I’m just curious if there is a reason you can’t put the horse where you want it if it is trained to stay in one spot and look where you want? I assume the horse will be groomed and look marvelous so you won’t want to mess up the mane and forelock with a halter, but a lead rope draped over the neck to bring it into position and then quickly removed would be easiest - you at least give the photographer one less thing to worry about when working with animals.

I always wonder who on earth would shell out money for a fisheye lens when the novelty would wear off after a day

I have used my Fuji XE-1 to its limit and am desperately ready for an upgrade. At a certain point, it absolutely is about the equipment.

I’m not a professional, but I do gigs for friends and family because it’s fun. I do them free because I can’t guarantee I’ll get anything good.

But what is the bare minimum quality a professional photographer needs to provide? Arguably, portraiture should be in focus to the point that you don’t think the photographer is visually impaired. Whether the photo is as sharp as it could be, well…I think customers can forgive slightly out of focus photos if they’re sold as “soft” or “dreamy.”

As far as composition/framing/lighting, most customers won’t really pay attention or notice. Or, they’ll think it was a style choice. After all, they have paid a “professional” and he selected the “best” photos that he took.

I’m not doubting that his work may not be up to your standards, but it sounds like it may meet the bare minimum expectations of his clients.

I’ve been hobbying for 4-ish years and just had the absolute worst “shoot” of my life a couple of weeks ago. I still got some amazing photos, but I was fighting against my skill level the whole time. It’s possible with this dude he’s just phoning it in. He gets good enough photos and doesn’t think twice about it.

Lastly, I’ll say that I’ve seen some professional photos that I just don’t get but they’re praised anyway because the photographer is highly esteemed.

I think I get the idea behind it but these are not really coming off as interesting. The aesthetic is interesting, but doesn’t make up for poor composition and uninteresting subjects.

Not sure what you’re shooting with, but if it’s a camera and you’re shooting at night you can raise the ISO and increase the shutter speed to both get the graininess and keep it dark, I would rely on aperture to get the DoF you want rather than using it to keep the photo dark.

Alternately, if you overexposed the picture with high ISO and lower shutter speed you could adjust the exposure in editing to get it darker and lower the contrast to wash it out.

If you’re shooting with a phone then I guess just use a filter.

When shooting aesthetic you still need to focus on composition and subject matter.