Lone horse

[oldgreygary]

I saw this horse feeding in the distance and I liked the image of it surrounded by the open countryside. I invite your comments.

Cheers for now

Gary

[Donald]

Interestingly, I've got a shot planned that will feature two horses in the middle ground. Mine has got a road winding off into the distance. But ever since the first day that I saw it, the horses wouldn't co-operate by standing in the right place and/or the sky is not right. But we'll keep looking for it! Your image made me think of that.

The problem with this sort of image is - Do we want a shot of a horse in the countryside, or do we want a shot of the countryside that has a horse in it?

And I wonder if this image has got caught a bit between the two?

Also - the horse is right in the centre of the frame. I don't think that helps in terms of presenting a complete image. Instead, and in my head, it splits the image up into 4 quarters with the horse being at the corner of the respective quarters.

I love the idea of this image. The inclusion of the foreground detail is good. But I wonder if it needed a bit more time is seeking our the right angle for the shot. For example, could you have moved a few yards to the right, so that the foreground foliage came over to the left-hand side and that far edge of the field became more of a line leading us front to back rather than cutting across the image? That would also have moved the horse of the centre of the image.

[oldgreygary]

Very interesting thoughts Donald. It certainly is a weakness that I currently have. I tend to take a shot as soon as I see it without exploring different options. At the moment I get pleased to produce a half decent image but I will have to give myself more time to try different angles/views. Luckily, this is a regular grazing area for horses so I should be able to go back and explore other angles for the shot. Thanks!

Cheers for now

Gary

[Donald]

.... but I will have to give myself more time to try different angles/views.

And, I suggest Gary, that once you discipline yourself to do that, the quality of your image-making will increase significantly.

A while back on here there was a thread running that invited people to take two images - The first being the first reaction; the first thing that you saw (much as you have said you do). The second then had to be a more considered shot, taken after looking around ,ore closely at the location adn the possible shooting angles.

The differences were enormous and the reactions of the photographers who saw what they could do by just stopping for a while and looking before making the shot, told its own story.

I think it's about consciously assembling the shot in your head ever before you lift up the camera. And the more you do it the faster you get at being able to do it. It's like any form of practice. The more you do it, the better you get at doing it.

[Geoff F]

My first thoughts were much the same as Donald's, Gary.

So, as an exercise, what can we do to improve the composition of what we have here.

I think a lot of the problem is that large area of tangled and uninteresting foliage in the bottom right corner. So I would start by cropping the bottom. Somewhere close to the base of the first left side tree; and a similar amount from the right edge.

Then try a bit of LCE or maybe even try a duplicate layer with the Blend Mode set to Soft Light (and a suitable opacity) to give a little bit of extra saturation. But only a little, don't overdo it.

Still not a great photo but I think something like this would turn it into a keeper.

In some ways this is 'composition after the event' but I always found it useful to make me think about composition at the time of shooting, next time.