North Texas Horse County Equine Photography Workshop

North Texas Horse County Equine Photography Workshop
Presented by Terri Cage Photography
April 19-21, 2013
Denton County, Texas

Spend a weekend photographing some of the most beautiful horses and ranches in the area. Anyone from beginners to the more experienced will enjoy this workshop. Examples* of some of the places we will visit will include mare and foals, cutting horses, Friesians, Mustangs in training, liberty shoots, beautiful scenery, barns, and more!

Any camera type is welcome, but it is recommended that you use a DSLR with at least a 100mm lens (200mm preferred). If you have a larger lens, you may bring it also, it might be too much lens in some cases, but you also might be glad you have it occasionally  If you do not have any of these, I can suggest places that rent these items.
You can sign up for the whole weekend or just part of it!

Here is the plan:

Friday: 5-9 p.m. Basic photography skills and camera functions – if you are shooting on auto, you need to attend this or you will not understand the rest of the workshop. You will learn: use of light and composition of subjects, the basic functions of your camera, and what all the buttons do.
Saturday : Sunrise to sunset. We will visit a couple ranches, then have lunch and review some of the images that everyone has taken and go over some equine photography tips. Then we learn the benefits of giving back, donating time to local rescues. We will make one last stop at another ranch and spend several hours there.  Near the end, we will use some off-camera/artificial lighting to achieve some dramatic images!
Sunday: A quick morning visit to another ranch for one last hands-on session, then an early lunch and classroom work. We will spend several hours on post production using Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6. If you do not have these, free 30-day trial versions are available. I would wait until a few days before the workshop before you download. I am not a Lightroom or Photoshop guru, but I can show many basic uses and easy fixes to get you started in understanding their functions. We will end the day with learning the business, which will be great for those wanting to start their own photography business, not just equine. You will learn things I wish I knew when starting out.
*These are what is planned, but because of the nature of the horse business, some circumstances may change the actual subjects or locations.

What is included:

• Electronic handouts
• Lunch on Saturday and Sunday
• Snacks throughout the weekend
• Online gallery for you to share images with ranch owners
• Model & property releases

What is not included:

• Breakfast & dinner
• Transportation – we will have a meet-up place and I encourage carpooling from ranch to ranch.
• Lodging- I can recommend some local hotels. If you want to split a room, I can put you in contact with others that want to do the same
• Camera equipment
• Computer equipment

What you should bring:

Taken at one of the ranches scheduled to visit

• Appropriate, comfortable clothing- Be prepared to shoot in any kind of weather condition. Heavy downpours, or severe weather may change the agenda for the day, other wise we stay on schedule. Raingear is recommended to bring. Pastures are very damp in the morning and you will get wet. I suggest wearing rubber boots in pastures. Bring a change of clothes just in case!
• Camera
• Back-up camera if you have one
• Lens – At least a 100mm. I use a 70-200 most of the time. Also a wide angle lens.
• Plenty of battery power and a charger
• Lots of memory cards
• Monopod- This will really save your arms for long days.
• Tripod is optional- may not use when we are close to horses, but great for some scenic images and inside of barns
• Anything else you can think of- I live by the saying, “It’s better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.”

What is required:

Photoshop techniques

• To watch an equine safety PowerPoint presentation that will be sent to those attending
• You will need to sign waiver/releases before.
• You will need to agree to some safety rules.

Workshop sign up and fees can be found here

Payment plan available!

How to get 50% off the Complete Workshop
Facebook
Post a favorite horse related photo to my Facebook Page and get an entry. Have your friends like my page & like your photo and get another entry for each like.

Twitter
Follow me on twitter and send me a message and get another entry.

I will draw and announce the winner on March 15!

Equine Photography Tips- What is White Balance?

Have you ever taken a photo in an indoor arena that had an awful yellow tint, or maybe took a photo at sunset, hoping to get some nice warm colors, but it looks blue? The reason for this is your camera cannot determine what white is - you need to tell it what white is. For certain lighting factors, we need to adjust our white balance.  White balance may also be referred to as color balance or color temperature.

I find most people shoot  on Auto White Balance (AWB).  In this setting the camera has to guess what white is and does not always get it right.  Camera models have different locations where you can adjust white balance, but you may have noticed several icons on your camera- light-bulb, sun, clouds and a few others. These represent different light sources and will tell your camera what white is, so you get proper colors. Some cameras have a K setting, which allows you to fine tune your white balance. Each of these represent the color temperature that the light source emits. 

I keep mine set at K, and will adjust as needed.

White Balance is measured in Kelvins - color temperature in light sources.
1000-2000K - Candlelight
2500-3500K - Tungsten Bulb (reg light bulb)
4000-5000K - Fluorescent Lamp
5000-5500K- Flash
5000-6000K- Sunny
6500-7500K - Cloudy/Overcast
8000-9000K - Shade/ Heavy Overcast

Adjustment scale in Lightroom

The lower temperature is the blue/cooler side of the scale and the higher temperatures are on the yellow/warmer side.

Taking a few moments to adjust your white balance will result in proper coloring of your image with more vividness and saturation.  You are also able to get a little more creative with your photography by adding a little more warmth or coolness to your images.

The images below are all the same, but they were shot in RAW format rather than jpg, so I was able to adjust in Adobe Lightroom easily to demonstrate how color temperature can effect your photos.

Taken just before sunset in heavy shade, but the sun was peaking through the trees to give a little rim light.  This is the 1st shot I took right after shooting with several flashes, so the the temperature was manually set at ~5200.   The white looks a little blue in these and no warmth in the photo.

Being sunset, the camera cannot detect white. If I had the camera set to AWB, it would have more than likely turned out looking like this - looking very blue without warmth.

With a little adjusting in Adobe Lightroom, we added some warmth.  After taking this photo, I remembered to adjust my  white balance  to ~ 7500K so they all would have the warm glow from the sun setting.

To learn more about white balance and other ways to improve your photography check out Terri Cage Photography's mentoring and lessons

Equine Photography: Its All About The Light Part II

As I mentioned in Part I early morning and late afternoon/early evening, just hours after sunrise and before sunset is the best times for creating beautiful images.  This time is also commonly known  as the Golden Hour because of the wonderful soft even light that can be found at this time. Photographing in the harsh mid-day sun can give unwanted shadowing hiding details and may over-exposed parts of your image and colors seem somewhat muted and hazy. Sunrise vs. Sunset is personal preference, but I like to photograph grey and black coat colorings in the morning, since the morning light has more pastels and blue tones. While red and gold tones are more prominent with the warmer tones at sunset. This is the normal with sunrises and sunset, but not the rule and you can never fully predict Mother Nature.

Learning to use the golden hour will greatly help improve the quality of your images, no matter what your subject is.  By positioning yourself in different angles from the sun, there is several different ways to use this light.  The following images are taken at different times of day from morning to dusk to give an idea of the use of light.

Taken early morning on a partly cloudy day.  Love the stillness of mornings! Sun was directly behind me.

Taken mid-day, lots of  distracting contrast and shadows that hide details and we have some overblown highlights and over exposed background.

Late afternoon light gives a soft light with some shadowing, which actually gives some depth to your subject, but doesn't over blow highlights or cause too much contrast that takes away details. Sun was behind me at a 45 degree angle. Look at the shadows for the suns direction.

Soft late afternoon early evening light gives even soft diffused light with even tones without harsh shadows or blown out whites. Sun was at my back at approximately a 45 degree angle.  You can see a soft shadow behind the horse to give an idea of the light direction

Taken 1 hour before sunset with the sun 45 degrees behind subject. Once again using the trees to diffuse the light slightly. The subject has a nice back-light giving a rim light effect, but still maintaining some of the details of the subject and having a small amount of sun-flare.  Also gave light to the insects in the image.

By putting your subject between the sun and yourself, you can create and nice silhouette, with a lot of sun-flare and rim-light around your subject. You may also get some very warm colors.  Shooting directly into the sun makes it difficult for your camera to focus, so you may need to resort to manual focus.  A very clean lens makes focusing easier.  The trees were used to diffuse the light and help in focusing.

Taken right after sunset giving a silouhette, with nice soft warm colors in the background,

Equine Photography: Its All About The Light Part I

Light is the most important aspect in equine photography, this is not limited to equine photography, but all photography.  After all in the Greek language photo means light, and graph means draw.  So when we take a photograph we are drawing with light.  So even if you never take your camera off auto, you can learn to use light to obtain the best possible  image with the knowledge you have on the use of light.

There is a reason photographers like to take photos in the early morning or late evening, commonly known as the golden hours.  The light is the best at these times and there are several reasons why. The sun is lower, so the ozone is thicker, so the light is softer, diffused and easier to control. Morning light usually has more pastel colors where the evening light has warmer tones. Scheduling a time to take photographs during these times is always a good plan, but what about those spontaneous photos. Here are a few tips.

Taken late morning late summer,
partly cloudy day.
See diagram below for setup

First off you must know were your light sources are coming from.  Where is the sun?  Is there anything reflective; sand, the side of a  building, water, a concrete driveway, you would be surprised where your light can come from. Where are the shadows?  The direction of the shadows will be your biggest indicator of your main light source.

Bright sunny days can always cause a problems especially mid-day when the sun is directly over head.  Dark shadows are everywhere and cannot be avoided.  If you are doing a portrait with a person and a horse, find some heavy shade.  It will soften the human subjects face and help prevent squinting. This is why cloudy days are the best for doing horse/human portraits.  If you are photography just horses, shade is not as important since horses really don't squint and the sun does help bring out the shine of the coat too. There are still shadows though.  The shadows I am talking about are not the ones that are cast on the ground, but the shadows on the actual body of the horse. The shape of the horse can cast shadows on the underline, under the bulging muscles and under the head and neck.  This can cause problems on dark horses and they can loose their definition. Put your back to the sun and the horse directly in front of you.  You will see the shadows, so position the horse were you can get minimal shadows, being mid-day you will get shadows regardless. This is where finding other light sources help, try to find reflective surfaces we spoke of earlier.  Use a concrete pathway or driveway to reflect light to the underside of the horse- a bright side of a building can help also. Some of the shadows will still be there, but not as evident. The difficult part is get everything, especially the horse, into position and still keeping a clean attractive background.

Learning to use your available light to your advantage can be a big help in getting better images with what you have on hand. I do suggest to learn more about photography and learn the functions of your camera to improve your skills even more.

Subscribe to this blog to follow more in the series of using light.

Equine Photography Tips: Get Those Ears Up!

I recently sent out a newsletter that had one short equine photography tip.  Although it was a short statement, it described the most important action to get a good equine portrait: "get those ears up." I believe it is extremely important as it changes the whole attitude and expression in the horse's face. The eyes brighten, the face tightens, nostrils flare, and the horse look alive.  Look at the difference (ignore the loose fitting halter):

I got several inquiries on how I get horses' ears up. There are several different methods I use, depending on the environment and the horse.  Older, laid-back horses can be the most difficult and I really haven't determined any breed, age, or gender that is the easiest.  I use all sorts of treats, squeaky toys, and most importantly, a helper (or 2).  One of my favorites is a pool noodle; I find it easier to use than a broom or rake.  I use it in several ways. It makes an interesting noise when shaken and it is long enough to touch a horse's nose and quickly draw it away, so it is not in the photo.  I also have used the hole at the end to add a pom pom or plastic bag.

Some of the devices I use when I have no helper is squeaky toys (either one designed for babies or dogs, either works). It is hard to work a camera and squeeze the toy at the same time.  Since I wasn't blessed with  three arms, I put it on the ground and use my foot.

Now my favorite and most-used is actually the cheapest and always with me.  I carry it on my phone, so if you are like me, you are lost without it. I use an app called Horse Shaker Deluxe, which makes real whinny noises.  Now I don't have to make my own noises and get those strange looks.  Sometimes it works too well and the horse might get a little uncontrollable while trying to figure out where it is coming from.  I love it when the horse's owner looks around to see where it is coming from; it's that real sounding.

When using these items, never show them to the horse until you are ready to take a shot.  Horses get bored easily so if you show it to the horse before they are ready, they already lost interest.