Back on the ranch...

Nikolai

The very next day after the Malibu park shoot I met with Tina and Chantelle again. This time our destination was one of the nearby ranches, where I had a chance to try some equestrian photography for the first time.

1. It was windy:



2. All that mane:



3. Holding the reigns:



4. Best friends:



5. Black and white:



6. Portrait:



Enjoy! C&C welcome!

dogwood

Nik:

On # 6, 4, and 2 the face shadows are distracting. You may need more lighting power? I'm not crazy about the metal fence in some of the photos either.

Nikolai

dogwood wrote:

Nik:

On # 6, 4, and 2 the face shadows are distracting. You may need more lighting power? I'm not crazy about the metal fence in some of the photos either.

Thanks, Pete!
I am aware of all these :-) Time of day and location was far from ideal.

Scott_Quier

#5 - the Black & White is the winner. A little clone work to get rid of the metal rails and this becomes a very nice shot. The light is well controlled, shadows are right, the horse is behaving in very cute manner and the two of them are working nicely together. Nice shot!

Nikolai

Scott_Quier wrote:

#5 - the Black & White is the winner. A little clone work to get rid of the metal rails and this becomes a very nice shot. The light is well controlled, shadows are right, the horse is behaving in very cute manner and the two of them are working nicely together. Nice shot!

Thanks, Scott!

dogwood

Nikolai wrote:

Time of day and location was far from ideal.

Nik:

Your time of day is okay-- in fact I think the sun as a rim light looks great-- just looks like you need a more powerful fill to get rid of those shadows.

I'll bet a reflector would have worked nicely too. Or even a skrim blocking the sun and then a strobe as fill? I'm guessing you were using your portable hot shoe strobes though and sort of working around the horses. Another idea would be to "hack" the sync speed. This is where you basically figure out where your shutter is going to show that dark band when you shoot faster than the sync speed and hold the camera so that dark band is not over your model. It works fine when you have strong ambient light like in these images.

Sam

As always, very nice. You seem to be expanding, and trying new looks, and locations. Keep up the good work.

Sam

Nikolai

Sam wrote:

As always, very nice. You seem to be expanding, and trying new looks, and locations. Keep up the good work.

Sam

Thank you Sam! Yes, trying to break the rut. Making mistakes on the way seems unavoidable..:-)

Nikolai

dogwood wrote:

Nik:

Your time of day is okay-- in fact I think the sun as a rim light looks great-- just looks like you need a more powerful fill to get rid of those shadows.

I'll bet a reflector would have worked nicely too. Or even a skrim blocking the sun and then a strobe as fill? I'm guessing you were using your portable hot shoe strobes though and sort of working around the horses. Another idea would be to "hack" the sync speed. This is where you basically figure out where your shutter is going to show that dark band when you shoot faster than the sync speed and hold the camera so that dark band is not over your model. It works fine when you have strong ambient light like in these images.

Pete,

Yes, sun as a rim was nice, and I did use it, but unfortunately it was also in the position to create a very strong glare . I tried various methods to block it, and I mostly succeded, but it was limiting my shooting angles and slowing me down A LOT.
No, I wasn't using shoe strobes. And, yes I did use a reflector:-)





Thanks for the advice of hacking sync speed. I know that I can go as high as 1/400 (as opposed to 1/250) and still have most of the frame intact, but the idea to use it like that never crossed my mind.

dogwood

Ahhh-- always LOVE your set-up shots, Nik. Wish I remembered to shoot more of those.

Scoupe

Fun stuff. Thanks for showing the behind the scenes shots as well.

#5 is a real gem!

Nikolai

Scoupe wrote:

Fun stuff. Thanks for showing the behind the scenes shots as well.
#5 is a real gem!

Thanks, Scoupe!

Dave Clee

Hey Nik, I am not sure this is your strongest set given the conditions you had to work with. But what impresses me even more is the range of your sets..One day I am looking at beautiful women on the coast and then on to ladies, lingerie and horses..I have to say you really appear to be "putting in the work ". Great job there. No amount of reading will give you the experience you are getting from all this hard work.

For this particular set, I am not so sure I like the look of the lingerie (1st girl) colors against the horse. It doesnt work for me. The last photo works for me and is a nice capture.

I always enjoy your posts and learn a little something from each one of them.

Cheers

Dave

Nikolai

Dave,
thank you for the feedback!
I agree, it's definitely my the strongest set results-wise. It would be foolish of me to expect my very first attempt in the new - and totally unknown - environment to come out on top.
However, as you noticed and mentioned, I'm actively trying to pursue different venues, so the failures along the way are the natural stepping stones. I think one need to be ready for that while exploring. Some (most:-) ventures will end up duds, yet some few may bring unknown wonders - but you never know until you try :-
Happy Holidays :-)