Table portraits 6.

More table portraits. This batch is still from April 2021, but this time the main horse is my small bay MOW, who came to me from a friend in USA.

The horse happens to be quite photogenic, but I didn't get good results on my table... Even when I experimented with using two cardboard pieces which had aluminium foil taped on them. It reflected a lot of light nicely, but nothing can deny the fact that the color balance was generally off. That paper in the background is white, not pink!

I had placed the foil cardboards right under the horse so that it reflected the light into his jaw.

And here is what it looks like when I photograph him on top of the shelf, far from light sources (only source of light being the roof lamp) and with white papers: 

The foil cardboards are useless on that shelftop setup, so there's that...

Table portraits 5.

The table portrait series continues. I remember this batch quite well. I got the idea for tackless art photos after photographing the millionth halter in a row, and trying to take some shots of that with no flash on. It was possible, but also difficult. After photographing enough of the halters I seriously got to the horses-only shots. The first victim was this Thunder model.

He turned out to be super photogenic, and no less because of the pearly paintjob which Breyer seems to like to use a lot nowadays. I don't mind. But what I do mind is how yellow everything looks under a table lamp, even with flash. So - of course - I got back to monochromatic photography.

Thanks to that I was able to focus entirely(?) on the light sources, too, once again, as you can see from the photos above. It just seems to be the thing which I can't get enough of.

It's tricky to try to take photos of this man without his limbs coming on the way! At the same time that is exactly why he is so dynamic and fun to photograph.

So these photos of Thunder basically officially started my current horse portrait tradition. Not that I hadn't taken portraits and headshots before, but this just seemed to become something different than the earlier things. Maybe because this batch was when I got crazy with the homemade light spreading tools and wasn't entirely dependent of the flash. Thunder didn't see the spreading tools yet, though.

Table portraits 4.

So this bunch is from the same photo session as the previous one; from April 2020. This time the horse is my GG Valentine, alias Namu, and the bridle on her is just an average snaffle.

In these, the sad atmosphere has changed to something better, I think. And in some of these photos the background - my worktable - looks a bit like some kind of city scene near a lake or pond at night? I don't see why anyone could ride horses in such an environment, but at least it could look like a world... Unlike my table could in color.

I think this was the time when I finally discovered the focus spots and how to use them... I have had this camera since 2013 and it seemingly took me seven years to realize such a basic trick which helps you with the composition. Pfff. Have been crazy with it since.

The bridle seen in here is one of my earliest with tongue buckles. It may be the one I made specifically to fit this mold and to be the model's personal bridle. At that time I had already learned to make split crownpieces, but I didn't like the idea of placing the noseband hanger under it, so I constructed my bridles of that era a bit weirdly: the loose hanger was on top of everything and held the bit. I could ask, why not? But I can say, after starting to cut slots in the splits and putting the narrow strap through it and to attach it to the noseband instead of bit, my bridles have been a bit better to use. They stay symmetric a lot better.

Yippee, a crooked noseband. They exist in real horse world so I'm not too disgusted.

I really don't know what to say about these... All are just headshots which I tried to be artistic with...

Heavier editing on this one.

The remaining photos were taken as sepia.

I sometimes try if I can give an illusion of a different head and neck position by twisting the angles... Not sure how successfully.

So that was that batch... Choosing what to include and what to reject from blogging was a lot of work. It always is. The next photo batch will be from April 2021, and may contain less tack and more simple backgrounds and of course no fullbody shots. There is no space for that on my table, unfortunately.