A different type of portrait

jcdill

Since it's not really a "sports" photo like most of my horse photos, I figured I'd put it here instead.



Thanks tons to Sam for assisting and loaning me his Alien Bees. I could have done it all with speedlites, but it really helps to have the modeling lights from the ABs.

jcdill

Here are 4 versions:

SOOC:



Minor processing:



B&W1:



B&W2:

divamum

Lovely! Some nits to think about for next time:

- that d-ring snaffle looks dirty in the SOOC - in fact, it looks rusted. Looks like you desat-ed it in some of them, but not all; I'd try to make it as silver as possible, and even clone/heal to remove the blech from it.

- For a formal horse portrait, I'd probably trim whiskers before hand, but that's because I spent years in the show ring. Au naturel is fine if that's what was wanted. The thing here is that they're backlit, so quite prominent!

- lighting black on black is hard, and you've done a great job. My only nit is that it might have been good to flag some of the light off the camera right flank/shoulder so attention stayed on the face. Regardless, you did a good job with it!!

Sam

Great image! You must have had fantastic assistants and lights.

Oh and nice processing on the first one.

Sam

divamom, nice catch on the D ring.

divamum

I rode for years.... paid my own show entries by braiding/grooming for other people .... apparently my eye still goes to those things first!! :giggle

jcdill

Thanks divamum! Her owner (moi) doesn't mind the whiskers, and I'm not cutting them off for a photo, but I might clone them out. This was mainly a test shoot to see how well the lights worked, if I had enough power when the lights were set at a safe distance from the horse, if the horse (or nearby horses) had any problems with the flash, etc.

The bit got dirty during the shoot (it was spotless when I put the bridle on her, cleaned just before the shoot) because I fed her apple wafer treats during the initial flashes (modified clicker training).

Note to file #1: Feed sugar cube treats so you don't have to digitally clean off the apple treat foam after the shoot! D'oh!

Note to file #2: have "ears" assistant also watch for dirty/foamy mouth, supply towel for wiping the horse's mouth as necessary.

And thanks again to Sam - yes, I did have a fantastic assistant, and lights. ;-)