Anyone have experience shooting a polo match??

Blurmore

Friday night I'm going to a night polo match (starts at 8). I went to these as a kid, and I had a lot of fun. I'm not sure if I am going to be able to use a flash or not. If I can I plan on using my alien bees and triggering with a radio slave, I have a feeling this may spook the horses, so if I am ambient I am going to shoot RAW with my 85 f1.8 and hope ISO 1600 is enough. The field is lit by x-highschool football lights, but the field itself is wider and longer than a gridiron, so I think this will make for dark corners and ends and sides. Any ideas on what shutter speeds I'll need to stop running horses? If I use the Alien Bees Max sync is 1/250 probably not fast enough. I doubt my 580ex will do much without a better beamer, but then I can HSS. Not a common thing to shoot I know, so I don't blame ya'll if you don't have any advice/experience, but any suggestions are welcome. I'm not shooting it professionally, just as a spectator but I'd like to get some good shots.

editied to mention that I am shooting a 30D, I have a 85 f1.8 a 70-200 f4 L and a 17-55 f2.8, with a 580ex

Well I arrived late to the match (got a speeding ticket on the way) so I missed out on the twilight shots. The lights were worse than I thought, big ole can style racks on short towers, almost impossible to keep out of frame. All of these are at ISO 3200 1/200th @ f1.8-f2.8 with my 85mm f1.8, I panned a few and got some ok results. Sharpened with a duplicate layer --> highpass --> strong USM on the highpass --> blending mode soft light technique. I think this does the best job of sharpening noisy high iso shots without making the noise look really ugly. The white pants were CA'ing like mad so they got the hue/sat select magentas desaturate treatment. I was informed that a flash would not spook the horses, but I wasn't taking any chances. The job was really a piece for a 200mm f1.8 L and a 5D, but I'm fairly happy with the results. The Darlington Polo Club itself is an interesting story, it was started and is kept alive by like 5 Western PA horse families who pass it down from generation to generation. Darlington is a VERY small town west of Pittsburgh less than 10 miles from the Ohio border right smack dab in the heart of coal country, this is gritty, sweaty, hard chargin polo, not the high falutin picinic basket society stuff. The games are about what I remember as a kid, except that there were a few spectators who were enjoying the fruits of the vine rather than the grog of the grain.

comments and critique are welcome.



this one reminded me of knights in battle

W.W. Webster

Blurmore wrote:

I'm not sure if I am going to be able to use a flash or not.

Flash would have to be a big no-no, surely?

Blurmore

W.W. Webster wrote:

Flash would have to be a big no-no, surely?

Thats what I would guess....but you never know, polo ponies are very well trained and accustomed to being run into by other horses and mallets whistling by their ears and screaming fans..Ofcourse I'm going to ask first, and I am assuming no flash, but who knows?

gsgary

If it's as much fun as shooting eventing you will have a great time, i took meter readings off the grass and it worked a treat

CookieS

I think if your shooting fast action and for yourself, that If you have to go 250 ss speed and pan a bit, you will still get some feet motion and blur but that can just add the "effect of speed" to your images. when i shoot indoor horse shows I end up using manual mode, ususally f4 or so and shutters beteen 200-500 at ISO 800-1600 with a 20D ( but with multiple horses in the same shot , you will probably want a bit more Dof .)

Blurmore

oops
Bump for added pics.

saurora

I think you did well! A little blur to me adds to the feel of motion. I imagine it is very difficult to anticipate the action (and direction) in this sport. Heck, I have trouble tracking a butterfly in flight, let alone a fast moving pony!!! Good job!