Creating Better Photos For Your Horse Listings
By applying a certain set of relatively simple techniques while photographing your horses, you can create some photos which will rival those of a professional. When selling your horse, a photo is important to communicate to the prospective buyer various conformation points, color, markings, and general build. Additionally, the photo helps to get the buyer excited about your horse. In short, a good photo can make the difference between the buyer picking up the phone and calling you or choosing to pass on your listing and move to the next one.
Take a few minutes and review the key points below and then you can be on your way to creating better photos of your horses.
- Find a neutral uncomplicated background
- Get a helper to position the horse and focus the horse's attention
- Photograph the horse from the side
- Stand about forty feet away while taking the photo
- Bend your knees just a little: the camera should be about four feet off the ground
- Keep the Sun nearly behind you but off to the side a little
- Shoot your photos in the morning or late afternoon
- Better yet; choose a day when it is slightly overcast and shoot anytime
Positioning the Horse
The first thing you need to do is find a place to position the horse. Choose an area where the background is neutral and uncomplicated if possible. Generally try and avoid having things such as telephone poles, powerlines, structures, vehicles, equipment or other horses in the background. All of these will detract from the horse and the photo's impact as a whole. The best backgrounds are simple. Examples are meadows, pastures, and the sky. Sometimes a simple barn wall will suffice instead.
Once you've found a spot, you'll likely need a helper to get the horse into position, keep him there and keep his attention focused. A halter and lead rope helps with this, but if your horse is cooperative enough, photos without a halter or lead rope are even better. The best photos show the horse sideways, with the horse's ears forward and the horse's head either turned and focused on you or focused on your helper.
Positioning Yourself
Whatever spot you choose to position your horse, it's important that it also allows you to position yourself effectively. If you don't have forty feet of flat ground to place between you and the horse, then you need to find another spot for the horse. It's very important that you stand about forty feet from the horse. The reason has to do with distortion that occurs if you stand closer. By making the mistake of positioning yourself close to the horse, the horse's features become out of proportion with each other: the closer features of the horse appear large and the features of the horse a little further away appear small.
So the answer is to position yourself about forty feet from the horse on level ground. You do not want to be up on a slope or in any way elevated in relation to the horse. In fact, you want the camera to be just a little below the withers of the horse - about four feet off the ground. Chances are, you'll need to bend your knees just a little when snapping the photo.
Note Where the Sun is
If you can, avoid taking your photos at noontime. The quality of noontime light is poor, resulting in blueish tones which are poor for prodcuing photos which reflect the color of the horse. Early morning or late afternoon are much better times for taking photos in general. The light is warmer and your photos will have better colors. Additionally, the light will better illuminate the side of the horse, rather than coming from above and producing harsh shadows where you don't want them.
Having chosen either the morning or late afternoon for your shots, place the sun somewhat behind you, but not directly behind you. Three quarters behind you is better. This way, your shadow does not appear in the photo, and the horse will receive just the slightest bit of sidelighting as well. Whatever the case, make sure that no object's shadow falls on the horse. The horse should recieve full sunlight across his entire body.
As an alternative to sunlight shooting, you might instead choose a slightly overcast day, which is an excellent time to photograph horses. Overcast light is even toned, brings out the color of objects, eliminates harsh shadows, and doesn't restrict your shooting to the morning or late afternoon. If it's overcast, consider yourself lucky and go out and take some pictures.