Horse playing

[uncuffed]

Hi! This is my first post here so i hope you go easy on me

I got my first real real camera about 2 weeks ago and before that i have only had worthless compact cameras so im totaly green in DSLR shooting. The camera i bought is an Olympus E-410 with an extra 40-150mm telezoom.

Here are a few pictures i took this past weekend.

[Donald]

Alex

Welcome to this site. I hope you'll enjoy being part of this virtual community.

Congratulations on your first set of images posted. You certainly know how to get the focus correct. Also, your exposure settings have created an appropriate depth-of-field that ensures our attention remains on the horses.

Well done

[Wirefox]

A good start Alex. You have picked very difficult subjects to start with. Dark fur against white snow. You will inevitably get underexposure if you leave things to the camera. If you shoot in AV mode try adding a stop using exposure compensation . This needs some experimentation. You could also try popping the flash up (still in AV mode) and the flash will provide just enough light to fill the dark areas of the subject. Sometimes this can look too much like 'flash' photography so you can dial down the flash exposure compensation by a stop. Better still is to use an external flashgun, hand held at about 45 degrees to your subject and held at head height.

Its all a bit hit and miss but fun experimenting.

Steve

EDIT: i am getting

WARNING: Embedded color profile: “AdobeRGB”
All Windows web browsers (except Safari) and many Mac web browsers ignore an embedded color profile, meaning users of those browsers will see the wrong colors for this image.

from Regex EXIF reader so I may be seeing things differently on my Mac (with Safari)

[uncuffed]

Thank you guys and yes it was quite hard as he was jumping and running around fast as hell and at the spot where i stod there where like 50cm of snow.

I have done a little fiddling in camera raw on the pictures. Nothing serious but i know that som photographers think its the worst thing on earth to do touchup after you have taken the picture and i hope you are more forgiving on that subject. Maybe i should have mentioned it in the first post now that im thinking of it, live and learn i guess

Here is one of the pictures before i ran it through camera raw.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...n/P2072946.jpg

[ScoutR]

Welcome to the forum Alex. I hope you keep posting the horses. I love them. Assuming the filenames are the names of the horses - Is MNS an Arabian by any chance? He is beautiful, very spirited and it shows in the photos which are very sharp despite his antics.

Regarding horse head shots (#1), I usually find it is better to come at them from an angle and include a bit more than what you have in the first one - try to get up to the withers and part of the shoulder. In my mind shooting straight from the side generally looks too chopped off.

I have done a little fiddling in camera raw on the pictures. Nothing serious but i know that som photographers think its the worst thing on earth to do touchup after you have taken the picture and i hope you are more forgiving on that subject. Maybe i should have mentioned it in the first post now that im thinking of it, live and learn i guess

Apparently there is debate about this subject. I don't get it though. The idea is to get something you like. Of course you try for the best in the camera, but fiddling a bit or a lot isn't a problem as far as I'm concerned. It's the end result that counts. I think you will find with the new camera that you have a lot more room for fiddling.

Speaking of fiddling - would you mind terribly if I fiddled with these a bit. No problem if you'd rather I didn't. I will just have to get out and find someone with horses that I can photograph.

Wendy

[arith]

I like #2 and #4 the most. They look pretty good to me.

[uncuffed]

Thank you so much and there will be more pictures. The black one is my girlfriends horse and the other ones are other horses at her stable. Actually he is a warmblood and used to be a trotter (i think its the word) but now due to a problem with his back he is being re-schooled to be a normal ridinghorse. He is a very special horse i can tell you that, very active! And his name is officially Mone de bli but he is called Måns for short, its a Swedish name and i know it makes no sense to you english speaking people but anyway.

I know the angle on the headshot isnt that good but i liked the contrast in the picture and thats why i uploaded it. And of course i dont mind you fiddling with them its just fun to se other peoples work You can have the originals if you want to?

Here are a few more pictures from that day. I hope you like them!

[Dave Humphries]

Thank you so much and there will be more pictures.

Hi Alex,

Welcome to the CiC forums from me.

As you may see in post #4 above; I have placed one of the links as an inline image, which obviously makes them much easier for others to see.

Would you mind if I did that to all of them in posts #1 and #7?

Cheers,

[uncuffed]

Thank you!

No of course i dont mind, i linked them because on most forums people prefer that because the page loads quicker. I can start doing it from now on.

[Dave Humphries]

I think the average age here is a little higher than most forums and our mouse clicking fingers tire easily

Thanks, I see you saved me a job too - you can stay

As you see, we don't take ourselves too seriously here (or maybe it's just me )

However, referring back to an earlier post, most here, as Wendy says, are of the "do whatever PP it takes" to get the best possible image from the shots. If mine, I'd be all over them with a clone brush removing stray power lines, etc. too

Nice shots though, I'll be sure to show the rest of my family later; they're into these beasts too.

Cheers,

[ScoutR]

Thank you so much and there will be more pictures. The black one is my girlfriends horse and the other ones are other horses at her stable. Actually he is a warmblood and used to be a trotter (i think its the word) but now due to a problem with his back he is being re-schooled to be a normal ridinghorse. He is a very special horse i can tell you that, very active! And his name is officially Mone de bli but he is called Måns for short, its a Swedish name and i know it makes no sense to you english speaking people but anyway.

I agree he is very special. I would never have pegged him as a Trotter. His back problems do not seem to be slowing him down, and I hope they are not too serious. I think he will make a beautiful saddle horse, if his back holds up, and your girlfriend is very lucky to have him. Looks like he found a good home too.

Anyway, this is a photography forum, so I should not be going on about horses. I have to echo what someone else said about these shots, and that is the focus. Excellent job. The second batch is even better than the first. Also as someone else said, black on snow is very difficult, but the second set looks very good for exposure. Considering my own difficulties getting the proper exposure, I'm probably not really qualified to comment, but they do look very good to me.
The shots of Mans in the first batch are a little dark and the detail in the black horse is lost. This set looks much better. I'm not that good at selective editing (or exposure ), but all I would want to do, if I could would be to lighten the horses face a little more to see more detail.

Here are a few more pictures from that day. I hope you like them!

The first one is incredible. Actually I like all the shots of Mans, but that first one really stands out for the focus and intent look on his face.

Edit: Oh and Number 4 is a certain winner. Just try to get some detail in his face and clone out or remove the pole at the left, enlarge and Frame. Give it to your girlfriend for Valentines Day. )

Looking forward to seeing more of your work - horses or otherwise - Nice work and welcome to the forum

Wendy

[uncuffed]

Hahaha! No problem

Sounds nice. the more feedback the better! And thank you again for the warm welcome!


Edit Wendy: His back problem isn't serious, he just couldn't go 100% on the track so there is no point racing him anymore. He is quite dark so it was a little trail and error for a while before i got the settings right. Actually on the first day when i was at the stable i couldnt get any useful photos at all because it was so cloudy and gray outside.

[ScoutR]

And of course i dont mind you fiddling with them its just fun to se other peoples work You can have the originals if you want to?

Thanks Alex: I fiddled around a bit and basically I just made them worse. I know what I want to do, but I don't have the skills yet to do selective editing without it being VERY obvious. They don't really need anything else anyway, I just wanted to see more light around the face and eyes on a couple of them. And there's always the cloning, but I think you have that figured out without my help.

[uncuffed]

They are hard to get any more light out of without ruining the colors and so on.

I tried on one of the pictures but i dont know, maybe its to much?

[Donald]

I think the average age here is a little higher than most forums and our mouse clicking fingers tire easily

You speak for yourself, mate! 54's the new 25.

Alex - They're getting better and better. What wonderful subject matter you have available.

[uncuffed]

Thank you! I allmost cant wait untill summer comes, when all the colors start coming in.

I get the feeling that im a bit on the young side :P

[Donald]

I get the feeling that im a bit on the young side :P

Enjoy it. It will end soon enough!!

[ScoutR]

They are hard to get any more light out of without ruining the colors and so on.

I tried on one of the pictures but i dont know, maybe its to much?

Yup, that's the one I tried to work on. The changes you have made are subtle, but just enough to show the eye a little better, and I like that.

There are some here who would be able to select certain areas to lighten or darken and work on them independently. The trick is to do it without leaving evidence of what was done. I'm working on that process whenever I get the chance but it can be tricky. (for me anyway) It's something to think about though.

Then of course there is the cloning I tried taking out the white thing bottom right and made a bit of a mess of it. Imagine what I'd do with the hydro wires

If I have time I will work on them, but I really do not think I can improve on what you have done. I do like the subject matter though so I enjoy fiddling with them. I think I will make it a project to search out a horse stable in the area and see if they will let me take some shots.

Forever Young
Wendy

[uncuffed]

I tried to clone the electrical pole and the wires but i couldn't do it so i gave up. Maybe i will try later when im a bit better in PS.


You should try to find a local small horse stable. At my girlfriends stable all the other horse owners where really excited about the pictures so now they want me to more pictures and i dont think it would be any different in Canada

[ScoutR]

I tried to clone the electrical pole and the wires but i couldn't do it so i gave up. Maybe i will try later when im a bit better in PS.

I was just working on the same. Got the pole cleared out but made a mess of the wires. Takes some practice but it's possible. Regardless, with the subject commanding so much attention, I don't think the wires and pole are very distracting.

I fiddled with a couple of the others. Just cropped and framed, and played with levels to try and lighten up the eyes a bit. It's all subjective, but hope you like them.