Horse Race Help!!!

jdm2lpm

Hello all, I need some advice from you guys.

I have the chance to take some horse racing pictures tomorrow at Louisiana Downs. My equipment only consists of a Canon 40D and a Canon 28-135 IS USM. The lighting will be at 1:30pm and very bright, and very hot. My plan is to shoot in Tv mode at 1/1000th and 800 ISO.

My shot will be about 15 feet from the guard rail near the gates and finish line.

Aerialfilm1

If your in the general viewing area you're probably limited. My optimal place would be at track level as close to the inside rail as possible where I could shoot as the pack came toward me. Because of the risk that close to the horses it's a shot best done remotely. I think your shutter and ISO are too high but that's me. If I had to pan as the horses pass my location, I'd like to have some motion blur.

Are you trying to focus your efforts on one race in particular? If not go for the earlier races and move around and find the look you're after. If you're after a certain horse in a specific race, you only have one chance tomorrow so make it good. It's not like NASCAR where they'll come around a few hundred more times.

If you get to walk the paddock and stables, rapid shutter sequences can spook the horses. Trust me, you don't want to be that guy. Remember this when your being escorted out by the fine security professionals. In auto racing the fences are to protect you from the cars. In horse racing the fences protect the horses from you.

pathfinder

jdm2lpm wrote: »

Hello all, I need some advice from you guys.

I have the chance to take some horse racing pictures tomorrow at Louisiana Downs. My equipment only consists of a Canon 40D and a Canon 28-135 IS USM. The lighting will be at 1:30pm and very bright, and very hot. My plan is to shoot in Tv mode at 1/1000th and 800 ISO.

My shot will be about 15 feet from the guard rail near the gates and finish line.

With a 40D in bright sunlight, I suspect ISO 400 is easily high enough, and I would accept a shutter speed down to 1/250th to 1/400 with that lens, unless your goal is to show the feet stopped, perfectly sharp, in mid-air. High speed frame rate too. I shot airplanes last week in sunlight and cloudy skies in flight at ISO 100 with f8 at 1/640th.... Seems to me like ISO 800 is not necessary in sunlight, unless you want your shutter speeds to be higher than 1/1600th at f11. ISO 200 at f11 in sunlight will allow a shutter speed of 1/400th, or 1/800th at f8 which should be a sharp aperture with the 28-135 IS

jdm2lpm

Thanks for all the advice. I will post some pics when I return.