Reining Horse - Photo Help Please

KJ_Anthony

Hi!

I need some help, I am shooting the reining classic at the south point arena in Las Vegas, NV. This photo was taken yesterday.


The info on this photo is:


Nikon D-80 with a 2.8 80 - 200 lens no flash was used

ISO - 500 with shutter of 1/100 of sec

White Balance - Auto. Have tried custom, incandescent.


As you can see this is a very bad photo. The concept is there. Get the horse sliding freezing the dirt with a clear rider & horse. For this shoot I am kneeling looking at the horse and rider on about a 45 degree angle.


I have tried all sorts of different settings to get these shots. More ISO, less ISO, more shutter, less shutter. Different white balance. Today I even tried a SB800 flash and flash white balance. Not any better. I usually don't use flash on my horse photos... but, I had hit the wall today and was running out of ideas.


The horses either come out all blur (shutter speed to slow), or dark, or like this photo pixely looking.

These are the results I typically get at the south point arena... There is Show Photographer on site, and he has a lighting system set up for his Canon to work off of...


Any suggestions or ideas? Is it me or is the D80 limited when it comes to low light sports photography?


This photo has been resized and cropped to fit on this forum... no other changes have been made to the photo.

The file is attached because I can't figure out how to make it go in this post. Sorry.


Thank you in advance...


KJ Anthony
Professional Photographer

garymkrieg

I was there yesterday, after everything was done for the day. There was one rider out there practicing. I have a D300, I put it in shutter priority at 1/500 shutter speed. The aperture when to 2.8 and the ISO went up to 3200. With that combination I was able to get a good picture with frozen action.

I think you D80 might have trouble with the ISO of 3200. Your lens is fine, I was shooting with a 70-200 2.8.

How long will you be there shooting the event, maybe we could meet-up and see what we can manage to do.

Gary

KJ_Anthony

Thank You Gary & Reply
Hi Gary!

So it isn't just me then?? I would like to meet up with you and see if we can figure something out... I shoot a lot of events at the South Point and usual end up very frustrated and people even question my Professional skills...

With my D80 I find that if the ISO gets much over 1000 it gets grainy and doesn't look good either. 640 or 800 seems to work... But, I am willing to try something different.

I am not sure when I will go next. I believe I will go on Monday, it starts at 8:00 am... and I like to get there at that time. Not very crowded and easy to get around the arena to get the shots...

My contact info is on http://www.kjanthony.com

Thank you for offering to help and please give me a call if you can tomorrow afternoon.

Respectfully,

KJ Anthony
Professional Photographer

garymkrieg wrote:

I was there yesterday, after everything was done for the day. There was one rider out there practicing. I have a D300, I put it in shutter priority at 1/500 shutter speed. The aperture when to 2.8 and the ISO went up to 3200. With that combination I was able to get a good picture with frozen action.

I think you D80 might have trouble with the ISO of 3200. Your lens is fine, I was shooting with a 70-200 2.8.

How long will you be there shooting the event, maybe we could meet-up and see what we can manage to do.

Gary

apexonephoto

It's out of focus, more so than blurred. I have no idea what a D80 is as I shoot Canon. That is a good indoor lens. I only shoot once or twice a year indoors, and I shoot at ISO 800. For a photo of something moving towards you, a shutter speed of 1/500 or faster is usually good. The flying dirt, will show up and convey the feeling of motion at any speed. Is there a focus servo setting on your camera that may be set to a static setting?

KJ_Anthony

Look..... Its a HORSE!!!
I wanted to say thank you to everyone who responded to my request for help.

I wanted to give a very big thank to Gary! Gary you were awesome, you came out to the South Point and sat with me for three hours. Your knowledge, patience, and the fact that you weren't judging me was great. I learned a lot, and know now that I need to upgrade my equipment... well my camera any way!

Gary if you ever want to go shooting in Vegas, give me a ring. I'll be there.

Respectfully,

KJ Anthony
Professional Photographer

Joie

KJ_Anthony wrote:

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who responded to my request for help.

I wanted to give a very big thank to Gary! Gary you were awesome, you came out to the South Point and sat with me for three hours. Your knowledge, patience, and the fact that you weren't judging me was great. I learned a lot, and know now that I need to upgrade my equipment... well my camera any way!

Gary if you ever want to go shooting in Vegas, give me a ring. I'll be there.

Respectfully,

KJ Anthony
Professional Photographer

Wanna share what you learned KJ?

I took some pictures at a horse show in Tennessee over the weekend and pretty much all the pictures I took of the horses which were in motion were blurry.

cdonovan

Shoot, wish I had seen this sooner!

Shooting inside in an arena like this, you really do need to bump up the ISO. I shoot Canon, but asume that your camera is a "consumer" model SLR, The ISO is ok, but when you are trying to be a professional, it's hard for people to over look the grain. As you move up in camera bodies, you'll find that they handle the noise better. I started with a consumer model, and I could get the pics, but they were grainy, and embarrassing, I moved up to a pro-sumer camera, which made a giant difference. And I've just purchased a professional body, and I was using it at a very difficult arena this weekend, using an ISO of 2000. The pictures are amazing! lol

Depending on the situation, I usually shoot in shutter priority and using the evaluative spot metering to set the aperture. I had some challenging issues this weekend, I had two perlino's reining in a covered indoor arena with really strong back lighting. I did ok with the shutter mode, but the next time one came in I put it in manual, exposed for the horse, made sure the shutter was fast enough, and did a fine job of exposing the horse and the arena!

Here's a link to the galleries from the show, these are all just out of camera, no cropping, not run through Photoshop At all!
http://cdonovanphotos.smugmug.com/NBCRA/September-7

KJ_Anthony

Wow!
Those are some great photos... thanks for sharing!

I also appreciate your advice.

I am looking at upgrading, but my budget is limited. I am looking at a D90 and have researched it quite a bit.

My concern is will be 60mm prime and my older 80-200 mm 2.8 work on the D90, I will have to contact Nikon and find out.

Indoor arenas are very hard to shoot in and the lighting is not great. I have done outdoor events and been very happy with the photos.

Thank you for your help and it is appreciated.

Respectfully,

KJ Anthony
Professional Photographer

cdonovan wrote:

Shoot, wish I had seen this sooner!

Shooting inside in an arena like this, you really do need to bump up the ISO. I shoot Canon, but asume that your camera is a "consumer" model SLR, The ISO is ok, but when you are trying to be a professional, it's hard for people to over look the grain. As you move up in camera bodies, you'll find that they handle the noise better. I started with a consumer model, and I could get the pics, but they were grainy, and embarrassing, I moved up to a pro-sumer camera, which made a giant difference. And I've just purchased a professional body, and I was using it at a very difficult arena this weekend, using an ISO of 2000. The pictures are amazing! lol

Depending on the situation, I usually shoot in shutter priority and using the evaluative spot metering to set the aperture. I had some challenging issues this weekend, I had two perlino's reining in a covered indoor arena with really strong back lighting. I did ok with the shutter mode, but the next time one came in I put it in manual, exposed for the horse, made sure the shutter was fast enough, and did a fine job of exposing the horse and the arena!

Here's a link to the galleries from the show, these are all just out of camera, no cropping, not run through Photoshop At all!
http://cdonovanphotos.smugmug.com/NBCRA/September-7

cdonovan

Joie wrote:

Wanna share what you learned KJ?

I took some pictures at a horse show in Tennessee over the weekend and pretty much all the pictures I took of the horses which were in motion were blurry.

Bump your ISO if it's a lighting issue depending on the location, and how steady you are with your light reading meter, shoot in either shutter mode or manual, exposing for the horse, you should have a very fast shutter speed to stop the motion.