Racehorses training
on the causeway to Holy Island, England
Scroll down for details on how the photograph was taken
© Philip Dunn

Potential Yes, you are right to assume that there is some work done in the darkroom to darken the sky on this photograph. But the potential for such a powerful picture has to be recognised well before the shutter is pressed. The final result was an eight column picture in the Travel Section of The Sunday Times. The cantering horses were spotted from the car as I drove over the causeway to Holy Island. They were too far away to make a picture possible, but looking some distance ahead, the road was seen to come closer to the track of the horses running along the water's edge. I made a dash for this spot, and reached it just in time to jump out of the car and take the photograph as the riders passed. The sky was was darkened in the darkroom. During printing, it was shaded completely as the horses were exposed using a grade 3 filter, then the enlarger filter was changed to a grade 5 and horses were shaded as the sky was exposed, enabling the clouds to be darkened while retaining the highlights and emphasizing the contrast. Go back to main home page