Photography Training from Katie Mortimore

The aim of this course is to teach you how to utilise off-camera lighting, to produce black background images of horses in camera. This course is an introduction to the niche but is structured to give you a solid foundation to allow you to produce your own images confidently and successfully. An important part of this course is that it is based primarily around low key photography. This is best described as using a single light to sculpt a subject, often described as Rembrandt lighting. There are therefore large areas of shade and contrast, a style that may not suit everyone. I do though discuss the use of 2 or more lights within the course and the majority of the fundamentals are relevant whatever your final light set up if opting for a more traditional three-light set up for example. You should be mindful that dependent on your equipment level, location and subjects, additional post-editing will vary, and may well be essential to achieve a totally black background. There is a presumption that you have basic knowledge of manually exposing your camera, and understand, including the relationships between them, shutter speed, ISO and aperture. If you require a refresher see the downloads section of the course. There is also an additional presumption that you have a sound basic understanding of horses and their behaviour. Namely, you should be able to identify key stress warning signs. I advise strongly against anyone without such knowledge operating lights around horses without specific in-person training.