Outside portrait of a horse

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James
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It’s my sisters 40th birthday soon and we can’t do a nice dinner out and doesn’t need any material things. My wife has suggested a I take and frame a portrait of her horse. I don’t shoot portraits but the kind of thing I like is those with a black background. I managed to shoot one of my wife for her linked in profile when she was job hunting with a ghetto studio set up. The flash was propped up on step ladder and a Matt black bit of card placed on the wall behind her and had her sit away from it. The horse will be outside so imagine this will be more difficult to achieve?

is it possible with a single Godox flash?
Is it simple to achieve without spending a fortune on kit I won’t use much?
Any tips on best practice.

I plan to try it in the garden first with something that won’t mind being flashed repeatedly then try shooting the dog before trying the horse.
 
If you severely under expose the background by using a higher f stop and higher shutter speed the background will be very dark, but you need to have a flash powerfull enough to illuminate the horse at those settings.
 
Ha ha @Marc yes, just a bit, more than I care to remember!

I’m afraid it simply won’t work if you follow that video, unless the horse is the same size as a persons head!

Even if it did work placing a light stand with a flash, umbrella and a metal rod sticking out only inches from a horse ain’t gonna end well!

If you’re going to light up a horse outdoors, you’ll need much more power and a large light source even in the winter when the light is dim.

Obviously, as you said, you don’t want to be buying kit you’re unlikely to use again so I’d forget the flash. The next best thing is to use the horse in a doorway trick.

It’s not something I’ve done but basically you park your horse inside a barn/stable or whatever building you have and just have part of the horse sticking out which will be lit by the ambient light. The theory is that the light in the building will be a few stops darker than the outdoors and therefore go at least very dark or black. You will most likely need to use some PS skills too.

If you need any further help just give me a shout happy to chat ;-)
 
Thanks treeman, i had since seen the doorway trick and going to give that a try, I have managed to get a shot with a a dark enough back ground that I can reduce the exposure using a mask and black it out, there just isnt any highlights on the horse so it looks a bit flat
 
there just isnt any highlights on the horse so it looks a bit flat

Yes this is going to be the trade off, but from the amount of images I see shot like that, I guess horse owners don't mind that much, especially if they haven't seen the better alternative of it done with flash.

I wonder if you have the flash gun you could put it on a stand, at just fill power, and see if that gives you some highlights?
 
my voice activated stand spooked all the horses in the paddock when i was experimenting. Im not sure if it was a sudden drop in light levels as dusk fell or if he angled it round to far and it spooked another horse first that then spooked the rest. I have a picture i can give as the present and next week is planning to give the horse a proper clean before ridding out so will try the stable door trick as the rest of the horses will be in the paddock and not the stable area. I bought a cheap 75cm difuser so should be less harsh.
 
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