Sale photo help

[shortybreeder]

I'm not a very experienced animal photographer, but what are your thoughts on these photos? I used my Samsung Galaxy S5 to take these pictures because it takes higher quality photos than any of our digital cameras. What could I do to get a better shot? More importantly, would you use either of these as a sale catalog photo?

Thanks for any help, and sorry about the dirty calf. It is officially winter in MN, so I don't think I will get a chance to wash her before photos are due.

 

[shortybreeder]

Picture 1

 

[shortybreeder]

I had to shrink them and resave as medium quality rather than high quality, so if they appear a little fuzzy that is why. Here is picture 2

 

[oakview]

The heifer looks good.  However, there are some sale managers/catalogs that wouldn't run the photos.  I have a lot of difficulty getting photos for sale catalogs, too.  Mainly because there are only 24 hours in a day and when 1 person does pretty much everything, by the time 9:00 comes around, I'm shot.  Most good sale catalog photos are taken on a sunny day in a grass lot with a good background.  Cindy Cagwin says everybody needs a good "camera pen."  I have one and the good photos I've taken were mostly taken there.  The problem is getting them prepped for the photo two months before the sale and keeping them that way.  Maybe if I was smart enough to have 5 cows instead of 50!

 

[Chuck Wagon]

I'm no expert but you need some depth and scale.  Clear the snow out so your surface is flat and not piled up.  Have her stand on a green rug, fake grass or just pull the snow back with a shovel..  The snow contrasts with the splotchy background.  I like the red wood look but it's weathered.  Any way you can have a solid background?  Maybe throw up some red paint you got laying around..

Don't shoot the messenger, you did ask.... 

 

[shortybreeder]

Thanks for the comments so far! I had to crop the photo so that Steerplanet would let me upload it, I'll try to get the whole image in, just a smaller size, for scale.

 

[shortyjock89]

You need at least 2 people to get photos that I would consider using. It is easily worth the added cost to hire help to prep and photo the cattle. I'll attach some that I and one other person took last winter.

 

[shortybreeder]

As for the background, would a stack of square bales work better than the old barn wall? Otherwise we can hang a large brown tarp to make a blank background, but idk if there would be enough contrast seeing as the heifer is black

 

[Chuck Wagon]

I like the hay bale idea but space her away from it and don't shoot down.  Most pics have shoulder at eye level.  A good photographer makes it look easy. The snow calf pic is awesome.  It gives me a reference with the posts in the background. That one is a calendar shot for sure. Just have fun with it

 

[DSC]

Not trying to high jack the post but "Olson Family Shorthorns" what camera did you use? Those pics are really nice. I have a terrible time trying to get "good" pics. I have a digital camera that we bought a few years ago and I can get better pics with my Iphone 6 than I can with that camera. What editing software did you use? Thanks in advance.

 

[shortyjock89]

I'll have to get back to you on exactly which camera we used, but I think it's just an entry level Nikon DSLR.  I know I only paid 300 for it, and then a bit more for an additional lense.

As far as what we use to edit, it's always photoshop.  We didn't edit these photos in any way. We hardly pictured on halter with it just being two of us. We did edit out some posts and background on other pictures, but not these.

I'm not a professional photographer by any means, but I do sell show cattle for a living and a good picture is more important than almost anything you can do to help sell cattle. We sold both of those heifers on those pictures and video we shot with the same camera to customers several states away.

I would be glad to go into more detail on how we picture our stock if anyone is interested.

Oh, and thanks a bunch DSC, we sure try to get good ones.

 

[DiamondMCattle]

I have always had better luck losing the halter. They seem to act more relaxed and hit that natural pose, especially if you have another person in the pen.

 

[DSC]

Thanks for the info "Olson Family Shorthorns".

 

[BroncoFan]

I'll have to get back to you on exactly which camera we used, but I think it's just an entry level Nikon DSLR.  I know I only paid 300 for it, and then a bit more for an additional lense.

As far as what we use to edit, it's always photoshop.  We didn't edit these photos in any way. We hardly pictured on halter with it just being two of us. We did edit out some posts and background on other pictures, but not these.

I'm not a professional photographer by any means, but I do sell show cattle for a living and a good picture is more important than almost anything you can do to help sell cattle. We sold both of those heifers on those pictures and video we shot with the same camera to customers several states away.

I would be glad to go into more detail on how we picture our stock if anyone is interested.

Oh, and thanks a bunch DSC, we sure try to get good ones.

Not to high jack this thread either but what software do you use to edit your videos?  We have always used a professional photographer but we'd like to experiment to see if we could adequately take pictures and video ourselves to save some cost.

 

[shortybreeder]

Here is a new photo of the heifer. Thoughts?

 

[BSCattle]

Adobe Premiere Elements is what we use to edit video. Easy to use and has settings for uploading to YouTube without any distortion (stretching to fit the screen for example).

 

[rlrlks]

Hire a professional it is more than worth the money.  Put out a good picture or no picture at all.  A bad picture will do more harm than no picture.

 

[cowboy_nyk]

The last photo is of reasonable quality, image wise.  The animal isn't standing well enough nor is the background usable for a catalog in my opinion.  I do all of my own photos so I feel your pain but you need to find an open space to do the pics or at least a more monotone background.  The calf also needs a bit more clipping but that's besides the point right now.  I use Photoshop for pics and for videos I usually just use whatever is on my computer out of the box.  Just pay special attention to image resolution before up loading to youtube or wherever.

Some examples from my adventures in photography below. My next purchase is going to be a better flash because it seems that I am always fighting for more light.

 

[shortybreeder]

I should also add that in order to make the file size small enough for steerplanet I have to lower the resolution. So the quality is higher than what I upload. The background is solid red, so how could I make it more monotone? Someone suggested that there needed to be something for scale, so I added in the ladder for that purpose, if that's the problem with the background.

 

[Chuck Wagon]

Take several pics, but you should lose the ladder and hay.  It distracts my attention away from the heifer.  Also, I can see your shadow and it pulls my focus away