BEFORE AND AFTER: Editing Equine Portraits | Ashley Payne Photography

Editing fine-art equine portraits!

Ever wondered how I edit equine portraits? If so, this post is for you!

If you’ve had equine portraits done, you likely remember it being something along the lines of a well-organized circus. While you held your horse’s lead, the photographer’s assistant was wildly waving around random objects as if attempting to land a plane, making sure ears were forward, fixing manes and tails, helping with posing, crinkling plastic baggies, and using whinny sounds, all for the sake of making sure your horse looks like an upcoming model for the cover of EQUUS Magazine.

Phew. That’s a lot of work.

But wait. There’s more.

Weeks more of work goes on behind the scenes before you see the finished portraits.

Shooting portraits is only the first step in creating equine portraits. After the portraits have been taken the magic begins. And if I’ve done my job well, you’ll have a hard time telling what kind of magic went on to create the finished portrait.

Ashley Payne Photography - Nashville Portrait Artist - Copyright 2019 - WM.jpg

My editing process uses a combination of professional programs to bring out the best in my equine portraits. I remove all distractions including people, leads, blemishes, and often times replace the entire floor. I always aim to shoot portraits as I want them to look in-camera, but occasionally, I even replace legs and ears to make sure the horse looks its best. After this, I create my black background. I finish up my portraits with enhancing the eyes, and applying a fine-art finish.

Before & After Black Background Equine Portrait 3 - Equine Education & Editing - Ashley Payne Photography.jpg

You may be wondering why I go through the trouble of replacing the entire floor and hand-repainting the shadows in each portrait. I promise it is for good reason! Here’s why:

The floor in this barn is gorgeous, but the rubber inlay design of the floor kept drawing my eye away from the horse. Since the goal of the black background portrait is to put emphasis on the horse, replacing the distracting floor was necessary to do Rolo’s full body glam shot justice.

Since this session, I've been inspired to replaced the floor for all of my black background portraits! So far, my clients have loved how seamless it looks, especially for wall art.

Although it requires a lot of extra time and effort in Photoshop, I appreciate the clean and consistent look that it offers as an alternative to the original floor that can be a distraction. It has been the icing on the cake for my black background portraits. For me, it is here to stay! 📷🐴

Here’s more before and after portraits!

Before & After Black Background Equine Portrait - Equine Education & Editing - Ashley Payne Photography.jpg

Before & After Black Background Equine Portrait 2 - Equine Education & Editing - Ashley Payne Photography.jpg

Before & After Black Background Equine Portrait 4 - Equine Education & Editing - Ashley Payne Photography.jpg

LEARN HOW TO EDIT FINE-ART Black Background EQUINE PORTRAITS

the fine-art black background course will be released on the Education page! 😉

A basic knowledge of Lightroom and Photoshop is recommended, however, all courses will be an easy-to-follow, step-by-step walkthrough of how to transform a RAW photograph into a beautiful fully edited fine-art portrait. In the course you’ll be learning my full editing process including, but not limited to:

》How I photograph black backgrounds and what camera settings I use
》Culling + Lightroom workflow
》Adjusting color, light and temp on out-of-camera RAW images in Lightroom before importing to photoshop
》How to work with layers and layer masks
》How to create a black background with a smooth transition to the floor
》How to completely replace a floor AND how to retouch an existing floor
》How to repaint original shadows after replacing the floor
》How to retouch skin, blemishes, remove objects, and replace legs and ears

》How to color-correct in photoshop
》How to hand-paint eyes for a studio look
》How to achieve a fine-art finish for your final portrait

》How to create your own actions, presets and brushes to save time while editing
》How to export files so that they look great on social media
》How to export files for artwork prints
》How to save your work in Photoshop so that you can make changes later
》How to get your finished Photoshop image to automatically sync and appear in your Lightroom gallery

BONUS TOPICS included to elevate your client experience, printed artwork, and editing workflow:
》Wall Mockups + How wall mockups can increase your artwork sales
》Monitor calibration & best monitor settings for editing
》How to achieve accurate color and tone in your prints
》The importance of finding a workflow that works for you

And one more really exciting surprise that I think you guys will love! Without giving too much away... After you've finished the course, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions, receive feedback, share your work, and have some laughs. More on that soon though! 😉

If you'd like to be notified when the course is released, sign up via my Education page here: