Basic tips for model horse photography

I had an urge to give a short(?) photography lesson for those model horse freaks who are young or otherwise not so aware of how they should photograph their models. So - these are REALLY basic tips! I try not to give you a lecture. The first six steps are the basic-basic tips, which I see being a thing every photographer should handle before trying anything crazier. (Yes I know, it's boring.) Only after that I list some extras.

I must say thank you for my American friend who I lured to agreed to through-read this article and point out all my mistakes before publishing! That's super valuable since this article is meant to be easy to understand, and English is not my native language.

Behind the scenes...

1. Go to the model's level. 
This is the most important thing ever to say, since I see so many photos that give the impression that they've been taken from a helicopter. You try to make the models look realistic and in scale, so go to the level where you could imagine yourself photographing horses if you were in scale with the plastic ones. This way you also get the proportions and measurements right, and so people get a realistic view to the shape of your horse.

Dynamic views! But nothing else... This is an useless photo, taken from too high, like with a drone. Who does that?!

Much better - the photographer seems to stand in front of the guy and his horse, and the horse's ears yet prove that.

2. Focus first, compose only then. 
Focus and composition practically go hand-in-hand together. You want a viewer to see a certain spot from the photo, and that will not (automatically/most of the time) be in the center. So, take your time and focus on the certain piece (like your horse's eye or head), press the button halfway down, compose, and press the button fully down only after that. So, focus, compose, take. NOT to compose and take! Very often people forget to press the button halfway down (to lock the focus) before composing, and that results in a blurry photo since the camera has no time to focus anywhere. Then they yet blame their camera from that.

Focus not in the face, and yet the flash is too strong... I guess the foal just stood too close to the camera.

There is one very common mistake which beginners do - taking photos with the subject being too close to the lens. When the subject is too close, the camera can't focus to it, so the photo ends up being blurry and boring. The solution? Just find out the closest distance your camera can focus from. This is super easy - if the focus just doesn't stick, then the subject may be too close. Don't try to force it, because that just doesn't work. Though, to help with this problem, I can recommend using a magnifying glass that you hold close to the lens. I have tested it. 

3. Composition 
Simply said, leave more space in the front and less in the behind (of the horse). At the same time less space should be left under and more in the above. This is called as 'sight space'; you have to leave the horse some space to walk off from the photo, or space to look towards. This is why you should first focus and only then do the composition. Otherwise you may get the horse blurred since the focus hits the background or barrel. Composition can also be made afterwards by using photoediting programs at computer, but it's always best to do it as well as possible already while taking the photo itself (and you can't rebuild a good composition from a photo that was already hopeless - yet less you can get a blurred photo back to focus by that!). 

Here, a bad composition; the "foot distance" is longer than the "nose distance". Let alone that the focus is in the horse's barrel and butt and not in his face, since I did compose first. (Taken at 2009 or 2010, when I first started model horse photography.)

Correct (if a bit exaggerated) composition; the "nose distance" is longer than "foot distance". This is how I try to photograph my horses most of the time, the face having most space in front of it. In this, while not very clear, also (front) "hoof distance" is shorter than "ear distance", another thing I try to do this way.

4. Pay attention to the light and colors. 
You can play with the light, feel free to do that, but if you want to document stuff, you need an okay light. To adjust the colors you have to check the white balance and color saturation. I spy a lot the ISO settings and contrast - the bigger the ISO, the more grainy the photo is. High ISO also makes flash photos appear brighter than with lower numbers. Try to make the whites look white and blacks look black (without adding too much contrast; be careful and avoid "burning the whites"). Light, brightness and contrast can be edited in a digital photoediting programs later (though you can't make too dark photo look viewable). I also recommend using natural light instead of a lamp since the latter makes your photos yellowish, though white-lighted lamps do exist.

Lamplight. The background paper is white. This pic doesn't show what that horse really is colored like, you can only guess.

Natural light (through a window). The background cloth is creamy, and the horse's colors are close enough to what they really are.

5. Background
About backgrounds, it matters a lot, too. Actually, background is one of the big parts that make a photo either fail or fame. (Okay, I exaggerated.) If you take 'basic/document photos', keep the background simple - it doesn't have to look nice, but just simple. Useless extra trash behind and around your horse makes the photo appear messy and uninteresting. Also, if you use a fabric as a background cloth, choose one with no distinctive patterns like stripes, squares, etc. Keep it plain and avoid rough textures - this is especially important with smaller scales! Heavy textures hide your horse's shapes, so it's harder to see what it's anatomy looks like - I guess photo show judges will pay attention to that. Another thing to keep in mind is, that if you use a fabric (or a towel), make sure there are no any folds or wrinkles in it. Otherwise they will distract the eye from the horse - and all we want is a balanced photo with a very plain background! (Another reason to store fabrics rather in a roll and not in a folded pile!)

This is an authentic "behind the scenes" photo of my shelf (next to the studio box), but otherwise it's just useless because of the messy background. Don't do this.

Much better - clean and simple. Works for basic indoors photography, like when you want to do a list of your models and need pics. (The dino's shape makes it hard to compose well, but that extra space can be cropped off with a photoediting program.)

When photographing outdoors, try to find a place where the background looks in scale with your model.

No matter did you photograph in a simple studio or in outdoors, place the horse far away enough from the background, so the surroundings go blurry and so don't stick in the eye that easily.

6. Do not keep the failed (blurry, shaken, badly focused) pictures - throw them away! 
You're not going to need those in the age of digital photography. You have a digital camera/phone, you can retake one and same photo hundred times after you first took it if you feel to. Model horses don't run away from you. Take your time, do your hard work and go back home only with those good photos, not with failed ones. Remove the fails already in camera, right after taking them and seeing why they are bad. Every photographer (even the professionals) does fail all the time, so failing doesn't mean that you're bad. You are not.

This is from a stack of 11 shaken photos... I didn't get the sharp image I wanted, because I lack good roomlight and I can't keep my hands still. Excuses? Excuses! You know I usually photograph with a bigger camera and the flash, and I also own a tripod. No need for these fails.

EXTRAS:

7. Zoom. 
This should be possible with at least real cameras, maybe not with all phones. By zooming you can compose the photo a bit further, like getting rid of stuff that you need to hold things in place and so on. You can do this (and composing) in computer as well, though, but it's always better to get right while it's fresh. Another, really good reason to zoom is to avoid distorted measurements, which do fool your eye and make it hard to see what the horse really is shaped like. This also crops disturbing things off, if the background has some.

Not zoomed. Here the camera is close to the horse, but it looks a bit like a giraffe caricature. The background has some dolls who probably distract the viewer's eye.

Zoomed. The horse is the main thing, looks like a horse, and there are no dolls messing around. Also, his attention is in us.

8. Use flash.
Flashlight is better than it's reputation - people who hate it probably do not know how to use it properly. My keys for this are softening tools, reflecting tools and zooming. Professional photographers have softboxes and other tools to place in front of the flash, or they have flash that is entirely separated from the camera. I myself don't have money for getting those things, so I make my own softening tools out of paper and attach them with a piece of double-sided tape. The most important thing is that the paper doesn't touch the flash's light end, it's attached to the logo under it. I make these softeners removable.

Just some softening tools made from paper. (There in the background is someone riding incorrectly... In case you noticed.)

Too strong light, not softened.

The same light with a softening tool being used. (This is a bit too dark photo, but it can be fixed with a photoediting program.)

Another tool are mirrors. I use 1-3 mirrors at once, and usually place them to the sides of the studio box. Mirrors are useful since the flash reflects from them, and that causes the light to spread widely, which results to less heavy shading.

My studio box is too small, but the mirrors will be placed similarly when I get a bigger one.

By zooming I grow the distance between my camera and the horse, which makes the light less strong. The photo may appear darker, and so it doesn't "burn" from too much light.

9. For documenting your model, take at least these: both sides, both front and hind diagonals. Then, take headshots and other details. 
These are the total basic photos I take of a new horse in my collection, or if I need to update the document photos of a certain horse. I could recommend taking these 'basic pics' on a table or a shelf with a large enough fabric cloth as a background. The horse's hooves should be clearly visible, and the background must be intentionally simple. This isn't really creative, but people need to learn even this thing. This is just a way to tell others what your horse looks like, since they can't come to see it personally in real life. Good photos tell the truth, bad photos tell nothing.

The basic photos I take from every new horse in my collection.

10. Try new things.
Try everything you see and get in your head, there's no limit... Mostly. Get creative - what materials you can use for and what ideas?

11. Do not stick in anything. 
It's okay to form routines, but it's not okay to stick into them or anything else so well that you get bored to them and lose your interest. I've experienced this myself, and it really eats me. I'm delicious.

As a part of this step, I also point out that you should remember not to become a slave of a certain other photographer's tips, in case they think they know better and you think you need to learn from them. That can be true - but you need to know that you can play with your camera and ignore some certain common tips in case you feel right to. When I mentioned how there must be less space behind and under than in front and above, that doesn't mean you can't ignore this tip. Some cases definitely require that, so, go for it! Remember, these tips I gave are just basics.

Playing with a table lamp. And yes, the horse was on my work table, which I wouldn't call a great background.

12. Get creative. 
Everyone puts this as a last and most important tip, but, the fact is, they are right by doing so. You can't enjoy photography if you don't get creative and drown into ideas. Do you wish to build a modelverse (a fictional world that you build/imagine by using scale models, like 1:9 scale model horses and props) for your model horses? Do so! Start from the little things, they will eventually go towards bigger stuff like complete dioramas. Tack, dolls and props help you stay creative and have ideas, since (I personally think) only the plastic horses themselves can be "done" very quickly. Those things also keep the photography interesting for you.

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End words:

What made me to write this post, were all those model horse photos in deviantART. There's that stuff A LOT. I like it. But I also get extremely picky with what I click to, and the reason to that is that as more stuff you see, as easier it is to start choosing the better and ignore the ones with less quality. I understand that many of those 'less quality' photos have been made by kids or inexperienced photographers. I remember my times being one of that type - and now I want to help that kind of people to improve, become better photographers, so their stuff gets more views and they will continue to do their photography.

2010?

I really hope that these tips are helpful. I also hope they're not too much to learn; I have a rough writing style, I don't say 'sorry' or 'please' or 'I suggest to' but 'you must'. Listen: I'm trying to help. I've once been that same kid/beginner who had no idea how to take useful, viewable photos. I know what it feels like. I could like to know if you've found this helpful and if you have something to say about it, be it negative or positive. I'm not a professional in any way, I'm just a serious hobbyist and a perfectionist. Also, tell me if these aren't anymore the basic tips in your opinion - that is why I added that extra part!

2017. Edited a bit to add contrast (the original photo was a bit dull).

I didn't include much words about using digital photoediting programs. They don't matter when you just learn the basics of photography and have yet to improve at that alone. Good photos should be nice already in the camera, editing is just a way to make them yet a bit better. 

I didn't talk much (or at all) about outdoor photography with model horses, because I don't do that myself. So I don't have any experience to talk by, and it would be just stupid to give tips at something I don't know how to solve myself. I'm not yet okay with the idea of getting my horses to walks with me, and I am afraid I can't find good places where the horses don't look, well, models. Finnish nature is full of waist-tall grass and endless amount of trees. And I'm afraid of accidents that could damage the horses, like if they tip over and crash at rocks, roll down a cliff, and so on.

No one will learn photography only by reading and nodding to tips they see. Go grab your camera, couple of horses and do the photography. Read about photography, talk about it, compare your pics to other's work and be self-critical. There's no other way. 




Now go and capture those plastic horses. Really. Go and photograph them!