Horse Photography: Selecting a Good Background is Important

Carol WalkerBlog

When photographing horses, if you take some time preparing for your shoot before you get started, you will improve your results. One of the very important things to consider when shooting horses (photographically, of course!) is the background behind your subject. Light colored horses will show up much better against a dark colored background – the contrast will show them off. Conversely, dark colored horses show up best against a light colored background.

Dark grey stallion in front of a dark hedge

This image of an dark grey Andalusian stallion is good, but would have been improved if he had not been in front of such a dark hedge. Notice how the lighter grey stallion shows up much better in front of this hedge, emphasizing his color and outline.

Light grey stallion in front of a dark hedge

Sometimes we don’t have very much choice over our backgrounds – and in those cases, one alternative is to find an area where the horse can be higher than you are, and you shoot up at the horse with the sky as a background. This can be very dramatic if the sky is stormy, or very pretty with a blue or even a white sky. There are no distracting details in the background to take away from your primary subject, the horse.

Arabian Stallion Against The Sky