Portraits By Carol

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United States
Marshall, VA
Portraits By Carol

Specializing in portrait photography of individuals, families, groups, equines and house pets.

12/04/2024

More from my shoot with the incredibly knowledgeable and capable equine bodyworker, Meghan Brady, owner of Equine Solutions, and her menagerie of adorable critters (Brendan included).

12/03/2024

Today's tip that I learned from the pros: black backgrounds. Everyone wants them - not everyone should do them. Most of what I learned about photoshop is from Beth Chadbourne. She’s part IT genius, I swear.

If you are using an app, your black background will not be done correctly. The horse looks like a paper doll cut out (see pic one). Clients who don’t know any better might be happy, but this is not best practice. Also, if you black out the entire background, the horse (or person) appears to be floating. Don’t be afraid to eat into your profits by paying for a professional retoucher (see pic 2)! It’s cost effective in the long run. And the results of a great collaboration keep everyone happy.

Again, I'm not going to post any examples that aren't my own. Here are two examples. One gone wrong and one done correctly. The second photo was retouched by Beth

There are so many amazing photogs in NOVA! Please use them. Pay them. And enjoy your frozen memory FOREVER!

12/02/2024

Things the pros have taught me #1:

The first photo is from 3 years ago. Notice how big the head is? This is called distortion. I shot this with a 50mm lens. If you stand back and look at the proportions, you’ll see that they are off. No horse’s head is 30 times the size of its body. In the 2nd picture, you can tell that I’ve done it properly with a 135mm lens.

It’s a common mistake made by newish
photogs wanting a close up. Or those not open to constructive feedback. Do not go under 135mm for equine portraits. Or ask for these to be re-shot properly if you’re the client. Thanks to Sharon Packer, Horse Sports Photo LLC for this important tip!

11/23/2024

Thanks for inviting me to document a fun night with family Christie Wise!

11/11/2024

Updated photo of Mr. Jack! Sara Lujano

10/27/2024

Team Mary...to know this mare is to love her!

10/20/2024

This young man was a very good sport! He followed instructions and put up with tons of gnats. :)

10/15/2024

Please Jean Loonam (aka: mom) no more pictures!

10/10/2024

MB Stables
2021

07/04/2024

So thrilled to have caught this in the warm up ring! ❤️🐴❤️

07/02/2024

Screwed up 500 edited pics and re-doing all of them? Yup, that’s me. Hopefully my favorite mare, Mary, will forgive me! 🙄🥵🙄

06/30/2024

The sweet, quiet moments are the best.

06/30/2024

When your pony says what poles? “I see an oxer and let’s skip a stride while you’re at it.” Did she stick the landing?

06/27/2024

Trying to get my son to set up an Instagram account!

06/19/2024

Thank you to Dynamic Dressage for giving me the honor of photographing these two stunning creatures last night, Sazza and Luxury.

06/08/2024

I offer several different finishes on your portraits. When I shoot for you, I love to have a collaborative process where you tell me what you love! Here are a few examples of what I offer…the name of the edit is listed beneath the pic. Each of my photos are hand-edited (instead of batch-edits).

Address

Marshall, VA

Website

https://portraitsbycarol.mypixieset.com/?mibextid=Zxz2cZ

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