Horse Races - 2nd try

[Brownbear]

As promised here are some shots from my 2nd time around...

Manual - Matrix Metering
SS 1250-2500 A 4-8 Exposure Bias from 0 to -1
Auto ISO (Nikon 7100) which varied from 220-2000 which was very helpful under the changing light conditions

I initially positioned myself close to the starting gate which was good for full horse shots but I ended up moving back to the best position I could find near the finish line as there is greater opportunity for more shots... full and close up.

As suggested I tried panning at a SS as low as 180 and gradually upped it to 1250 before I managed any in focus shots. The difficulty with panning for a full horse shot is that poles and racing mannequins are all along the track so I when I tried panning I would lose focus and have to try to capture focus again and it just proved to be to difficult to do, for me anyway. Therefore the majority of my shots have a distracting background instead of a nicely blurred background, and the background at the race track is highly distracting.

I did manage to capture more of the horse in this set of shots, and for the close up shots I was able to keep the head of the horse and the rider in the shot with more luck than my first try. I think my focus was better on the last set because I kept fiddling with the shutter speeds. I expect with more practice composition will get easier.


C&C always welcome but not necessary. Here I'm sharing just for learning and for fun, hence a lot of images.

#1



#2



#3



#4



#5



#6



#7



#8 (Clipped at both ends but kind of fun)



#9



#10



Thanks for viewing and thanks to everyone who has helped me with these...

[Digital]

Christina, nice set. I like #2 the best. I also like #10. #1 is not bad either.


Bruce

[rpcrowe]

Quite a nice set of images. I like them better than your first try, mostly because of the cleaner background. I tend to like #'s 2, 5 and 10 the best. But all are nice except that I am not too keen on #8...

[Brownbear]

Thank you Bruce and Richard... yes, #8 is odd...

I think I like #2 the best... If only I could manage to blur the backgrounds they would be much better. There are just a couple of more races this year, so it will likely not be until next Spring that I have the opportunity to try again.

These are just for fun and learning. I like my head shots far more as I think they have more potential (blurred backgrounds) so if you have a chance I would love some feedback on the head shots, ie; from portrait people, albeit I had little control on the composition of the head shots, just my best try and something I can learn from to apply to animal portraits.

Thank you.

[Digital]

Christina, Have you ever tried pre-focusing on a particular spot on the track, and fired your shutter when your subject(s) were at that pre-focused spot?


Bruce

[Stagecoach]

Hi Christina,

It's No 2 for me, you have captured this with all four of the horses hooves off the ground great action shot.

A question if I may. You mention exposure bias up to -1, how are you applying this? By just moving the metering indicator off centre by that amount (as in manual), dialing it in or applying this as a correction in PP?

Grahame

[Brownbear]

Hi Bruce,

Yes, but with the horses you never really know which spot the action is going to be at, and even if I nailed one shot it means I missed a bunch of other shots, hence not my favourite technique... My husband suggested the same to me, and I did try it but it didn't work for me.

Thank you for the kind suggestion.

Christina, Have you ever tried pre-focusing on a particular spot on the track, and fired your shutter when your subject(s) were at that pre-focused spot?


Bruce

[rpcrowe]

Christina,

Some of the images might benefit from some cropping.

Sometimes when the legs are cropped out in an odd place, it may help to crop closer and get just the jockey and a portion of the horse.

The group shot is exciting, I like it cropped to a more narrow format and with sharpening and vibrance increased.

I sharpened the lead horse and rider a bit to draw attention to them...

[Brownbear]

Hi Grahame,

Good to know... All four hooves off of the ground, for sure in every shot next time around. Thank you.

I take a few shots of the horses as they move about the track before the race starts to get an idea of the best exposure, dialing in my best guess in manual mode. After the first race I check all my histograms to see where I have any clipping and adjust accordingly. I also look at my shutter speed and aperture and try and guess which is best to adjust how. There is 20-25 minutes between each race so a lot easier to do than with wildlife or bugs, ie; plenty of time to think and adjust between races.

It is a compromise for the horses in the distance (full size) as they don't need the exposure compensation or not much... But when the horses are near the finish line they fill the frame and the jockeys wear white and red and I see lots of clipping so I set my exposure based on the close in shots... I suppose I should try and shoot just the far shots or just the close shot at one time, but I hate to miss a shot because I'm focused on just on thing.

Hi Christina,

It's No 2 for me, you have captured this with all four of the horses hooves off the ground great action shot.

A question if I may. You mention exposure bias up to -1, how are you applying this? By just moving the metering indicator off centre by that amount (as in manual), dialing it in or applying this as a correction in PP?

Grahame

[Brownbear]

Hi Richard

Thank you for sharing and for your edit which I adore... It shows me the potential for the image. Truly appreciated.

Christina

Christina,

Some of the images might benefit from some cropping.

Sometimes when the legs are cropped out in an odd place, it may help to crop closer and get just the jockey and a portion of the horse.

The group shot is exciting, I like it cropped to a more narrow format and with sharpening and vibrance increased.

I sharpened the lead horse and rider a bit to draw attention to them...

[ajsmith]

Nice pics. Your color, focus and exposure is really good. I like #2 because of the uncluttered background and you caught the action at the phase of the gallop when all four hooves are off the ground. (Coming from a former horse woman. I learned to ride at an early age and had horses most of my life. Not now, but would love to get one again some day.)

I Like #5 and #10 too. Notice they are galloping in unison... almost. It's too bad that the horse on the right got cut off in #7. I kind of like that photo. You can see the determination in the faces of the jockeys and horses.