Maritime Show Jumping part 2

Snowgirl

I checked on the original photo and it hadn't been cropped - that's where I was standing.

Here's another - straight out of the camera, no editing whatsoever. ISO 800, f/4, 1/500 at 70mm Canon 40D, WB set at 5500 in camera, 70-200mmf/2.8 lens with 2x extender. C&C welcome.

JSPhotography

Feels good to get outside, eh? Did you need the doubler? This looks like a normal stadium set up, I shoot this with my 70 - 200 2.8 and 40D. I shoot Ap at 2.8 - 3.5, ISO as low as I can go to run around 1/1000 shutter. As to the two shots you posted I would be cropping them in tight. Maybe it is not "correct" but I want the horse and rider to fill as much of the frame as I can. I think if you crop both shots in they will look good. This one I would have moved more to the left to get the horse/rider more in the center of the jump. I move around a lot. Glad to see you got outdoors.

Snowgirl

JSPhotography wrote: »

Feels good to get outside, eh? Did you need the doubler? This looks like a normal stadium set up, I shoot this with my 70 - 200 2.8 and 40D. I shoot Ap at 2.8 - 3.5, ISO as low as I can go to run around 1/1000 shutter. As to the two shots you posted I would be cropping them in tight. Maybe it is not "correct" but I want the horse and rider to fill as much of the frame as I can. I think if you crop both shots in they will look good. This one I would have moved more to the left to get the horse/rider more in the center of the jump. I move around a lot. Glad to see you got outdoors.

For sure it felt good to be out in the light. As I said below, I'm so used to being in the cave (6 years shooting inside 90% of the time) that my mind almost blanked out on how to shoot in bright light

I wasn't sure if I needed the extender or not. I did lose at least 2 stops because of it and the UV filter (windy and a lot of flying dust). Probably should have left it off.

I'm shooting a motorcycle event and a cattle penning event this week-end; obviously both outdoors. The weather forecast is for high clouds and a 60% chance of rain so we'll see how I make out in those conditions.

Thanks for your comments. Greatly appreciated.

HoofClix

CeCi, I know you were practicing and testing a few things out, so critiquing may not go to your real shots, but..

I don't have an extender, but I understand that a 2x is very much not recommended for the 70-200 zoom, in fact really only meant for primes. I thing some of the softness that I see may be attributed to that. I have one of my crew who uses the 1.4 x with his 300mm prime, and those always look great. I haven't seen what that looks like on my 70-200.

OK, so I see your settings, but I have to guess at your technique there. Basically in ideal conditions with my Nikon I set it up at ISO200 / AP at f3.5 or 4.0 / Auto ISO with the minimum shutter speed of 1/800. I let my ISO float to keep it consistent, and most of the day I am getting shutter speeds far faster than that.

Looking at the shot itself, I wonder if you are fixing on the jump and letting the horse come through, or if you are panning through. You will never have both the horse along with the whole jump set in the center.. But for me it is very rare that I could sell a shot that has the horse so far off to one side.

So I suggest panning with the horse and taking the shots. The horse will have much more clarity if you do it that way... If you are already doing that.. Never mind!!:D

Snowgirl

Thanks for the comments. As you said, this was a practice session and I experimented with various techniques.

You're right, in this case I pre-focused on the jump and waited to try and catch the horse on take-off or close to it.

I also think you're right that the extender is next to useless on the 70-200 in terms of clarity. Photos taken the previous week-end, indoors, without the extender, were more crisp.

At the cattle penning event next Sunday I'll leave the extender at home and try your suggestions re AV and ISo and see how it goes - as well as attempting to improve my panning technique

Thanks again for all your help.:D

johng

need more lens. While horses isn't one of the things I shoot I can say that having a subject framed so loosely is going to be an issue - extender or not. You're going to need a lot more lens to shoot from that far away and retain detail in the rider and horse. Unless horse showing is different than many sports I wouldn't imagine the preference of buyers is to have a shot so loosely framed. Doesn't seem much about the background that makes it interesting enough to include so much of it in the shot.

Snowgirl

johng wrote: »

need more lens. While horses isn't one of the things I shoot I can say that having a subject framed so loosely is going to be an issue - extender or not. You're going to need a lot more lens to shoot from that far away and retain detail in the rider and horse. Unless horse showing is different than many sports I wouldn't imagine the preference of buyers is to have a shot so loosely framed. Doesn't seem much about the background that makes it interesting enough to include so much of it in the shot.

True - all of it. Where I normally shoot I'm much closer. In show jumping (if I were the official photog.) I'd be allowed inside the ring. Since I was there just practicing, I couldn't be inside. Dressage is different - not allowed inside the ring - ever - no matter who you are. But, it's a smaller ring so you can get closer from ring-side.

Ideally I'd like to have a 400mm lens or more - and when the budget allows - oh yeah!

This short (and the others) were all experiments - more to test my focus and lighting and less about the framing - although you're quite right - the background is less than interesting. If I had been working on these to sell I'd have been far more careful composition-wise.

I'll see what happens this week-end.