Portrait of an Arabic Tribesman and his horse

[vimalkv]

EXIF:
ISO: 400
Exposure: 1/4000 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 83mm
Flash Used: No

Is the composition good enough for a portrait? This was shot at Mid Noon, and the sun was directly above. Would it have been better, if I used a Flash to Fill Light on the person's Face?
Regarding composition, should I have composed in a manner, where the entire horse would have been seen?
Are the colors ok? Will it be better if i convert it to B/W.
I converted to B/W and shared it in the SYS Section..
Here is the link
http://digital-photography-school.co...ian-horse.html

[Stooert]

IMHO the crop you have chosen does not add to the composition. I would have taken a few steps forward and try to fill the frame shooting vertically cutting the horse off a small amount higher than what has been chosen. I quite enjoy the warm colours that have been achieved and did not even notice at first glance that flash fill was used. I checked out your BW conversion and believe it makes worse the problem of darkness on the horseman's face in this image. Really it seems like you made the best out of what you had to work with.

[katherine]

Great picture....colors are great, especially for being shot midday If you have Photoshop or another editing program, a suggestion for dealing with the darkness of the horseman's face is to make a duplicate layer, then isolate the face using the lariat and use under adjustments shadow/highlights to lighten the face. I concur with Stooert about making it in into a vertical shot. You could do that by cropping this picture vertically starting a little higher on the horse making sure to include his whole head...perhaps at a point even with the rider's knee on the right side of the picture.

[naushadme]

I am joining with you Stooert and Katherine. Photo cropped proposion is not correct. As you said, if photo cropping upto the knee level, it will not gives a nice look- I think so.

[Smurf]

Personally I love the warmth and colour so much prefer it to the B&W version. Before I had even read the other comments I thought that cropping to frame the mans face and the horses head would make the compostition better.

I absolutely love the subject!! I'm a big horsey person and a fan of arabians in particular.

[sk66]

I wold change the crop to portrait....But overall very nice job...I'd love such an opportunity.

[katherine]

Sorry to be so slow in posting this...

[IMG][/IMG]

Here is a suggested way to crop this picture. If you don't like it square than at least crop it to make it vertical. Also notice that I lightened up the shadow on the rider's face. I did that in Photoshop by making a duplicate layer, then isolating the face using the lariat I used shadow/highlights in adjustments to lighten the face.

Again...this is a great shot and thanks for sharing

[vimalkv]

Thanks a lot Guys for your comments...Also thank you Katherine for your valuable suggestion s and taking time to edit my image and post it for me....Thanks a lot..

[LoveDSLR]

The following sample crop is based on a sense of balance in composition.

[sk66]

Originally Posted by LoveDSLR

The following sample crop is based on a sense of balance in composition.

+1, I was going to submit such an edit. Although I think a little wider "golden rule" format might fit a touch better.