Equine Photography

 Hello, I would love to get some feedback and tips for my photos!  I have recently started taking pictures of horses, and here are a few pictures from photoshoot I did with my sister and 3 horses.

Any help is VERY appreciated!

 



All that copyright stuff is annoying. I'd like to do horse's more but no stables i could set them up on around here. Up until a few years ago, all the horse photo's I got were at local branding's in the spring.

I'm guessing you are looking for feedback? If so, then keep reading. If not, please add a post saying so, and I will redact this.

+1 on the copyright notice. A blatant repeated statement like that, as opposed to a watermark is very distracting, and not at all helpful. There are other ways to accomplish your goal.

Onward...

I'm not getting that this is about the horses. These shots are about the young lady, primarily, from what I see. Yes, there's clearly an important relationship with the horses (they seem to trust her) but this isn't "equine" photography.

The guitar + horse combination, without a campfire and wagon, seems odd.

I think that the 4th from last is the most successful of the lot.

Her smile in many of them seems forced.

Watch your backgrounds. They're important.

The action shots are soft, as are #2, 3, 6, 8, 10.

I am not a fan of tilted horizons that don't appear intentional.

Midday shots in harsh light... well, there you have it.  Suggest early morning or late afternoon for better light.

garyrhook wrote: I'm guessing you are looking for feedback? If so, then keep reading. If not, please add a post saying so, and I will redact this.

+1 on the copyright notice. A blatant repeated statement like that, as opposed to a watermark is very distracting, and not at all helpful. There are other ways to accomplish your goal.

Onward...

I'm not getting that this is about the horses. These shots are about the young lady, primarily, from what I see. Yes, there's clearly an important relationship with the horses (they seem to trust her) but this isn't "equine" photography.

The guitar + horse combination, without a campfire and wagon, seems odd.

I think that the 4th from last is the most successful of the lot.

Her smile in many of them seems forced.

Watch your backgrounds. They're important.

The action shots are soft, as are #2, 3, 6, 8, 10.

I am not a fan of tilted horizons that don't appear intentional.

Midday shots in harsh light... well, there you have it.  Suggest early morning or late afternoon for better light.

Yup, feedback was what I was looking for!
I will definitely keep that in mind! I've always wondered what to do with watermark stuff, but now I have an idea.
Well, I've seen lots of 'Equine Photography' that incorporates humans and horses, so its still technically, Equine. 
These photos were taken in the evening...

Well, thanks for your feedback.

You could call it that but really the horse is a prop. I do bird dog's. And while all my photo's usually have a dog in them some where, they are not all dog's photo's but rather a record of a moment at a dog trial. This photo is at a trial but even though there is a dog in it, the center of attention is not the dog. Not the jorse's either but rather about people that do this sport and the animals they use.

In this photo there is a horse but, it's a prop. The point of interest is the dog. Only the horse's leg's are there on purpose and they are well out of focus. You see them and recognize the horse but the photo is of the dog.

This last one is a photo of a dog. It has the human in it and even the horse. But the attention is drawn to the dog, the owner and the horse are merely prop's.

I get lot's of photo's like that of people with their dog's and what they are is not dog photo's but dog related.

Look, I understand it isn't ALL about the horse. I simply had to title this forum thread, so I did. It involves a horse. Can we move on now? All I would like is some tips/advice about the PHOTOS (not the title!). Any advice on Composition, Light, ect. would be appreciated..

I think in most of the shots you still have too much going on in the background. If you can not open your aperture further, look for spots where tour background is much further away. Direct sunlight (3rd shot) hardly ever makes appealing shots. Compare the light to the 2nd shot (which can be improved with some better contrast).

JuliaSmith15 wrote: Look, I understand it isn't ALL about the horse. I simply had to title this forum thread, so I did. It involves a horse. Can we move on now? All I would like is some tips/advice about the PHOTOS (not the title!). Any advice on Composition, Light, ect. would be appreciated..

Sure thing. I think most of my comments above stand, but I'll add some more.  For me (and you can blow me off, no worries, as this is an opinion)

First off, I clearly misread the light in some of these. Let me say that it appear that the light in #5 and #10 comes across as harsh. As do the highlights in #2.

#1: she's adorable. He's superfluous, unfortunately.

#2: You could crop the right side to the middle of the horse, and I think get better balance of the elements (her, guitar, horse head). I think you may have missed an opportunity to use that fence as a strong element, and have the horse be an accessory. I can imagine lots of other shots at that very spot.

#3: Too much going on, with the result that this doesn't work. The guitar is chopped off at both ends, the horse is chopped off, and I don't know what I should be looking at.

#4: OK, action shot. Good idea, but the light should be more behind them relative to the camera (for cool backlighting). Off to the left like this you just end up with a dark horse and blobs of color that don't tell me anything. Her hair ends up being the brightest thing in the frame and drawing my eye away from everything else. The angle of the horse, the bareback ride, I like. However, without a saddle, I'd rather see her barefoot with the jeans rolled up a bit. More earthy.

#5: To freeze an action shot requires a faster shutter speed. The backlight should be behind them. And a simpler background (and no tilt) would make more sense. The crop is awkward on the horse, and their placement within the frame is too far north.

#6: This one starts off well. The rim light on both of them is quite nice, and the point at which you captured the horses steps is perfect.  It should be straightened, and crop left and top to get rid of that fence and tree.  Clone out the mud on the ground. Depending upon your editing skills you could tame that sky a tiny bit too.

#7: This is a good shot. Turning everyone to camera right to get some more light on her face (around the horse nose) would be a plus, I think, but this is, for me, the most attractive of the bunch. Oh, and clone out that fence behind her.

#8: I like that the horse is paying attention to her (for whatever reason) but the background is not good (again). Also, there's no light on her front so everything is quite bland.

#9: I think I said above: this just looks awkward. A CPL to get rid of the reflections in the guitar body would be helpful. The aqua bridle is very distracting (being against that white horse, it's the largest contrast in the image).  The barn on the left doesn't work, although on the right it's OK. From this angle a very shallow DoF would have worked very well to get both of their faces and lose the background.

#10: Blown out background, front-on camera angle, everything lined up. Yeah, no. Not a flattering nor appealing composition, sorry.

If you can, incorporate fill flash to brighten up your subjects a bit.

Pay attention to your backgrounds. This is my biggest problem, and it requires you to slow down, look around, and think about where you want to be and what you'll capture.  It's really hard.

As for PP, more work could be done to even out the light, bring out detail, and sharpen the images. If you're not shooting in RAW and post-processing, you should be. IMO.

She's a lovely victim, however, and hopefully will let you work with her some more. And horses are always cool.

@garyrhook

Thank you! That is what I needed. I appreciate it.

I have to agree on most of that.  Especially the light coming off as harsh.
I have to say, I wasn't a big fan of #4 much either, I was excited it was an action shot, but lighting was so difficult and drowned out, so I edited it and boosted the lighting. (So that may also be another reason her hair is very bright) :/
Unfortunately, I'm still learning about editing with my Photoshop elements 12. But that's the major process of photography right?! Learning! =D

She was a great 'victim' to work with! She's actually my sister, so I could do much more with her! Mwahaha! (lol)

Would you say that some of these photos are good/ok for a 15 year old taking them? I'm hoping to succeed in Photography, but, I just don't know. These were taken at my very first photoshoot using my sister and real horses, I have more to post that are more recent.

Thanks again, I appreciate and respect all that you have to say!

JuliaSmith15 wrote: I have to agree on most of that.  Especially the light coming off as harsh.
I have to say, I wasn't a big fan of #4 much either, I was excited it was an action shot, but lighting was so difficult and drowned out, so I edited it and boosted the lighting. (So that may also be another reason her hair is very bright) :/
Unfortunately, I'm still learning about editing with my Photoshop elements 12. But that's the major process of photography right?! Learning! =D

She was a great 'victim' to work with! She's actually my sister, so I could do much more with her! Mwahaha! (lol)

Would you say that some of these photos are good/ok for a 15 year old taking them? I'm hoping to succeed in Photography, but, I just don't know. These were taken at my very first photoshoot using my sister and real horses, I have more to post that are more recent.

I'll start off by pointing out that you already have thick skin and can take feedback. That's a very good, useful attribute. Congratulations on that.

Being 15 years of age is irrelevant, although I applaud the level of maturity you exhibit in your communication. I would guess, then, that you're fairly new to photography, and that's what matters. You clearly have enthusiasm and a drive to improve, which are IMO critical components of success.

You're off to a fine start. The unknown here is how you take input and apply it to your work. May I suggest choosing one thing to work on at a time? Me, I suggest composition / framing / backgrounds. While you are learning, your image exposure can be less than perfect but training your mind and your eye to see is, I think, of great importance.

You don't mention equipment so I can't offer advice on lens use, but it doesn't take a great camera to find great images. And don't be afraid to really study a subject. I've taken many, many shots of the same flower, over and over, trying different things, until I've gotten something that I think I'll be reasonably satisfied with. 

If you're doing this and having fun at the same time, then I'd say photography is definitely for you 

I've wanted to go to a horse farm and photograph them doing jumps and such, these are great photos.  

Gary has given some good critique. Number 7 is the best of the bunch but mostly because it's closer to being technically correct than the rest. The majority of the images are pretty soft and the focus ended up it in a different location than I was expecting to see. I think you have some good ideas here but the technique is falling short or there is a problem with the equipment.

Shadowfixer1 wrote: Gary has given some good critique. Number 7 is the best of the bunch but mostly because it's closer to being technically correct than the rest. The majority of the images are pretty soft and the focus ended up it in a different location than I was expecting to see. I think you have some good ideas here but the technique is falling short or there is a problem with the equipment.

+1 agree