How to Take Horse Sale Pictures – Part Three

This past Saturday I went down to the Fulton Ranch to do the first round of sale horse pictures that will be used for advertising and the catalog. Below is a couple screenshots showing the before and after of what I do in Photoshop. There is still some fine details I will edit for the final and then I add my watermark.

The main things I edit in each image are:

-Taking the people out.

-Smoothing the mane and tail.

-Editing any missed dirt, flies, distracting things in the background.

To answer a few questions people had from my last post.

I shoot with a monopod and I mostly kneel/squat. Patience is a huge part of it. We typically have one person holding the horse, one person to move feet, and a couple people to grab attention. Horses feed so much off your energy, emotions and mood. I always have a bottle of Young Living Stress Away in my car and I’ve found it makes a difference, especially on younger horses.

As for weanling pictures a bucket of grain, someone to hold the mare and a couple people to chase the weanling around all work great. I prefer the look of the weanling by itself compared to at its mother’s side, unless you are trying to highlight the mare as well.