Portraits are hard. Hats off to all the professionals out there! I admire your work and hope to someday be able to put forth the same quality. To take really good portraits, you need a good background without clutter to detract from your subjects. You need good, but not harsh lighting. Shadows can be a big problem, especially with shooting outdoors. Poses. Sometimes it’s hard to be unique with the poses. And details, you or someone else assisting needs to pay attention to the little details that can be distracting in a good portrait.

I am beginning to try a little portrait photography. No, I’m not trying to get into that niche and start doing sessions. But I think I owe it to myself as I am learning to try all the different things. I did some things right, and some things wrong with this opportunity. Let’s start with the “some things wrong”.

Wrong #1- I really should have waited for the sun to go down some more for better lighting. We were close to the golden hour, but because of schedules and time constraints, we started between 6 & 7 p.m. and the sun was still too high and bright. I got a LOT of glare/hot spot from her crown and trying to edit that and make it readable was dang near impossible. I did get a few good shots towards the end where you can read it in a few photos. Part of her face was in shadow, and lots of shadows were cast in all the shots and that bothered me too. I know lots of photographers are able to shoot in bright light with no trouble, but I’m just not there yet.

Wrong #2- I need to learn more about my editing software. Taking out those power lines in the background, was not as easy as I thought it would be. I was able to take them out of some of the photos, but not all of them. I was also hoping to edit the lead ropes out as well. I did have fun using a few of the presets available to play around with and get some different “looks” to the portraits and it did help to correct some of the issues I was having with post editing, and they made a few pictures really pop. Lightroom tutorials, here I come! Once I have Lightroom mastered, then I will tackle Photoshop. (All I need is time!)

Wrong #3- Being prepared. I should have had something handy to get the horses’ attention to get those ears up before pressing the shutter release button. Maybe even something to reflect a little light to brighten her face under the brim of the hat.

The things that were right about this session were, great subjects! She was eager to take some pictures, was comfortable and relaxed, and her horses were well behaved and easy to get into poses. The location suited the session as well. We had some farm equipment, some mesquites and a nice big elm tree for backgrounds the foreground was clutter free and we had a couple of hills and low spots to try and get level or below the subjects for a few interesting shots. I also think I captured her “true self”, I just let her be who she was. No forced smiles, we made a few suggestions on poses, and she took those suggestions and made them her own. You can tell she has a relationship with her horses, they are just as relaxed and easy going as she was. I ended up with quite a few photos where the horses’ eyes were closed because they were just chill.

I took a lot of pictures, including a few of these horses’ kind, soft eyes which are included in the slideshow above, this blog only includes my personal favorites from this session, I did not include all the poses or all the backgrounds we used. I just chose the ones that I thought were a true representation of the subject. Overall, I am very happy with how these pictures turned out and I am extremely grateful to the family for allowing me to have this learning experience and sharing these portraits with you.