Care to critique (equine photography)?

[TheAQHAGirl]

Hello!

I'm recently new to the forum and I heard about through the internet...I'm always looking to expand my photography and asking for people to critique it. So I'm going to keep it brief and ask if anyone has opinions/thoughts/etc. on some of my pictures?



I can post my Facebook page if you are interested in more pictures. I could also post more (that aren't on this post and on my page). Unfortunately, I don't have the settings with me, those are on my other computer (I'm on my laptop right now).

I shoot with a Canon Rebel T3i and shoot in manual exposure.
Feel free to be brutally honest, the more constructive the better.

 

[robbins.photo]

Greetings AQHAGirl. I don't do C&C myself anymore, but I think you'll find you get more responses if you only post one or two pictures at a time. What I'd suggest is that you go through your portfolio, pick out a couple of what you consider to be your absolute best pictures, and post those. One thing I will caution you about is that you probably will get some criticism - most of the folks that do C&C are going to try to point out any flaws or weaknesses in the image, but they are doing so for your benefit so it helps to keep that in mind when your reading the critique.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[Gavjenks]

I like the B&W one best. It has strong shapes and lines, no distracting background.

Almost all of the others suffer significantly IMO from the big eye-catching white ugly fences in the background, which are almost as in-focus as the horses. Or random dudes in recliners, or dogs being walked, etc.



Thus, I think the biggest room for improvement is more consideration of backgrounds. Maybe there are better angles. Maybe you need brighter apertures to blur more of that stuff out instead. Maybe there just aren't many good clean shots to be had at this venue? Another option is closer shots like the B&W one to get cleaner frames. Another option is if there's a grand stand or something that can get you higher, then the ground can be your background more, and fences can be pushed off the top of the frame.

 

[TheAQHAGirl]

Thank you both for replying. As for Robbins, I will keep that in mind next time around!

Gavjenks, I was told the same thing about the backgrounds in another critique not too long ago. Unfortunately with horse shows you have people all around you, as well as trucks, trailers, etc. I might start trying to edit out the backgrounds more. I photoshopped the people out of one the pictures as you can see here:

 

[Rick58]

I'd maybe move in for some tighter crops. Number 3 would be my favorite, but you might want to try portrait and, again, crop closer.
I realize these are more record shots then artistic, so you want to keep the entire subject. But as a record shot you still want to see as much of the subject as possible.

 

[TheAQHAGirl]

Thank you for replying. I will fix that when I get home and I will show you the end results. In the meantime, do you have any advice for artistic shots? I try to make my pictures artsy, but I think (like you said) I get caught up taking the entire shot of the subject.

i have some more examples here (hopefully 3 will be okay).

 

[tirediron]

The key is backgrounds, which at events like this are always a challenge. The middle one in the top row would have been much better had you waited 'til the people in the background had left the scene, and the one immediately to the right of that would have been improved had you shot when the horse was just past the fence post. It's allllllllllll about the details.

 

[Braineack]

I like #3 the best of the set because you put the sun behind the subject and the BG isn't distracting.

 

[JerryVenz]

I've been doing equine photography for 25 years, starting in California and now in some real horse country--Idaho! It's very challenging especially when you combine horses with people.

Your first set of images shows why I do not photograph people with their horses at events. You have no control of ANYTHING at an event!

As a professional I MUST control: THE BACKGROUND, THE TIME OF DAY WHICH CREATES THE LIGHTING, THE CLOTHING OF MY PEOPLE TO CREATE THE THEME OF THE SESSION, etc.

Besides, I'm not interested in EVENT photography--there's always several photographers doing this stuff at every event--which is typically very low budget shoot-and-burn.

MY goal on a custom session, sometimes at the client's ranch, or at their favorite riding location ( pre-approved by me ), is to create a themed portrait that will put a print on their wall which makes me from $750.00 to $1300.00 depending on size.

Now, your SECOND SET of images are more in line with what I'm talking about.

CLOSE-UPS of their horses are good sellers--I always do these on my sessions.

The image of them nose-to-nose is good. You've got a nice shallow depth-of-field, bluring the background. However, the background is still too distracting because of the hot-spots.

Your third image, a standard horse/owner portrait, is O.K.--the background is somewhat out-of-focus ( I usually have it REALLY OUT-OF-FOCUS )and it's doing it's job of keeping the viewer's attention on your subjects.
You have them placed so that the sun is BEHIND THEM which is great--it gives her a hair light--BUT then you flashed them!! I NEVER USE FLASH ON PEOPLE OUTSIDE!! Flash just does not blend well with natural light and at the position you have it it just flattens-out the image.

Please check-out my BLOG ( see below ) for some examples of TRUE NATURAL LIGHT PORTRAITS and my philosophy on lighting.

You ARE on the right track, show us more! I love to see photographer's progress. Jerry v.

 

[Overread20]

The biggest thing that stood out to me with the series of images, especially the first is the light itself. What I feel is having the most detrimental effect is the harsh nature of the midday (looks like) sun which is blazing down very strong; that's really bringing those white posts up much stronger, pushing them to glare and overexpose whilst the shaded areas are left very dark and shadowed with no room to increase the exposure and often even more reason to reduce it some because of those bright lighter and lit areas.

It's a challenging condition to shoot in; especially as most horse shows won't allow flash lighting*. As mentioned above if you can get the light behind you that at least lets you use that bright sun to light the main body of your subject, which should also be the main focus. Bright light draws the attention of the human eye more so than darker areas; as a result if you've a bright white post in the background and then a dimmer subject then even if the subject is posed strongly in the scene you'll find people distracted by the post.


As for when you've more control over the subject in a more personal situation then take full advantage of it to position them relative to the light and to the background as well as to each other to help balance all the elements. In contrast to JerryVenz's advice I'd actually say by all means use flash - but under a condition. You see if you pop up the flash on the camera and flash them then yep its going to do exactly what he says it will and wash out the shot.
Now you can use a small amount of flash light like that just to lift the shadows a little in a shot, with strong sunlight that can make a huge difference as you can help prevent people getting very heavily overcast eye and face shadows.

Otherwise consider what they use in studios - big softboxes/umbrellas which can be used to give you the light boost you want; the control over the light and its position as well as a good soft light that won't be too harsh. This of course brings in added elements to consider when working with a horse (or indeed any animal). The advice is to bring the horse to the light setup (not the other way around)and to simply take time as well as having the horses rider/trainer present to handle them. Learn as much as you can about horses as well - learn to read them so that you can spot the danger/stress signs before they boil over so you can judge if something is causing trouble and remove the problem. Each animal is different so there's no set stock way to always approach things (photographically) that will work every time so do build up a range of skills so you can adapt.

*horse can spook and are very dangerous when they do. Whilst many are likely very used to cameras in todays world (I suspect most are flashed by point and shoots/mobile phones within seconds of being born) you'll still get those who have a negative reaction which is why many events simply ban the use.

 

[TheAQHAGirl]

Thank you Jerry, and I have to agree about controlling the environment. I always felt better about that. Sometimes when I look at my event photographs, I will say, "Man, I wish she wore this, did this pose, had a close up, etc."

If you would like, you can check out my page: https://www.facebook.com/AugustMultiCreations?ref=hl

Thanks!

 

[18.percent.gary]

I might be doing "horse portraits" this summer and was looking around the interwebs for inspiration and found this guy's work:

Hoofin? Around » Mark Beaumont | Equine Photographer | Horse photography

Obviously I'm not saying "your work should look more like this"... but it does give some inspiration and ideas!

 

[TheAQHAGirl]

Thank you, those are very lovely pictures.

Another *really* good photographer is Raphael Macek. https://www.facebook.com/raphaelmacekphotography
He's probably one of the best photographers I've ever seen. Talk about inspiring!

 

[Overread20]

Rapheal used to be around on these forums; though I've not seen him here in a fairly long while. Have you seen his flickr as well? I do agree he's an outstanding equine photographer.
Flickr: Raphael Macek - Horse Photography's Photostream

 

[TheAQHAGirl]

I will have to check out his Flickr then! I had no idea that he was on this forum, then at the same time I'm not surprised.

Also quick question, I just was thinking of this. Do you think it would be too much if I completely photoshop the background? If done correctly, the background would compliment it's surroundings, etc. Or do you think that would be over editing it? I will post an example (one that I didn't do).

A good portion of the background is edited out and replaced.