Post your Horse Shots Here

[Dave Humphries]

OK, Just a couple for tonight, nothing special, just my daughter on a horse.

Playing up

Nikon D5000 + Nikon 18-200mm VR: 1/1000s f/8 at 112mm iso400 - 0.5 EC

Under control

Nikon D5000 + Nikon 18-200mm VR: 1/1500s f/8 at 60mm iso400 - 1 EC

I think I slightly over did the Fill light on the second one

More another night,

[Peter Ryan]

A quick shot of Team Willy in training. We have a sand dressage arena for the team to train on. That is my partner Stephanie riding and as you can see by the riding apparel it is deep into winter here.

Willy was a nice dark brown when born but he is slowly turning white. At the moment he is a dirty nothing sort of colour.

[ScoutR]

OK, Just a couple for tonight, nothing special, just my daughter on a horse.

Playing up

Nikon D5000 + Nikon 18-200mm VR: 1/1000s f/8 at 112mm iso400 - 0.5 EC

Under control

Nikon D5000 + Nikon 18-200mm VR: 1/1500s f/8 at 60mm iso400 - 1 EC

I think I slightly over did the Fill light on the second one

More another night,

It was worth the wait. Beautiful horse and your daughter looks like she knows what she is doing. I don't know about your fill light in #2 - it looks fine to me. Number 2 is my favourite because I always like to see horse and rider both looking so relaxed. Most of my riding days looked like number 1. Your daughter appears to be doing a fine job of getting control back without brutalizing the horse.

Hope to see more soon. What is your horses name?

Wendy

[ScoutR]

Another fine looking team Peter. Stephanie looks like she is freezing though. I look forward to seeing Willie when he greys up.

Wendy

[sleist]

My friend's horses.

1.


2.


3.

[ScoutR]

LOL Steve, I did a double take when I got to #3. gotta Love those wide angle in your face horse shots. I see these guys are all pretty friendly and wanted to lick the lens.
I like the dramatic light and composition of #1.The right side of the horses face is a little dark, but I still like it. I think that is the same horse in number 2. I can tell by the way he/she parts his/her hair.

Thanks for posting, love 1 & 3

Wendy

[Dave Humphries]

Three more:

#30159

Nikon D5000 + Nikon 18-200mm VR: 1/1000s f/8 at 52mm iso800 - 1 EC

#30165

Nikon D5000 + Nikon 18-200mm VR: 1/500s f/8 at 170mm iso800

#30136

Nikon D5000 + Nikon 18-200mm VR: 1/1500s f/8 at 82mm iso800 - 0.5 EC

I have one, or maybe more, "portraits" for another day ...

[Antonio Correia]

Very nice Dave.
The second one is very nice. I see the animal is very well cared (is this correct ?)
Perhaps you could clone the white rope and post back there...
Did she like the images ?

I also like the last one. Well done. The background is a little confusing but - as in my owns - it is something we can't control, can we ?

[Maritimer1]

Beautiful horses, Dave. Does the chestnut have some Irish Draft in the bloodline or is she(?) more TB? The jumping shot is very crisp! Bet the riders love the shots.



Myra

[sleist]

LOL Steve, I did a double take when I got to #3. gotta Love those wide angle in your face horse shots. I see these guys are all pretty friendly and wanted to lick the lens.
I like the dramatic light and composition of #1.The right side of the horses face is a little dark, but I still like it. I think that is the same horse in number 2. I can tell by the way he/she parts his/her hair.

Thanks for posting, love 1 & 3

Wendy

Thanks Wendy! I'm not much of a fan of riding, but I could photograph them all day.
Beautiful animals.

Thanks again,

Steve

[Peter Ryan]

I look forward to seeing Willie when he greys up.

Wendy

So are we.

[Dave Humphries]

Very nice Dave.
The second one is very nice. I see the animal is very well cared (is this correct ?)

Thanks Antonio,

It is her horse, so yes; Megan looks after it and it is 'well cared for'.

Perhaps you could clone the white rope and post back there...

I did wonder about that, but without the rope and posts on the first two, it would not be obvious she was in a ring taking part in a competition, it would remove all context, so I left it there.

I also like the last one. Well done. The background is a little confusing but - as in my own - it is something we can't control, can we ?

Absolutely, as you know, you're lucky to find even one position where a single jump might have an uncluttered background, but shooting just that one jump doesn't give many pics, so one tries other, less perfect angles too

[ScoutR]

Another one of my favourite team out on the farm



Wendy

[Maritimer1]

OK, I'm cheating a bit. It's been super busy lately, so I just wanted to relax and noodle around on the old mare the other night.

My daughter aimed, clicked and took this photo. I did pose, though, (note the smile!) and did the PP; a bit of a challenge as it was getting dark quickly, the setting sun was playing havoc with skin tones and I had the ISO set too high. Good old Jade was in the process of chomping her bit to show her displeasure with having to stand around and make nice for the camera.

[ScoutR]

Nice shot Myra, you look pretty comfortable at the other end of the camera. The old mare (23 you say?) looks pretty darn good, I like the way she is showing off that nice arch in her neck.

Thanks for posting, My thoughts will be with you tomorrow and hoping that hurricane Earl bypasses the coast and heads back out to sea. We'll be waiting to hear from you.

Take Care
Wendy

[Dave Humphries]

Another one of my favourite team out on the farm

Wow, that gave me goose bumps when I first saw it on screen, well done!

Then I looked closely, what do you think of this?


In what I call my "attention to detail" part of workflow, I take out/amend anything that isn't contributing - I know, it is 'messing with nature' and 'cheating', but it usually makes for a better image in a way that no-one (other than you) is going to notice and has no major significance to the validity of the image.

So, I did a little pruning and put a whisp of hay back in place;
Play spot the difference with the original (best in Lytebox);

is that so bad?

Actually, I might answer that myself, yes I have gone too far

I think it might be a mistake to remove the branch from behind the horse as now the tree 'floats' in perspective, whereas previously it was 'anchored' behind the horse. Let that be a lesson to me/us all.

I'm always learning

I should have stopped after removing that nobbly branch bit above the left hand horse, that's what really grabbed my attention.

In case you missed the compliment at the beginning Wendy, I think this is another stonking image from the set; the horses are particularly well 'posed' and you have done some fantastic work on the tonal range.

Cheers,

[Maritimer1]

Love Scout's photo and the editing, Dave. The tree trim frames the horse on the right nicely. Want to take the editing a step farther and fix the frayed noseband on the left horse's halter and clone out the dark spot on his/her nose? (It might be a fly.) To me, the other horse's halter looks OK frayed as the whole thing is older looking, but she/he has a couple of nose spots that may or may not belong. My, it's nice to make work for other people

Looks like Scout has already cloned away the manure and any flies that may have been buzzing around the horses. Scout, are you on a first name basis with these horses, yet?

Myra

[Donald]

So, I did a little pruning and put a whisp of hay back in place

Dave

Could you come up to Glenfarg? I've a few bushes and trees in the garden that need pruning!

I tend to miss a lot of these ones that come up in the long threads (horses, portraits, flowers, etc , etc) and every now and again have to have a trawl through to see what I have missed. This one of Wendy's is indeed "stonking" to use the correct technical term! The tones on the horse are outstanding.

Did you go too far with the clone tool? I don't know. What you have done certainly does not detract from the image. I think I would have left the branch going behind the RH horse, but ..........! You were quite right to do what first got your attention - the nobbly bit (doesn't photography introduce you to such a rich new vocabulary?). And I like the little wisp of hay.

But, of course, the plaudits have to go to the lady behind the lens. It is a beauty.

[Dave Humphries]

Could you come up to Glenfarg? I've a few bushes and trees in the garden that need pruning!

Just send me a picture

[ScoutR]

Wow, that gave me goose bumps when I first saw it on screen, well done!

Then I looked closely, what do you think of this?


In what I call my "attention to detail" part of workflow, I take out/amend anything that isn't contributing - I know, it is 'messing with nature' and 'cheating', but it usually makes for a better image in a way that no-one (other than you) is going to notice and has no major significance to the validity of the image.

So, I did a little pruning and put a whisp of hay back in place;
Play spot the difference with the original (best in Lytebox);

is that so bad?

Actually, I might answer that myself, yes I have gone too far

I think it might be a mistake to remove the branch from behind the horse as now the tree 'floats' in perspective, whereas previously it was 'anchored' behind the horse. Let that be a lesson to me/us all.

I'm always learning

Dave, I don't think you have gone to far at all. I like it better with the branch removed. I did not notice the wisp of hay and the knobby branch, but now that I have noticed I would not be able to have them there.

The original colour image with just some RAW adjustments is below. As you can see I had a bit of work to do myself, as the team of bays that were still at the hay did not add anything to the shot. I tried to clone them out totally, but I could not get a clean selection in order to clone the rest of them out, so rather than mess things up, I left them and just cloned out the legs from under the belly of the horse on the left.

From Myra: Want to take the editing a step farther and fix the frayed noseband on the left horse's halter and clone out the dark spot on his/her nose? (It might be a fly.) To me, the other horse's halter looks OK frayed as the whole thing is older looking, but she/he has a couple of nose spots that may or may not belong. My, it's nice to make work for other people

No problem Myra, I appreciate the feedback and agree 100%. You are right I already got rid of some flies. The guy on the right is a fly magnet for some reason. Every time I have been there his face is full of flies. He seem oblivious to them.

I'm with you on the halters too and was considering working on them, but as you can see from the original, I had already done quite a bit of work and I don't like to push my luck. I'm all for reality, and the reality is that most of the horses out in the fields have frayed halters. However in the horse on the left, reality detracts from the pose. If they were both grazing then I would not mind the frayed halters at all - if that makes sense. I think I can do something about the other spots you mentioned also.

From Dave: In case you missed the compliment at the beginning Wendy, I think this is another stonking image from the set; the horses are particularly well 'posed' and you have done some fantastic work on the tonal range.
Cheers,

Thanks Dave (and everyone) for your compliments and help. I will do a bit more editing on this to your suggestions. As long as I can do it without messing up, all suggestions will be improvements on reality. This isn't a news documentary after all.
If anyone has any hints on how to clone out the rest of the brown horses that are at the hay - let me know, I'd like to give it a try, but it looks pretty tricky to me

Thanks again
Wendy

Ooops here is the original