Photographing
Your Horse for Sale
It may seem simple, just get a couple pf photos of your
horse and list him for sale, but this is often easier said then done! As a
general rule, whenever I’m trying to take photos of animals, I find it a lot
easier to have a helper with me.
When selling a horse, remember to look at your photos
from a buyer’s perspective. A photo may look like a nice picture at the
stable, or in your camera’s small preview screen, but look less than great
when you get home. Some tips for taking sale horse photos:
- Use the best camera you can get
your hands on. Whether that be your cell phone camera because that’s all
you have, your brother’s point and shoot, or your sisters professional
quality SLR. There can be a really big difference between cameras due to
lens quality, image sensors, etc.
- Take lots of pictures, and be
very critical while still on site. Legs not right? Ears not up? Did the
horse blink? The time to be critical with your photos is while the horse is
still clean and there is still light. Delete anything that doesn’t look
quite right and keep shooting. It is worth spending the time to get the
right shots.
- Keep at least twice as many
“good” shots as you think you will need. If you bought an ad, or use a
site that allows multiple photos per listing, make sure you have plenty of
pictures to choose from when you get home.
- When you are sorting through
photos at home keep in mind that 1 good picture is better than 4 bad ones.
If the horse isn’t standing correctly, the angle is off, the light or
shadows are wrong, delete it. Better to have a buyer see 1 good picture than
view 5 mediocre ones and decide the horse’s angles are wrong, the horse
looks lazy or spirited, etc based off of a bad picture.
- Crop your images just enough but
not too much. Keep in mind that a body shot where the legs are misplaced
might be usable as a headshot if the ears are up. Use the rule of thirds
when possible but crop more closely if you need to remove distracting
background items.
And if all else fails, sometimes it’s best to get the
professionals in!