RA Photo Club’s own Heather Dawe, our doyenne of equestrian photography, was one of the successful entrants in Photo Life’s monthly Showtime Competition. The topic was…horses!
The photo, Polo Ponies, was taken at a 2011 charity polo event held on the grounds of the old Nepean Equestrian Park (now known as Wesley Clover Park).
Technical details
EXPOSURE: 1/1000 sec at f4, ISO 200
FOCAL LENGTH: 86 mm
CAMERA: Nikon D300
SHUTTER SETTING: Continuous
LENS: Nikon 70 to 200, f2.8 VR
The horses and riders were galloping past an area with parked cars and tents, so in post-processing Heather had to create an intricate layer mask to remove them from the background, and popped in a cloud image she shot the same day in the same lighting conditions as a new background. She used a radial motion blur on the cloud to enhance the sense of movement.
The image was developed in Adobe Camera RAW initially with a view to creating versions that enhanced various details and tonal differences. Based on the different RAW versions, she used masks to create the base image that was eventually run through NIK Colour Efex Pro, and then through Topaz Adjust.
Heather has several different versions of this image, all processed differently. Some are more documentary in style, while others are more painterly or impressionistic. In fact, she has worked on this image every year following 2011. The polo ball was copied and pasted from another image shot on the same day, as she wanted to highlight the red maple leaf on it.
Hard work pays off. The photo was published in the April/May 2015 edition of Photo Life, Canada’s premiere photography magazine.
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A very, very nice example of photographic art, although the ball doesn't appear to be casting a shadow. It would be interesting to see the original photo, un-enhanced.
Go Heather, Go
great job