A couple of recent shots on the job - C&C

[Eventer]

Looking at my work for my job (Equestrian Photographer) a couple months ago I think i have significantly improved! Im finding it much easier to nail the shot majority of times now where as ont long ago I was finding I had to delete alot mostly from being a fraction out of time.

I have the Huge "horse of the year" show coming up next week and im an offial photographer there Nervous! any imput would be great! Im finding my biggest issue right now is white balance, Ive played around with it a bit - Can someone tell me how good the "grey card" thing is, and if it works each time? i dont know much about how to get WB perfect.
But any Imput/Critique/comments wouls be much appreciated

Appolagies about the ugly watermark, i had that there cause these are off facebook

 

[imLOSTirl]

Not a huge fan of the last one.

Like the first one.

The middle one, like the idea, composition etc but to me, the hand needs to be more in focus/ sharper.

 

[tirediron]

White, grey or black cards all work the same; shoot them in the scene and then correct to them in post (usually by setting your >< colour point on them). Personally, I find it much easier to just shoot RAW and correct to what looks right in post. If it's absolutely critical, then I use an ExpoDisc to shoot a custom WB.

Looking at your work, that's tough shooting; worse than a wedding in fact. White ON black on white on dark, dark brown. There are definitely exposure issues there (deep shadow, blown highlights), but it's not bad given the conditions. If you don't have one, I would definitely get a good incident meter though, rather than relying on the camera's meter in cases like this.

 

[Eventer]

Yeah theres no escaping the black and white, its everywhere! its extremly hard not to completly ruin the white or black - its even worse when you get a black and white horse that looks like a cow!)
Unfortunatly there no way i can shoot on RAW as the photos I take are straight off the camera and put online - Its all about who has photos up for veiwing first in this business, hence why the photos have to be almost spot on and should require no editing (a bit of editing is done if photos are printed off etc)

imLOStirl - your right i think, looks like the focus might be on the boot/ buttons perhaps ae... i agree it would be better if focuse was on the hands

 

[FattyMcJ]

Yeah theres no escaping the black and white, its everywhere! its extremly hard not to completly ruin the white or black - its even worse when you get a black and white horse that looks like a cow!)
Unfortunatly there no way i can shoot on RAW as the photos I take are straight off the camera and put online - Its all about who has photos up for veiwing first in this business, hence why the photos have to be almost spot on and should require no editing (a bit of editing is done if photos are printed off etc)

imLOStirl - your right i think, looks like the focus might be on the boot/ buttons perhaps ae... i agree it would be better if focuse was on the hands

In this situation, I'd fake it. Shoot RAW+jpg, upload the jpg's as quick as possible to claim the spot (if it's really that important) then...go back and adjust the RAW's, eventually replacing the original JPG's with the edited RAW's. Nobody would be the wiser and the true final product will be that much better. That's all assuming you CAN go back and replace the original jpg's you post. If you can't, I really don't know what to tell you.

The vignette on #1 is a bit overdone, but overall I think you've done a fine job with the above photos and wouldn't worry about them. It looks like it was a slightly overcast day, which is good, and I can't really see any highlights/shadows being clipped. Working in the time frame you described, I think you did the best you could. Props If the sun is at high noon...then yeah...good luck, you just have to make do with what you've got.