Hey....Quit Horsin" Around

Our last Workshop found us Smack-Dab in America's Heartland.........

On a Farm.......a real one, no less.

In Pike's County, Illinois. The Deer Capitol of the nation. And man, they (the deer) were everywhere. We saw herds of up to 50 at a time. And newborn fawns emerging from their hiding places in the chest-high, fields of clover.

So, naturally, today's lesson is how to take a horse portrait. And, included in the horse's family are the folks who feed and transport them.

Our country hosts, for the week-end, were the ever-gracious Durrell and Syndy Miller......and, the portrait subjects were their friends from a neighboring farm, who actually are real live Horse People. So, getting a family portrait of them, meant the equine members HAD to be included, too.


We had scheduled the session to begin late in the day, so there would be some nice back-lighting from the sun being low in the sky. And everywhere I looked, there was good potential for a nice, lush backdrop, featuring the glowing, green leaves. So, shooting to the west was the answer. And, the only potential glitch might be the direct sunlight hitting the lens...but, the thick forest branches provided a partial lens shade. And, the 7-inch Lee lens-hood gave the front element it's primary protection.


The exact location was chosen, and after a few attempts to accurately park the horses in place...(it's not easy to get them to move sideways, I discovered).....we had everyone on their marks...and, at the same distance from the camera. So, focus depth wouldn't be an issue. And, since they were ALL lit by only one flash...this would insure equal exposure for all.


Since the backlighting through the branches was slightly uneven...a second flash was added from the right rear of the set-up. This was triggered by an on-camera slave, and held up high, on a monopod, proudly over his head, by none other than my buddy, and studio manager, Mike. (And, just to put an end to those nasty rumors flying around...Mike and I are both happily married. Maybe I'll post a photo of his lovely wife, Kay, on the next lesson.)


Meanwhile, back at the ranch.....hey, I really can say that, here. We did some metering of the off-camera flash units, and got them both to be firing at a reading of f/8 for the iso of 200 we had chosen. This, combined with the focal length of 100mm would give us enough depth-of-field to cover the critical subjects...and let the background fall nicely out of focus.

You can see by some of the candid shots here, taken by Syndy, that the subjects were in some pretty deep shade...compared to the brightly lit background. The flash was an absolute necessity to achieve the proper balance of light.

The final image, shown at the very top was exposed at f/8 at 1/30th of a second. This somewhat slow shutter speed allowed the background, ambient light to record properly....while the two flash units provided all the necessary light for the professionally-lit look on the subjects. The dark vignetting of the edges was done in Photoshop.


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Editor's Note: Shown above, Mike, taking a break after another exhausting portrait session. Nice job.