Digital Camera World » animal portraiture

Professional Photographer to the Rescue: horse photography without the long face

jmeyer — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 23:01:11 +0000

In our latest Professional Photographer to the Rescue post our professional photographer, an experienced equine photographer, shares his best horse photography tips for taking equine pictures in a range of different styles.

Meet our professional photographer

Equine specialist Craig Payne has been photographing horses since the age of 12. He turned professional in 2007 and has an extensive knowledge of the subject, capturing both action shots of horses at events and specialising in portraits of horses and riders together. To see Craig’s full portfolio head to www.equinephotoshoots.co.uk.

Meet our apprentice

Ecologist and horse-lover Rebecca Hendry is from Yeovil, Somerset. She’s had an interest in photography for the past 12 years, although it’s only in the past few that she’s taken it to the next level. Armed with her Canon EOS 7D, Rebecca was keen to improve her photography skills to understand how to best photograph horses and riders together.

Technique assessment

Craig showed Rebecca how to rein in her shooting skills and get back in the saddle

What mode?
“Rebecca had been using Aperture Priority (Av) mode, but the most important thing about horse photography is the shutter speed as there’s lots of constant movement in the horse – even when it’s standing still,” explains Craig.

“For action shots you need a shutter speed above 1/640 sec and for portraits keep it above 1/250 sec, ideally, although this can be pushed if there’s less light. If the light is flat I take a few readings and put my camera into the Manual (M) mode. If the light keeps changing I’ll shoot in Shutter Priority (Tv) mode, although you need to keep an eye on the aperture setting and ISO value if you do this.”

Raw or JPEG?
“Although you can recover a lot more detail in a raw format file, you don’t have to shoot in Raw if you get the exposure right in-camera,” Craig advises. “A large JPEG means you can spend less time editing your images as your camera processes the image and applies a few basic edits, such as increasing the colour saturation and sharpening.

“I shoot at a lot of events where it’s important to get images to clients quickly, so I always shoot JPEGs, but if you’re not confident in getting it right in-camera then by all means shoot raw – or you could use  the Raw+JPEG option as a back-up until you’re more confident.”

PAGE 1: Meet our professional photographer and apprentice
PAGE 2: Horse photography tips for during the shoot
PAGE 3: Final tips from our professional photographer
PAGE 4: Shot of the Day

Wildlife photography in any environment: free photography cheat sheet

jmeyer — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Wildlife photography requires patience, persistence and skill. Photographing wildlife is inherently difficult, arguably far more so than a posed portrait or landscape image, and there will be times when you come back from a shoot with nothing to show for your efforts, despite following the best photography tips around.

But wildlife photography isn’t impossible, and the rewards for your patience when working with such unwilling subjects are powerful images that give an insight into rarely seen moments of their natural life.

Knowing your subject and its behaviour is key – but so is knowing its environment.

Whether you’re shooting on safari in Africa or your nearby park, knowing how the local wildlife act within their environment is key to anticipating their movements and coming away with great pictures.

In our latest photography cheat sheet we’ve put together handy flowcharts to take you through shooting four of the most common environments in which you’ll shoot wildlife photography: wildlife parks, wild mammals up close in their habitat, wild birds in sunlight and shade, and garden wildlife.

To see the expanded version of our photography cheat sheet, simply click on the infographic below. Or you can drag and drop it to your desktop.

Photo of the day: 26 July

samanthacliffe — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 06:00:09 +0000

She Loves You, You Love Her by Tomek Jungowski

This portrait is full of fun and character. Viewers are left to speculate why this man is carrying a goat on his shoulders; we don’t know, but they both look very happy about it.

You might also like:

Portrait photography tips: 10 quick ideas for better images
9 travel photography tips you shouldn’t leave home without
Photographer’s rights: The ultimate guide

Photo of the day: 10 July

samanthacliffe — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 06:00:36 +0000

Sense and Sensibility by Tomek Jungowski

This animal portrait is full of personality. It is aided by the angle of the shot, which gives the highland cow an almost arrogant look!

You might also be interested in:

How to get your photos published in magazines
Digital Cameras: what the manual doesn’t teach you
Download free photography cheat sheets