Your Best Portraits

This is Cowboy Dean. I met him while photographing horses and riders on a horse ranch in Petaluma, California. Dean looks like the Marlboro man and actively works as a cowboy. I took this photo midafternoon. I love how the harsh sunlight brings out the textures in the barn and his chaps. You can see the shadow of his horse in the foreground. I asked him to stand in the partially open doorway beneath the sizzling hot sign and to look down and pull his hat down slightly. The image was processed in Capture One, converted to BW, added contrast, clarity and structure and pulled down some of the highlights in his shirt and vest. The biggest challenge was bright area in the background over his left shoulder. I used a local mask to reduce the brightness and exposure.