Story Behind the Still
Find out how Rarindra Prakarsa shot his enchanting environmental image of a horse and its owner
ABOUT THE SHOT: Rarindra Prakarsa’s work has a unique style that is greatly influenced by the beautiful settings in which he captures his subjects. Many shots from his portfolio demonstrate a stunning combination of natural and artificial light, which produces a strong threedimensional feel. Rarindra explains the most important aspects in the process of creating environmental images like these: “Learn to see the light, find the right background, be prepared with artificial light to get more drama, but most importantly, be prepared with ideas before leaving home.” This image was captured while Rarindra was leading a workshop in West Java, 60km outside Jakarta. “The place is very familiar to me,” he explains. “It’s where I usually take my environmental pictures. [On this day] it looked misty and I thought it would be nice to have this horse in the scene – I asked the owner to play with the horse [for the composition].”
As Rarindra analysed the scene, he was drawn to those key components of his signature style. “Firstly the image is about the beautiful perspective created by the trees and secondly, about light direction (natural and artificial) from behind. The challenge was choosing the right place to get the subject to stand out and create drama.” Due to the natural beauty of the location Rarindra didn’t have to apply much in the way of postprocessing to the image – he simply brightened the subject slightly and added a vignette, to focus attention towards the centre of the frame. Rarindra’s style has attracted a great online following and he regularly runs workshops for students from multiple countries. “Students learn about finding the right place to shoot, considering light, composition and finding a story to tell. On the second day they learn RAW developing to create more dramatic colours.” Rarindra will be leading a UK workshop in October 2018. Visit his website for details.