Low Key Equine

Very interesting thread this. I know nothing about horses. How do they react to flash?
 
Very interesting thread this. I know nothing about horses. How do they react to flash?
In my own (admittedly limited) experience, usually not at all. My better half says that she has 7 horses, or at least I've photographed 7 of them although I strongly suspect that there are 3 more that I don't know about:)
At full power, the Safari has a flash duration (t.1) of just 1/1500th second and is over very quickly, long before the horse notices it. We have several customers who photograph horses for a living and none have had any problems that I know of.

I once did have a reaction, but this was from a very old and powerful flash that made a loud pop when it went off and I'm pretty sure that it was the sound that spooked the horse, and secondly it was a pretty skittish horse anyway
 
Very interesting thread this. I know nothing about horses. How do they react to flash?

I always take the time to walk the horse in to the area where the flashes are. They are much more concerned about a background flapping in the wind. More likely is that a rider or handler will be disturbed and if anything goes wrong then it could never be their fault.

10320980_729939873731787_476582792126258358_o.jpg
 
I have zero personal experience of this, but it's a popular subject for debate.

From what I gather, horses can get spooked by anything but when there is flash around, that's what gets the blame. There are plenty of videos on YT showing horses not taking any notice of repeated flashes. And flash is what the best equestrian photographers use.
 
I have had horses spooked by my hat, take it off and they are OK, they will react to the crunching of a crisp packet, any sort of fly can send then mad but a small dog running round their legs is ignored but never had a horses react to flash - I always trigger the flashes as they move in to the set up just to test to ensure. If anything they may be nervous around the lighting stand as it is a new object.

Mike
 
I've done a bit of horse photography, and it takes time and patience. I've done natural lighting and flash. In my experience, they don't really mind flash, but they really don't like umbrellas or softboxes close to them.

http://www.dazbrownphotography.co.uk/horses
 
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