Horses in motion

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dajlucy

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David
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Hi folks
I was wondering if anyone could help us out as I've been asked to photograph a friend riding their horse. The main sort of photos they want are action shots, jumping and generally in motion. Any advice would be gratefully appreciated and give me somewhere to start

Cheers Dave
 
setting wise, youll want at least 1/640 for groundwork maybe a little more for jumping. relevent aperture setting to get depth of focus coverage. but depends on the lighting availble.. id also select AISERVO (or equivelent for your brand of camera) and center point.

timing wise ideally you want the old favourite /\/\ postitioning of the legs for flat work. jumping is generally best when the rear legs are just leaving the ground. watch out for getting the jump wings obstructing the horses face etc.

otherwise the usual, watch your cluttered backgrounds etc.
 
Thanks for the advice Neil, very helpful and I'm now looking forward to getting some shots done. Very impressive web site also.
 
There was an article in Practical Photography a few months back about a bloke out doing a shoot for a horse magazine. Would be worth a look through, sorry I cant remember exact issue. Have still got it at home if you want me to find out though.
 
Having been both behind and infront of the camera where horses are concerned here's a couple of tips:

Keep your shutter speed up, the horse is moving after all. Dressage is all about composure and won't be very quick, if showjumping it'll be a composed canter so won't be really fast, cross-country's a whole lot faster (and more fun!).

Never, ever use a flash. Ever.

If your timing's a bit out you can always fall back on your multi-shot settings.

Keep an eye on the scenery, uprights can get in the way, schools can be littered with unsightly bits and bobs and people have a real tendency to get in the way.

Take a bit of time letting the horse get used to you, the last thing anyone wants is it spooking. Try and make sure the horse can see you from a distance, it won't appreciate you appearing from behind an upright mid way through a jump.

You'll soon get used to it and working out the best settings is a rewarding challenge.
 
Really grateful for all the help folks. Looking forward to getting out there and getting some images to boost my portfolio 
 
Hi guys, I managed to get my horse photo shoot done and on the whole I'm quite happy with it. The only thing I struggled with was the jump shots. The results i got were that the horse was pin sharp and had some lovely detail in the image but the rider was a little bit blurry. I had my focus on Center point and always aimed for the horses head as it jumped and was shooting on a fstop of f4. It was early morning also and the sun was quite bleaching on the rider so maybe that didn't help either. Does any one have any advice ?
Cheers Dave
 
Yup. Your DoF was too narrow, especially if you were shooting head on and fairly close. Either drop back to f/5.6, shoot from a 45deg angle, focus on the shoulder/rider, or even better a combination of all three.
 
DemiLion said:
Yup. Your DoF was too narrow, especially if you were shooting head on and fairly close. Either drop back to f/5.6, shoot from a 45deg angle, focus on the shoulder/rider, or even better a combination of all three.
Click to expand...

Cheers will try that next time And experiment a bit more with my shutter speed which was between 1-640 - 1-1000
TQ
 
Horses in motion.. you'll need about 30 cameras and lots of string..

:coat:
 
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