Horse riding

ohiofalcon

All the latest posts seem to be indoor sports. Winter seems to be hanging on way too long. So I decided to post a few pics from this past summer. Still a newbie to shooting sports and wildlife. Any C/C is welcome.
Canon Rebel XTi with a Canon 70-300mm lens. Handheld.
#1

#2

#3

Thanks for looking!

gus

Nice action OF, love the last one. I did a lot of that all over the country when i was a kid. I didnt know how to start the day without a horse standing on my toes.

swintonphoto

Great expressions on the faces. Nice job.

Travis

I recently did a horse shoot and asked one of the resident dgrin "horse specialist" to critique it. Her response was that I shouldn't be scared to crank the ISO up to 400 and shoot at 1/1000 because motion blur was killing me. All of mine were done between 1/250 and 1/500. I think the same advice would apply here. Composition, action, and subjects are all spot on but it looks like each is suffering from a bit of motion blur.

johng

Travis wrote:

I recently did a horse shoot and asked one of the resident dgrin "horse specialist" to critique it. Her response was that I shouldn't be scared to crank the ISO up to 400 and shoot at 1/1000 because motion blur was killing me. All of mine were done between 1/250 and 1/500. I think the same advice would apply here. Composition, action, and subjects are all spot on but it looks like each is suffering from a bit of motion blur.

Good advice. I would also add that whether it's motion blur, overcropping or poor focus technique, the faces of your human subjects are a bit soft in 2 & 3. With 3 it really stands out. She's got bright blue eyes but when you look at her face it's soft.

I agree you've got nice composition and action but you want those faces to be sharp.

For a self proclaimed newbie I think you're off to a very fine start

ohiofalcon

Thanks for the advice.
Using the last picture as an example: Here is the uncropped version showing focus point.

This one was shot at 200 ISO f8 @ 1/500th with AI Servo. I think I was more concerned about having the front of the horse in focus and forgot about the riders. Going to a higher ISO might give me the shutterspeed and more depth of field. Would focusing on the riders face give me enough DOF to have the horse in focus?

pspphotos

Agree and one more suggestion
What did you use to show the focus point? BTW - I shoot baseball and had the same issues with motion blur and part of my image being out of the focus area. I believe that bumping up your speed will help, but you may also want to change your FStop to F11. That way you wont lose that great stirred up dirt at the hooves. I love seeing "frozen, flying dirt in action shots, it just adds depth and motion to the shot.

Lorrie

ohiofalcon wrote:

Thanks for the advice.
Using the last picture as an example: Here is the uncropped version showing focus point.

This one was shot at 200 ISO f8 @ 1/500th with AI Servo. I think I was more concerned about having the front of the horse in focus and forgot about the riders. Going to a higher ISO might give me the shutterspeed and more depth of field. Would focusing on the riders face give me enough DOF to have the horse in focus?

johng

ohiofalcon wrote:

Thanks for the advice.
Using the last picture as an example: Here is the uncropped version showing focus point.

This one was shot at 200 ISO f8 @ 1/500th with AI Servo. I think I was more concerned about having the front of the horse in focus and forgot about the riders. Going to a higher ISO might give me the shutterspeed and more depth of field. Would focusing on the riders face give me enough DOF to have the horse in focus?

Well, here's the thing - your focus point isn't even on the horses face it's on his chest. AND it's a low contrast area (shadow) which will mean focus suffers. That and the slow shutter spped (1/500) result in neither face being in particularly good focus. I don't shoot horse riding so I can't speak to what setting would get BOTH in focus. But I would suggest you target a better contrast area and DEFINITELY a higher shutter speed (1/1000 or better - preferably 1/2000).

HoofClix

I personally like the first one the best because it shows some critical part of the competition, or game, about to happen. The rider's face is also in the best focus. Equestrian is a mixture of sports and portrait photography, as it's about the person on the horse. And there are equestrian "art" photographers who do entirely different stuff from the competition stuff.

I have found that 1/500 is simply not fast enought. I'm a nut about isolation, so my norm is to shoot AP at f2.8, then to adjust the iso up if need be to get a minimum of 1/1000, but I like it faster if possible. If it's racing or polo I might go up to f4 to get the chance to have several in focus, but it just depends on what I'm in the mood for that day. Getting the right focus point can very much be a hit or miss thing in the field. Focusing on the shoulder is the standard point from that angle. That point is between the nose and the rider's face, so ought to give the best balance. It's on the rider's knee when shooting from the side.

Other times, however, I'm much more interested in slow-speed panning shots. Try 1/60 and really hold the camera on a spot of the horse as it's moving perpendicular to you, not toward or away, and see what you get...

tonichelle

perpendicular? or parallel?

johng

tonichelle wrote:

perpendicular? or parallel?

Perpendicular. If they are moving parallel that would mean they are moving toward or away from your position - and depending on the angle it may be very difficult or impossible to use a panning technique.

ohiofalcon

johng
my focus point was the horses chest because that seemed to be the middle area for both rider and horses face. Seemed like a good idea at the time. This was my first time shooting horses and I should have talked with the riders to find out if which was more important, the rider or their horse more in focus. I won't get a chance to shoot this sport again until the late summer.
As for the geometry question, I would think that parallel would be the horse crossing left to right in front of me and perpandicular would be running towards me. I agree with pspphotos. I love the dirt flying. Whether it's from hooves or baseball spikes. I'll try for a faster shutter speed next time.

tonichelle

ohiofalcon wrote:

johng
As for the geometry question, I would think that parallel would be the horse crossing left to right in front of me and perpandicular would be running towards me.

That's how I think of it as well... and with the idea of panning that's why I asked. I would think if you're panning you're wanting them to run parallel to your position


but then math was never my forte!

WilliamClark77

These are some good shots! I'd be proud to have captured them.

I haven't shot horse racing (yet hopefully) so take the following with a grain of salt: I noticed you said you use the 70-300. One thing to remember if you are trying to get deeper dof is that it increases the shorter the focal length for any given aperture. I know you can't always get closer, but say you are shooting at 300mm/f5.6 from 75' (a total guesstimate for an example) away you get about 4' of in focus area, which is a pretty small window to hit when the object is moving so fast. Now, if at all possible to get to, say, 45 feet away and zoom out to 100mm/5.6, you'll get about 13' of in focus area which is much easier to nail enough that both the rider and horse is sharp. Plus, tracking the horse will help induce background blur and you could even use a narrower aperture for more shutter speed. Google "dof calculator" to get some accurate numbers for yourself at the approximate distances you may be.

As far as the perpendicular vs parallel I've always read/saw it referenced to the lens axis. If you are shooting facing north and the subject is headed east (left to right) it forms a 90 with the lens axis, thus perpendicular for panning. I've been wrong on more than one occassion... today!

beetle8

These are some good shots! I'd be proud to have captured them.

Totally agree.
always learn and try to better the next time.
The first one is my favorite,