Horses with Creative Lighting

When I originally planned this contest it was to be for artificial light entries but this image alone leaves me glad I changed the scope.

The whole concept and brief of the contest was the creative use of light which this image nails whilst also telling an intriguing story.

It tells a story of two horses being led around an indoor school one a rider one a groom who seem to also be deep in conversation. Lit by a small high window and by the looks a doorway ahead which highlights the coldness of the environment.

The window light pours in creating a theatric ambience, you can sense the movement and feel the cold. The chosen exposure is fabulous and really utilises the light available. I love the darkness that offers a glimmer of the details without revealing too much.

The only thing I would personally adjust is the slither of the doorway to the left of the frame. It distracts slightly due to its brightness but it is a very minor flaw from an extremely well-executed image.

Well done.

Quite simply I love how the light sculpts this image. The horse small and otherwise insignificant in the frame is highlighted by the back/side lighting to attract the eye. The higher aperture retains detail in the background to highlight the wilderness of the surroundings. The subtle darker contrasting tones of the rocks exaggerate their roughness.

I also love the flock of birds on the right, easily missed at first glance but adds another element of life to the image.

Now this is the sort of image I was looking for with my original contest brief in mind.

I love the stark contrast between shadow and light. The light sculpting the shape of the horse, the mane curving like a wave tumbling down the horse's neck. It's an abstract composition but to any equestrian, the subject is clearly obvious.

My only real critique is the choice of focus point near the wither is very high in the frame. I would have used (if the light allowed as there are no settings) a higher aperture and had the focus point lower down the neck.

This is a fabulous image perfectly fulfilling the creative light brief but stopped from ranking higher due to post-processing.

The composition and positioning of the horse is fabulous, the curved neck with tidy plaits leading the viewer to that watching eye.

As mentioned though the image requires some slightly more careful post processing work. There are a number of patches in the background that don't seem to be intentional and a light patch to the edge of the horses head running from the eye down. With the background and edges tidied up this would be an outstanding image.

There is no doubt this image catches the eye and is stunningly beautiful and I suspect printed large and hung on a wall but I am left with a feeling it is perhaps slightly over-processed giving a slightly false/fake feeling.

The model is beautifully lit and that s likely either from additional lighting or being positioned in a larger clearing than it seems, it is just soft and beautiful, not the light you get from your average woodland

The head collar removal is evident. A good job but as someone who edits them out on a near-daily occurrence I can see the telltale signs and this has caused detail to be lost from the horse's head making it look overly soft and I think probably the biggest thing contributing to the 'fake' feeling.

Don't get me wrong this is a beautiful image that any client would be utterly thrilled to receive but I just have a few niggles and I'm not really sure it satisfies my creative light brief hence it is outside my top 10.