Roping the Wind

[lissykeeper]

This picture is of my little brother roping during a high school rodeo. I really like a lot of things about this picture. I love the detail in the dirt flying up around buddy's (the horse's) feet and legs. I love the way the rope follows the roof line of the barn behind, even though that was pure dumb luck on my part. However, the guy on the horse in the background and the man in the teal shirt are distracting. The shot has to happen where my little bro happens to catch at, so I can't plan the backgound out. And these guys or someone else will always be in the arena because they are judges. How can I make them less noticeable and still catch the detail in the primary subject? Even though I like this pic, I know its not a great pic. What could I do next time to make this type of shot better? Any help is greatly appreciated.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25285675@N07/2384474136/" title="Tyrel Ribbon Roping by lissykeeper, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2003/2384474136_368ae80aac.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Tyrel Ribbon Roping" /></a>

[Nicole]

Well to start out, I have to say that I don't think it's a bad picture at all! In fact, I think that you froze the action well, and the first things I see are your brother and the calf. Two options I can think of for getting rid of the distractions are either using a larger aperture (smaller f/#) or moving if you can while still getting his face. Other than that I actually don't really find the other people in the arena all that distracting, of course, that's just me. :)

[lissykeeper]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try both a see what I get!

[shutternut]

Wow! awesome shot! Great capture of the action! Really I think a smaller DOF would help with the background distractions but I don't think it's too big of an issue really. If it bugs you too much you could always photoshop it a little but I think you did a fantastic job.

[lissykeeper]

Thank you! Another member photoshoped it and blurred the backgound to show me how it would look. I really liked it better, so I am going to try myself. I haven't become real comfortable with photoshop yet, so we will see what happens!

[Nathan deGargoyle]

Blur it as much as you want the background blurred then add a layer mask on the blurred layer. paint the mask so the foreground/sharp bits ar black and the background/blurred bits are white. Paint the greys i between. My mask looks like this...

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b209/IanGM/DPS/lissykeeperssmaskedcowboy.jpg

And my image looks like this.....


http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b209/IanGM/DPS/lissykeepersscowboy.jpg

Hope this helps.


[EDIT] I should read to the end of a thread before I put my two pennorth in. Oh Well! ;(

[lissykeeper]

[QUOTE I should read to the end of a thread before I put my two pennorth in. Oh Well! ;([/QUOTE]

Thanks for the idea! This looks a lot easier than the method I was going to try!

[wpgreer]

I like this shot!

My only suggestion for future shots is to get in front of the action more, there's a lot of empty space there in the middle...but either way I do liek the shot you have!

[Stephonomon]

I agree that it is a great shot with an awesome moment. One area where I might modify the picture is to target the sky above the rider. It's very bright and competes with the bottom half of the photo. Perhaps darkening it or even bringing in another sky.

[DedeB]

You have a great action shot here! Congratulations. I have been taking action pictures and it is very hard at times to get everything perfect in a shot. Yes, the 2 guys in the background are a little distracting. I did not notice the teal shirt one until you mentioned it, as I was focus on your brother. The line of the rope really catches your eye. I really liked the dirt flying up around the horse. You could use a smaller DOF in the future, but it may make it harder though to get the entire view in focus. Thus you may lose some of the great detail. You can not sharpen an image and get more detail very well after the fact, but you can sure blur the background out with different programs.

[Canadian Mum]

I like this shot. I like the crispness of the action - dirt around Buddy's feet, the rope in the air, Buddy's mane in the air, the pink ribbon on the calf's tail!
I didn't even notice the guy in the teal shirt until you mentioned him. I think the movement of the horse and the line of the lariat totally draw my eye away from him... and to the calf. I might crop some of the dirt from the bottom out of the picture though... thats about all I would change!

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Great shot! I've been trying to get some good action shots of horses, and none look this amazing or sharp. I know what you mean about having no control over the background sometimes, but in most good action shots no one cares - all the focus is on the action. I personally like the original as is. It captures the environment and the action - Great job!
~wannabe

[MikeM]

A neat trick for getting rid of distracting colors, like your teal shirt, is to use the hue-saturation editor. You can desaturate the cyan or modify its hue so it's something more neutral.

[SJH Foto]

I like this picture quite a bit. No gimmicks, just gritty rodeo!

[HockeyFan]

I only now checked this thread. Very well done, I should say. I like how the arc of the rope comes out and over from the rider and down towards it's roped target. Exposure is good too.