Springvale Horses
Jul, 2012Views
3177
Likes
Awards
Featured
Contest Finalist in Horses Photography Contest
Featured
Absolute Masterpiece
Peer Award
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Jaw Dropping
Exceptional Contrast
Outstanding Creativity
Superior Skill
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 2Top 10 rank week 1
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LauraRowe
July 27, 2012
LOVE this! There are two horses down the hill from us. I drive past and see them in this light time after time. When I head back at the perfect time for the light, with my camera, the horses arent there! ugh! lol I truly love this shot.
Willsy
July 29, 2012
Thank you Laura. I know the feeling, photography is such a spur of the moment thing hence why i take my camera everywhere with me, even on short trips. I saw these horses as I was driving home so I stopped and it wasn't until I walked up close that i noticed the sun cutting through the trees, it is a great example of being in the right place at the right time. Thanks again for your praise =)
MariposaRosa
July 27, 2012
Awesome, awesome and awesome! Superb lighting and composition! Award worthy!
Platinum
ChrisKIELY
May 06, 2013
This is so special. What a magnificent capture - and those horses with the sun showing their wonderful features! Brilliant.
Platinum
drakkardarkblade
May 06, 2013
Congrats, Awesome capture. If you get a chance please check out my work.
PRO+
Platinum
Platinum
PRO+
PRO+
Coomanator
May 06, 2013
Love the light in this shot. Masterfully captured. Congratulations on the "Feature", very well deserved.
PRO+
PRO+
Platinum
RodneyKoch
May 06, 2013
Beautiful! Excellent detail, contrast, rich vibrant colors and perfect lighting!
PRO+
mountainman70
May 06, 2013
congratulations for the award it was well deserved - this is a gr8 image the lighting and the pastural scene is just fantastic
Platinum
PRO+
Platinum
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken on a quiet farm in Springvale, Alexandra in New Zealand facing west. Latitude 45°12'5.97"S, Longitude 169°24'24.46"E.Time
It was daylight savings so the time was about 8:30pm just before sunset.Lighting
This was an opportunity photographers relish, the scene was set and the lighting was on key, the recipe just needed a camera and a touch of photographer with a hint of trigger finger to make it pop! Majestic warm rays of sun slicing through a line of trees catching on the finest details of a couple of horses in the foreground and silhouetting them with a fiery glow, I couldn't have lit it better. Nature at it's finest.Equipment
I used my good ol Canon EOS 550D with 18-135mm IS zoom lens and UV filter attached. I didn't have time to setup my tripod because the sun was fading fast.Inspiration
I was in my car passing on a nearby road when I spotted these stunningly lit horses out the corner of my eye. I was going about 100kmph so I had to really slam the brakes on, stopping about 50 meters up the road I briskly reached for my camera and basically sprinted down the side of the road bounding over two fences en route. I think the horses were so perplexed by my fleeting moment of idiocy that they practically stood in a perfect state of curiosity with eyes fixed firmly on my lens as I shot like a mad man. Suffice it to say inspiration brings out the crazy in me.Editing
Yes, much like I do with most of my photos I took 3 bracketed shots each 1 stop apart. I always do this to capture the details in the high and low ranges and allow myself a little more room for error. In this case I merged the best parts of each bracketed exposure into a final composite using transparency masks which gave me a high dynamic range photo. This allowed me to bring out more detail in the horses muscles and features whilst not compromising the background details in the suns rays and trees. I would not have been able to achieved this result without bracketing. The post processing doesn't end there, there was actually a third horse in the shot which disrupted the aesthetics of the photo, this horse was standing behind the horse on the left so only part of it was visible essentially making the foreground horse 8 legged. An 8 legged horse may be fast and good for racing but they have four too many legs for modelling in a photo shoot :-). I had no decent shots without this third horse so I chose to painstakingly edit out every leg and foreign body part using the clone tool in Photoshop, in hindsight it was worth it. After touching up the contrast and levels a little I achieved the final result seen on Viewbug.In my camera bag
I normally pack my bag according to my needs on the day but when I take everything my bag will contain my Canon EOS 550D and 18-135mm IS zoom lens, a bounce flash for those dimly lit areas, a remote shutter trigger for when I need the steadiest of shots, my very handy B-Grip belt, my tripod when/if I need it, a variable ND Grad filter and UV filter, lens cleaning kit, two spare batteries and a spare SD Card.Feedback
If your camera has bracketing I'd strongly recommend trying it. I use it regularly on shoots because not only can it be beneficial for later producing an HDR in post to bring out details that would otherwise be lost in a single exposure but it's also a great help in that it can safeguard you from missing that perfect exposure. Seldom do landscape photographers get the same opportunity twice so the last thing one would want is to return home and find that the one exposure they took of a beautiful scene is overcooked or under cooked. Some camera's do only 3 brackets, some do 5, personally I think 3 brackets each 1-2 stops apart is a sufficient safeguard to ensure you get that perfect exposure. And if you don't like that bright sky or dark foreground you've got 3 lighting scenarios to pick from and mend your photo.
