
I took a shot at something quite a bit more moody, it might be a bit too much but I kinda like it. For those that are curious, the color original jpeg (I don't own a RAW converter yet) is here:
I think you're getting there, maybe try to lighten up the old car just a bit so we can see more of the details of it. Crop is much better without the horse, and I do like the darker view, just not quite so dark on the car maybe.
Thus far I haven't done any dodging/burning or area based adjustments... I can try that and I'll play with the b/w conversion to see if I can pull it out directly with that.
This monitor is terrible for viewing images so i cannot comment on your posts, but you might want to explore Tom Neimann's Paint With Light action at ePaperPress.com.
Bob-
Tell me about it... I'm playing on a laptop monitor (all I have) in a room that gets lots of sunlight. I can shift my head by 4 inches in 4 directions and see 4 different versions of the image.
Also, I haven't bought photoshop yet either, playing with GimpShop and other free tools.
actually, i really like the horse in the picture. It's a contrast (without sounding too artsy) between something alive and dead. the horse gives contrast to the death that's shown by the car.... perhaps the horse is running from what's happened.
Jarmon's adjustments are great. I think the key is to work on the constrast levels.
