The Big Red Twins

[lissykeeper]

These horses belong to my sister and cousin. Although they are not related,(the horses, not the girls) they really look a lot a like. When I decided to get a shot, they were grazing nose to nose. Of course they changed before I could get my camera to my eye! I didn't even have time to check my settings before throwing up the camera. We were standing behind a small building, hence the darker lower half of the picture and lighter higher half. I used my on camera flash, thinking it might help correct the lighting, but it probably only made it worse! LOL. I cropped to get rid of most of the blown out area then adjusted levels, and added a multiply layer at about 60% to bring out the deep red they really are. Does anyone know how I could save the original without cropping out their ears? Help Needed Please!

[Alex168]

The images is REALLY overexposed, and that is one of the hardest things to correct if tou ask me, i think you did great saving the shot so to speak!

[Quo Fan]

Its easier to correct over/under exposed using RAW. I had some over exposed shots in JPEG that I couldn't fix (they came out crappy, but I gave them to my cousin anyway).

Nice save, but the shot wasn't too overexposed. I really like the after.

[susiejulie]

excellent job processing to save the shot! the warm tones are lovely.
Do you really want/need to save the entire shot? I think your crop is the prettiest/most important part of the photo.

[kahnhauser1]

Its a tough job. If you have access to Photoshop/elements, then you may have some options. by creating layers and masking the lower part of the picture to deal with it seperately you could bring up the photo like you have already done to enrich the colors. Then work on the upper half seperately to darken it, be sure to blend the line between the two layers. It will take some work and will not be perfect but it may get you closer to where you are trying to go.

Good luck, it will take some work.

[Father Bob]

You could possibly save it in Lightroom or Bridge. Adjust for the overexposed area and save it. Adjust for the faces and save file under different name. Merge both together in Photoshop using layers and layer mask or HDR blending. You could try different layer blending modes to see which works best.

Your finished version looks pretty good as it is. I like the tight crop and the colors seem right on.

[lissykeeper]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I guess I was looking for a quick fix. I know if I spend a lot of time on it, I might be able to fix it. But the more I look at the after, the more I like it. I'm not sure its worth the time I would have to spend just to keep their full heads. Appreciate all the advise and comments though!