I shot this photo last year while visiting a friend of mine's ranch to get some "working cowboy" pictures. The horse on the right (the white one) belonged to my friend's daughter. The horse was her "baby" and she had won many ribbons and trophies at shows on this lovely animal. The brown horse was her dad's.

Both horses had to be put down after a tragic traffic accident about six months ago and the father asked me if I could render the photo as "art" and get it reporduced as a gilsee at poster size for Christmas. He didn't want a photo look at all.

I wanted something rustic that would fit in with her "Florida Cracker" decor in her bedroom, but retain a feminie touch. Something that would bring back "good" memories. I don't know if I have "hit" it or not.

What do you think?

Original on the right.

I like the idea you've got going there. To me it looks a little flat tonally, the horses seem to merge with their surroundings. I guess you were trying keep the colours soft and subtle but there is alot of 'busy texture' so I feel that colour and contrast is important to balance in the art style you've used. I used both your images together and had a play around with various layer blending modes. BTW, what is 'Florida Cracker'? Me ignorant Aussie :confused:

Thanks for the input Littlecoo. I kinda felt that way too, when I asked about too much. I like the colors, but you are probably right about the texture. Might be too much.

A Florida Cracker derives from the pioneers cowboys in Central Florida. Here's (http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~fcc/main/what's_a_cracker.htm) a good link. Around here "Crackers" referr to the cracking bull whips that the pioneer cowboys used. (I live in an area that produces a lot of cattle).

Swampy one of the skills i need to improve on a lot is critique so please excuse me but
Great original photo
I think the artiistic version is great
but i agree the colours arent quite right ( prefer littlecoo's )
so i give it 9/10 :bigthmb:
and please can you let us know how it looks printed out

Palms

Have reduced the texture and tweaked the color

Here's where I am on 2nd version.

Swampy, I'm definitely no expert, but I think your second version looks GREAT!!!!

Hmmm... IMHO they should look like a painting. :(

Manta, nice, but kind of "flat" for my taste. What program/plugin(s) did you use?

Manta, nice, but kind of "flat" for my taste. What program/plugin(s) did you use?

I did the following:
1) White balance
2) Over Sharpen
3) Diffuse (Anisotropic)
4) Sharpen till right
5) Denoise

All (except anisotropic diffusion) from filters I created myself.

dee dee,

i like the 2nd one better, but they're both a bit flat and lifeless compared to the original. you've lowered the color and the contrast and added some 'noise' of some sort. seems the wrong direction to me. you want to bring the horses out more, espectially the white one, since that was hers. something between your 2nd one and manta's might work.

it's a good picture; show it off.

Hi all:

I feel that a memorial should provoke sadness. Something like my attempt below.

Stosh

The father selected the first version. Go figure. He loved all the texture that I thought might be "too much". His wife liked the muted colors with a blue tint for Jen's room.

I'm getting the gilsee done Thursday and he plans to take it to the frame shop Monday.

I appreciate everyone's input. I think the hardest part of retouch is meeting the client's expectations. Especially when emotions and memories are so important.