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How To Take Horse Pictures - Page 1 of 2

As we all know, there's a difference between a horse picture and a good horse picture. Below are some tips on how you can take a better picture of your horse, with examples of good and bad pictures.

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Fill The Frame

Fill the frame! When you look through your camera's viewfinder, your main subject (which, in this case, is your horse) should fill the vast majority of what you're seeing.

In this photo the horse is overwhelmed by the pasture and sky.

To fill the frame:

• Move closer to your subject.
• Use the camera's zoom.
• Crop the photo: If you simply can't fill the frame with your subject, you may want to go ahead and take the shot but then crop the picture later so that the main subject fills the photo. In fact, many professional photographers feel that most photos benefit from at least a little cropping.

Much better! In this photo the photographer used the zoom and also cropped the picture after it was taken. This resulted in a much better photo.

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Be Careful With Forward Angles

When taking a picture of the whole horse be very careful when taking the photo from a forward angle. The wrong forward angle can make the entire front end of the horse appear overly large and out of proportion. In addition, the wrong forward angle makes it difficult to see any definition in the horse's body. If you do take a forward angle shot, be very cautious about the angle and how it makes the horse appear in the completed photo.

This photo was taken from a forward angle that makes the front end of the horse look out of proportion to the rest of its body. In addition, the angle is obscuring the horse's body, and very little of the horse can be seen well.

Much better! This photo was also taken from a forward angle, but the horse looks very nice.

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Feet Close To Square

If the photo is of a horse standing still, it's usually most flattering for the horse to be standing with its feet "square" (front legs even with each other, back legs even with each other), or close to square. For a casual photo the horse's feet do not have to be exactly square, particularly the back feet, just close. For a more formal photo, the front and back feet should be as square as possible.

Below: This horse is standing close to square.

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Ears Up!

Ears up! A picture of a horse with its ears back, down, or to the side is unflattering to any horse.

Unless you are specifically capturing a horse's emotions where the ears' being back or down is appropriate, you will want to make sure the ears are up.

The photos at right were taken only moments apart. There is no question that the horse looks better in the second picture where her ears are up.

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Tips For Digital Camera Photos

• If you're taking photos with a digital camera, don't take the photos by looking through the LCD screen most digital cameras have on the back. Instead, turn off the screen and look through the viewfinder. With many models of digital cameras taking photos by using the screen causes the camera to respond more slowly after you press the shutter button. The slow response is only a fraction of a second, but it can easily be enough time for a horse or something else in the picture to change and ruin your shot. While cameras with eye viewfinders and not as common in the past they are still available.
• Take lots and lots of photos, keep only the good ones (which probably won't be very many), and delete the others (which will be most of what you take). This is one of the biggest "secrets" used by professional photographers.
• Even if you just want a single picture, use "burst mode." Many digital cameras have a wonderful feature called burst mode or something similar. With this feature, you press and hold the shutter button and the camera takes several photos in rapid succession. Even with a photo subject that is standing still this can be enormously useful. The horse may flick its ears, stomp its foot, or swish its tail, but then return to a nice stance just a second later. With burst mode, your chances of catching the good moments go up, and you can simply delete the bad ones.
• Today, even inexpensive "point and shoot" digital cameras considered to be in the "family" class can take sharp photos that enlarge well.

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