Table portraits 9.

One more portrait bunch from spring 2021. This time it's short... The horse is Kentucky, who in my herd goes by the name Huligaani.

For once I actually took photos of the kind I wanted, it seems! I can judge the editing levels by the fact that I save the heavy edits apart from the originals, just to have the latter handy in case it's needed - and to not get blind for what I do. But definitely, these are about how they came from the camera, which is what I always try to go for when I photograph.

My favorite of the whole bunch.

At that point I had played with contrast and rich colors so much that I wanted to desaturate a little. It didn't work very well, hence why I only saved two photos of that kind. Overall I quickly learned how soon one can photograph this model's head and have no need for more. That doesn't always happen. 

Since I photographed some horses only a little, I will include also Afore here. He's a classic scale buckskin gelding who was sold as a dun stallion in the Pony Power set. For some reason I don't feel like he was very photogenic, but it is also possible I simply had run out of inspiration and setting ideas at that point.

That halter could be better... But also a lot worse. Overall, it fits Afore so he can keep it. And it is in my studio's colors!

In the tenth post I will show the mangalarca marchador.

Table portraits 8.

This bunch is still from spring 2021, and the whole photo batch had photos of several horses. And that means mostly just headshots with and without tack, and sometimes with a lot of editing... This time it's the Brookside Pink Magnum model, who in my herd goes by Munni.

This one got quite edited, unfortunately. The yellowing is still showing in some spots.

This and the second one differ only by the fact that I hadn't placed any foils on the "ground" for this one.

...meanwhile you can compare this to the upper shot and see how much more shine here is? Or at least some small highlights.

I actually like a lof ot these, especially those with heavier editing. It's lame in some sense, but then again, photography is art (if done artistically) and editing is just honing. 

What else should I say? This model has a very photogenic head... And his finish isn't so shiny that it could cause problems, unlike with Valegro (who also got his turn, in 2023). 

Less edited one. That yellow lamplight tone is why I do so drastic edits at times.

For once I see no tack in my non-document photos... I so thought I had some where Munni had his halter on. The second portrait post is still from spring 2021.

Table portraits 7.

I have taken a lot of photos with a white paper background in the recent years, but white has never been my favorite for this kind of use. I could prefer blue, grey, black or brown instead, a lot. That just wasn't possible in spring 2021, so my only option was still white. More about the other options and solutions in future posts...

Normally, when I get new horses, I just pick their halters from the existing pile. But Tripworthy came and straight decided he wants his halter to be made for him, and in green color.

At the time Tripworthy was a new horse in the house, and thus had no photos at all yet, so I made sure to snap some of him as soon as possible. 

I feel like I'm cheating, because the best photos here are the ones which I removed the yellowing from... This is what they should look like as is, but lamplights and cameras! Editing also ate the richness of the green in Trip's halter.

This is the Nazruddin I got after participating in the Braymere blog giveaway in early 2021. Turns out, this mold is quite photogenic. I kind of feel like the halter I made doesn't do it justice, but at the same time I think everything needs to be tacked up... 

More contrast and color!

This may be one of my favorite pictures in this pile.

I sure have to take more photos of this horse in the future. And in some of them he should be tacked up and with dolls.

There will be more and hopefully more interesting photos of him in some future post!

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...