Thank you... he's a horseman through and through... many complained that the shadows are too dark in this face but anyone who trains horses... knows the tools are in the hands... which is where the light falls...
From other threads (including the
raw vs. jpg "boxing match" thread with Boxer :), I
know Cocadori has the expertise to lighten up his dad's face without blowing out the highlights on the hands & horse. Ric, you made a choice (and I agree with it -- as if my opinion matters!
Looking at the tonal range, I think you
may have done a little lightening of the face, but whether you did or didn't, I think you stopped at the perfect point! You can see his eyes well, and with those harsh lighting conditions going further would just scream "Photoshopped".
I see many pictures on the 'net which are technically excellent, but are so clearly manipulated that this becomes distracting.
Clearly, all of Cocadori's photos above are not only technically way above average, but they must be valuable for his descendents.
For the benefit of others who missed my post on the "raw vs. jpg" thread: Guys, when you get any truly excellent family photos like Cocadori has here, backup
both the raw image
and a huge jpg of each photo for future generations of your family.
Why? "RAW" is not a single format but hundreds of formats, some specific to a single model camera of a single brand. It is more likely that today's jpg will be readable down the road long after Nikon's raw format for that particular camera is forgotten and unreadable.
John