What am I doing wrong?!

G

Ginn

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Edit My Images
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I took these for my friend when she was competing recently but was very disappointed with them as I just couldn't get the light/colour right :(

Unfortunately I was very limited with my position (it was a national competition with set seating) and flash photography was not allowed (although I don't think it would have made much difference!).

ISO was 800
Any suggestions for future reference?

DSC_0693.jpg


DSC_0697.jpg
 
i see you are using a D200 from the exif, what lens are you using ?

Ideally for indoor shots like this you need a lens with an aperture of 2.8, this allows more light into the sensor.it also looks like maybe you need some more reach ? ie a longer lens too.

Can you post exactly what you have or used and we will see what we can do, we also have some horsey type photographers on here that can help with technique as well :)
 
It looks like it could be a White Balance issue as well Ginn that you should be able to sort with your processing software as long as you have shot in RAW ... :thinking: ... you will need to select something like Tungsten or a similar indoor mode ... :shrug:








:p
 
You should use auto white balance. I know some people seem to prefer to set it manually but in all honesty auto WB gets it right about %95 of the time and when it doesn't its very easy to fix once back home :)
 
Oh wow!! Thankyou for tweaking, thats 100x better!!

my lens is a nikon 18-70mm F/3.5-4.5G (auto). I also have a nikon 500mm and 70-200mm manual but they are about 20 years old - don't know if that makes any difference whatsoever though!

Camera settings (from capture NX software - is there an alternative software I should invest in?)
Focal length 70mm
ISO 800
Optimise image: normal
High ISO NR: Normal (I have no idea what that means!!)
Exposure mode: shutter priority
Shutter speed: 1/125s F/4.5
Exposure comp: 0EV (again, no idea??)
Colour mode: mode l (sRGB) (??)
Tone comp: Auto (??)
Hue adjustment: 0o
Saturation: auto
Sharpening: auto
White balance: Cloudy (had been shooting outside and it was quite overcast - must have not changed it, or not realised I needed to - tungsten next time?)
Focus mode: AF-C

Took around 200 pics that day (usually do if I go out for the day!) and as I only have a 4GB card I have been shooting in Fine Jpeg - would I do better to use Raw and buy another card?
 
hi Ginn, sorry i cant tell you how to change your pics in Nikon Capture, but one of the Nikon users may be able to help, all i did was in Photoshop CS2 go to Image - Adjustments - Colour Balance, and move the slider away from yellow this removed the yellow hue. Then played around with the rest of the colour balance to make the blues etc look normal.

If you had a more modern 70-200 i would say use that as it would give you much closer images, not sure how compatible the older ones are.

as suggested above set white balance to auto and if possible shoot raw, more memory cards are so cheap now specially if you ignore jessops ! ;)

Heres an example of an Extreme 3 4gb card £39.61 including VAT and delivery !! same card from Jessops is £80
http://www.onlinememory.co.uk/index...id=172&zenid=90f877c2ea66541d933914070f11313e
 
Ginn said:
C

Took around 200 pics that day (usually do if I go out for the day!) and as I only have a 4GB card I have been shooting in Fine Jpeg - would I do better to use Raw and buy another card?
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Compressed RAW will give you roughly 350+ shots on a 4gig card so no need to buy another card or shoot jpeg with the one you have now if you want to shoot RAW with your D200... :)
 
Really? I only get around 400 pics in Fine Jpeg and 150 pics in Raw with mine - am I compressing them wrongly?? Dad has borrowed my camera today but will have a play with the file settings when he is back - may be a good thing to limit the no of pics I take - I have used 70% of my 80GB hardisc on photos alone!!
 
Hi Ginn - I couldn't see what Ian did as the link is broken for me.....

Anyway, i just used PS to set the black, mid and white point and boosted saturation on the blues. Its seems very pixelated so i've left any sharpening out. You may want to try a tighter crop on your original to lose some of the vacuum on the left.....

516144646_892257f8ea_o.jpg
 
Ginn said:
Really? I only get around 400 pics in Fine Jpeg and 150 pics in Raw with mine - am I compressing them wrongly?? Dad has borrowed my camera today but will have a play with the file settings when he is back - may be a good thing to limit the no of pics I take - I have used 70% of my 80GB hardisc on photos alone!!
Click to expand...
Not sure what your doing wrong there then...are you sure your selecting compressed RAW?

I haven't had my D200 for a while now but I know I got a lot of shots from a 4gig card. To compare, I can get about 730 shots on an 8gig card shooting compressed RAW with my D2x which produces larger files than the D200. I've not put the 4gig card in the D2x but I assume I'll get roughly half the 8gig capacity, so you may have selected the wrong option?

Make sure your not selecting jpeg AND RAW as well and just RAW only.
 
Make sure your not selecting jpeg AND RAW as well and just RAW only.
Click to expand...

Problem solved! That was where I was going wrong!! Can now get about 300+ in RAW. Thankyou :)
 
Ginn said:
Problem solved! That was where I was going wrong!! Can now get about 300+ in RAW. Thankyou :)
Click to expand...

I do some indoor equine stuff and it is always a nightmare with the light. I use a D200 combined with a sigma 70-200 2.8 which is in my opinion a good combination. I sometimes hire a 70-200VR from calumet if I am covering an indoor event - one day I will buy one.:woot:

I always shoot RAW (compressed as you have discovered!) and often rack up the ISO to 800 or more. I think if you had a longer lens you would benefit but I would go with the AUTO WB advice already offered and tweak slightly if you need later on.

Cheers,

Bob
 
I am actually considering buying an auto 70-200 (or more) lens for that very reason! Badminton was interesting as although it was lovely to have a decent camera the crowds prevented me getting that close to the fences!

I have a manual 70-200 of my dad's which I've just had a play with this am (will upload the pics in a bit) but I find that I am just not quick enough to focus on a moving horse! Any hints there?
 
Ginn said:
Problem solved! That was where I was going wrong!! Can now get about 300+ in RAW. Thankyou :)
Click to expand...
(y)

Ginn said:
I have a manual 70-200 of my dad's which I've just had a play with this am (will upload the pics in a bit) but I find that I am just not quick enough to focus on a moving horse! Any hints there?
Click to expand...
Pre-focus on a point the horses always go past, if they stick to a roughly set route.
 
Ok, so say you were photographing a horse over a jump you'd focus on the jump with a deepish depth of field and then just click once the horse was in position? Presumably this would be the same using the 500mm lens?

Also, what shutter speed would you use for moving horses? I love the crisp pics but sometimes find that the shutter is too fast, even with a high ISO and I loose detail....
 
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