There are a thousand photos of your horse on your phone. Grazing, being groomed, half hidden by the fence, ears back, eyes closed. And then there is that one picture you would love to have: ears pricked, alert eyes, shiny coat, beautiful light. The picture that shows how you see your horse.
That picture is doable. It just takes a bit of planning, a helper and about twenty minutes. Here is how.
1. The time of day matters more than the camera
Midday light turns every horse into a silhouette with shadows under the belly and shiny patches on the back. The first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset are the time for horse photos: soft light, warm colours, long shadows that sculpt the muscles. If that is not possible, an overcast sky is the second-best option. Direct midday sun is not.
2. Groom as if for a show
The camera sees everything: dust on the coat, straw in the mane, sleep in the corner of the eye, unpicked hooves. Twenty minutes of grooming is the difference between a snapshot and a photo. Lay the mane over to one side, wipe the eyes and nostrils, oil the hooves if you are serious about it. And: a clean halter or none at all. The green pasture halter ruins every picture.
3. A helper is a must
On your own you will not get a horse portrait. You need someone standing behind you who takes care of the ears. What works: rustling a plastic bag, showing a treat in the hand, a short whistle, leading another horse past the edge of the frame. What does not work: calling the name, because after the third time your horse ignores you. Every stimulus works two or three times, after that you need a new one.
4. Ears forward, eyes on you
The secret: the stimulus has to come just beside the camera, not far away. Otherwise the horse looks past the picture. Your helper stands right behind your shoulder. And your finger is already on the shutter before the stimulus comes, because the ear movement lasts one second.
5. Never from low in front
A horse photographed from the front and slightly below ends up with a huge head and tiny hindquarters. The classic beginner's mistake. For the portrait: slightly from the side and front, at chest to shoulder height, with some distance and zoom instead of up close with a wide angle. The wide angle on your phone distorts, the telephoto lens or the 2x camera flatters.
6. The position of the legs
For a full-body photo: the two legs closer to the camera stand slightly apart, so that you can see all four. Sounds fussy, but a horse with three visible legs always looks odd in a photo. For a head portrait it does not matter.
7. The background is half the picture
The paddock with the blue barrel, the trailer, the fence that seems to grow out of the withers: you only notice all of that in the photo. Find a spot with a calm background: a hedge, the edge of a wood, a meadow that stretches far back. The more distance between horse and background, the softer the background becomes. For our portrait the background does not matter, we redesign it. For the photo itself it does.
8. Burst mode and patience
Hold your finger down, ten pictures per second, sort them out later. Horses blink, chew, snort, and the one moment with pricked ears and a calm mouth is somewhere in between. Expect a hundred photos for three good ones.
9. The photo that can become a portrait
What we need is simpler than many think: head sharp, eyes open with light in them, ears forward, light from the side or slightly from the front. We can remove a halter, a fence in the background is not a problem, and neither is a mark on the blaze. What we cannot rescue: blur, backlight without detail, shots from above with a huge head. If in doubt: send us two or three photos, we will tell you honestly which one is suitable, and you get a free preview before printing.
A horse's head can take size. If the photo works, the framed canvas is the option that does the animal justice. Horse portraits are also available as posters, in a wooden frame and on acrylic glass.
A word on photos with the rider
If you want to be in the picture: stand next to the horse, not in front of it, put your hand on the neck, not on the halter, and let the helper take care of your eyes too, because you both blink. The most beautiful pictures often happen after the actual shoot, when everyone is relaxed and your horse rests its head on your shoulder. It is worth keeping the camera running for another five minutes for that.
Read more
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