First Horse Shoot

First time shooting horses. Spent some time on my in-laws horse farm. These were taken to be eventually placed on their site that we also designed and developed. Comments appreciated.

Kate:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/johanntang/5837​297662/

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great, the 1st one and last one are fantastic. great light.

From an artist point of view, #1 is absolutely spectacular. .. the scenery and lighting couldn't be more perfect and dramatic. .. However, from a horseman point of view, to make a better "horse portrait" (and to show conformation), you'd want the horse more squared up and balanced better . .. I hope you shot a few more of this horse in this location. (a lot more, actually.. it was perfect lighting - perfect location for this gray)

The head shot of Savannah is nice .. but (darn it) - where are those ears? The grazing shot is a no-go because your eye is drawn to the out of focus horse, not the one seen in the background. (might have been different if it were the gray horse). The eye shot is nice.. and I'm sure the owner will be pleased.. You could PS the lead rope out of the action shot of Savanah. .. The lighting couldn't be more perfect on her head and gorgeous mane. .. but I wouldn't use it as a conformation shot. .. I dunno.. maybe it's the way she's moving but it makes her look quite thin. (is she a TWH? ).

The location is spectacular. Shooting at that time of day is perfect for the location. (early morning or late day being the best time to shoot horses and/or to shoot for dramatic lighting) You did a GREAT job for your first horse shoot.

One thing I've found when I do ranch calls is that it's easy to have too many projects and too many horses. Yes, it *can* be done .. but the selection of stellar shots is often compromised. I try to limit myself to one, two or three projects. (but that's me. .. especially since I suffered heat exhaustion after the last 4 hr ranch call... not fun w/full body cramps)

I am going to largely echo what Playm said hoping I can add a few points.

Kate: Playm used the word spectacular. Good choice. Lighting and composition are gorgeous. Someone at some point is going to buy this to hang on a wall.

Blues:: Same old cliche horse half head/eye shot. It's nice but I have seen it a thousand times.

Savanah:: Too bad about cutting off ears. Good focus and good use of DOF. Think about cropping off some of the right to make it more of head portrait. The bright lead rope snap really draws my eyes. I would clone it out.

Savanah:: Nice light and great background. Again the lead rope. It is a leading line drawing my eyes out of the frame. It should be an easy clone to get rid of it. In fact, it should be easy just to clone the lead rope and halter out and make it a "running free" shot.

Group shot: I don't see much point to this at all.

A shot of the back of the farm. As has been mentioned, you have great light in this. But it lacks a central focal point.

Absolutely great first attempt at shooting horses. And you have to keep those in-laws happy Thanks for sharing these.

1 is great. However, it needs a curves/contrast adjustment to clear out some of the haze.

2 is also a great abstract.

1 is great although I think that it could of been better if you included a bit more of the reflection and like Mike said adjust the curves.

They are soo good. spectacular. amazing. well done!

Great job for your first horse shoot. When the website is finished and up and running, we would love to see it (at least I would).

I will echo the general trend and say I like the first shot the best. I doubt this was intended as a conformation shot, so that doesn't bother me at all. It is a great shot for the farm's web-site - it sets a mood. My only comment would be that you might try a slightly different crop. I think taking off some of the top edge would help by making the reflection at the bottom a larger part of the image. I would also take a little off the right side to that more open space is on the left, where the horse is looking. But I would not try to lessen the haze - that look makes the image for me!

I agree about cloning out the snap and the longe line on the Savannah shots. But in the first of those, what is that on her neck (left side of the image) - it ditracted my eye. But on both - great captures - I love shots that catch the glistening sheen of horses.

On the last shot - I agree it has no center of focus, but I suspect that you were trying to catch the rays of sun shining down through the trees. Maybe you can try to adjust it a bit to bring them out. If you can make the rays the center of focus, the shot might have more appeal. And it would still show a section of the farm that the in-laws want to include.

Thanks for sharing.

so nice

I presonally like the second one. Would love to see a full head shot and full body shot on this one.

Nice set of photos.

Number 1 really really caught my eye.....very very nice !! Needs some tweaking but love it!