Tips for Taking Pictures of Horses

Whether taking pictures for a Horse Sale Catalog, Classified Web Site or to Send to a Prospective Buyer one must remember a photo is worth a 1000 words. The following tips were sent to me buy Horse breakers Unlimited and posted here thanks to Ranchworldads.


A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS!!
The photos you take will give prospective buyers their first impression of your horse. If the photo is not appealing, your horse may be passed over. Please take a moment and read these tips about photographing your horse.
CAMERA- Any camera will do, but if it has a zoom lens, excellent. 35 mm film is the standard. If you are taking still photographs 200 ISO film if fine. For action shots use a higher speed film, 400 ISO. Don't take only a few photos and think you have the perfect photo. Take a few rolls and take a least 5 or 6 photos of the same pose. If you have a zoom lens use it. Stand back a distance from your horse and zoom in. This will help in getting rid of the big head look. Digital cameras are great as you can view the photo right after you have taken it, but the shutter speeds on digital cameras are extremely slow and it is easy to miss your horses ears being up.
LIGHTING- Choose a sunny day and don't use a flash. Morning or afternoon light is the best. Midday photos are terrible, too much white light and too many shadows. Always make sure the sun is behind you as you take the picture. Make sure not to get the photographers shadow onto the horse.
BACKGROUND -Take a moment before you shoot your photos to look at the background. Are there junk cars in the background? Manure piles, telephone wires, other horses? If so, move. The BEST photos don't have much of anything in the background.
POSITION - The best photos are taken when you are on your knees focused toward the center of your horse. If you shoot from too high up, your horses look like they have no legs. Take pictures from several angles. Try to compliment your horses strong points.
When you are shooting a Profile of your horse have your handler position his feet correctly. Near hind leg back, near front forward, head and neck turned 45 degrees. Make sure to center your horse in the frame. For a Three Quarter Front shot, the horse should stand square with his head and neck straight. Make sure his ears are up! Do not tie your horse to a tree, a fence or a trailer. Get someone to help hold the horse that is capable of positioning the horse correctly and getting his attention to put his ears up.
FORMATTING AND SIZING - Make sure you resize your photos before sending them. Send them in a 3x5 or a 4x6 size or around 500 pixels. You can resize your photos in your Photo Shop program. The universal format to send photos by email is the .jpg format and it is the only format we accept. It is easy to find your photos later by naming the photos with your horses name, like: DocBar.jpg or DocBarLeftside.jpg. Then send us the photo with the horses name so we can post it in the proper place. Remember, we get hundreds of photos and if we don't know what horse it is we will not be able to post it on the web page.
THE HORSE - Make sure your horse is presented in a professional manner and looks his best. Tack should be cleaned and polished and every effort should be made to have properly fitting tack. If the horse is being photographed under saddle make sure the rider is sitting up straight and is presenting a pleasing picture.

REMEMBER- TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES TO GET THE PERFECT ONE