I am looking for a bit of help.....I have recently started taking photos of my horse being jumped. I seem to have good timing and am working on the composition. However, technically I am struggling a bit as I am not sure how to get the best out of my camera.
I use a Canon 400D with a Sigma 70-210 F2.8 lens. I use shutter priority with a speed of around 1/1600 and an ISO of 400.....this usually gives me a reasonable aperture setting. I have set the camera to focus on the centre only and for partial metering. I prefocus on the fence and then press the final bit of the shutter when I think the horse is in the best position. My horse is dark bay (brown) and I have found it helps to have exposure compensation of +1/3 to get decent tone but then I think that I may need to do some compensation digitally afterwords. I am currently using the software that came with the camera.
I tend to choose my position so that the sun is on my back, although this can be difficult at the moment as the sun is so high in the sky as it is mid-summer.
I am reasonably happy with about 30% of my photos (although the riders I photo seem happy with most of them!) but am not sure what to do to improve.
I would like some tips on how to get the best out of the equipment I have. I realise that there is better equipment out there but I do not want to go down that route yet.
I attach a couple of photos taken last weekend as examples.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1341/4726321367_8bfbc56844_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1139/4726321259_3e7ea8c16c_b.jpg
Staff edit: Images changed to links as the forum limit is 800 pixels. Please feel free to replace with resized images
I use a Canon 400D with a Sigma 70-210 F2.8 lens. I use shutter priority with a speed of around 1/1600 and an ISO of 400.....this usually gives me a reasonable aperture setting. I have set the camera to focus on the centre only and for partial metering. I prefocus on the fence and then press the final bit of the shutter when I think the horse is in the best position. My horse is dark bay (brown) and I have found it helps to have exposure compensation of +1/3 to get decent tone but then I think that I may need to do some compensation digitally afterwords. I am currently using the software that came with the camera.
I tend to choose my position so that the sun is on my back, although this can be difficult at the moment as the sun is so high in the sky as it is mid-summer.
I am reasonably happy with about 30% of my photos (although the riders I photo seem happy with most of them!) but am not sure what to do to improve.
I would like some tips on how to get the best out of the equipment I have. I realise that there is better equipment out there but I do not want to go down that route yet.
I attach a couple of photos taken last weekend as examples.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1341/4726321367_8bfbc56844_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1139/4726321259_3e7ea8c16c_b.jpg
Staff edit: Images changed to links as the forum limit is 800 pixels. Please feel free to replace with resized images
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