Advise on getting sharper equestrian action shots

[angsutton]

I am using a Nikon D90 and have just invested in a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens to try and get some really good equestrian sporting shots. Can anyone give me some tips please?
I shot this sample image using shutter speed of 1/1250, with F5.60 and ISO 2500. It was a very dreary dark day. I am using dynamic area auto focus in AF-C mode.
I just feel it could be a lot sharper. I haven't tried using a manual focus. Would this be a better option? (I normally tweak my images in Photo Shop but have left this one in
its original state).
I appreciate any feed back.

 

[PhotoWrangler]

What exactly do you think is unsharp? What is it that you do not like about this photo?

 

[angsutton]

When I zoom into the image it is grainy, the riders faces and the letters on the saddlecloths aren't clear, particularly if I view "actual pixels" in Photoshop.

 

[PhotoWrangler]

Well, you're shooting a D90 at ISO2500... grain or 'noise' is going to happen. That's what high ISO's are known for.

And people don't look at your pixels, they look at your photographs. Quit pixel peeping your images.

 

[angsutton]

Hmm, think you are right, sunny days when I can shoot with low ISO's produce much better results - and yes the riders in the image were delighted
with the picture!

 

[TamiAz]

I wouldn't expect their faces and the words to be tack sharp, especially with such a high ISO. Look how small their heads are in comparison to the actual picture. I would expect their faces to be tack sharp if you taking a headshot, but not from that far away.


oops...I was too slow.

 

[Braineack]

When I zoom into the image it is grainy, the riders faces and the letters on the saddlecloths aren't clear, particularly if I view "actual pixels" in Photoshop.

then don't shoot at iso2500.

Why not drop the shutter speed, open the aperture, and/or reduce the iso?

Although, looking at the full size you posted, it appears that you missed the focus maybe? even with the noise I'd expect at that ISO, it doesn't appear to be as sharp as it should be especially at 1/1250.

 

[PhotoWrangler]

then don't shoot at iso2500.

Why not drop the shutter speed, open the aperture, and reduce the iso?

Well dropping the shutter speed might introduce motion blur, opening the aperture will create a shallower DOF, and reducing the ISO will only make the first two harder to deal with.

 

[angsutton]

It was really dark which was why I was shooting at such a high ISO.
I fear focusing is the reason for the lack of sharpness. I am hidden behind a large hedge waiting for the horses to come, and don't know which part of the hedge they will jump.
I focus on the hedge and lock the focus holding the shutter half way down before the horses arrive, then shoot on continuous high speed as there is usually a team of four leaping
over the hedges. Any better ideas?

 

[KmH]

Your D90 has an Anti-Aliasing (AA) filter in front of the image sensor that softens image focus somewhat.

To counter that, your images need to be sharpened to some extent post process.

If you make your images as JPEG files, some amount of sharpening is applied to the entire image (a global edit) by software in the camera. You also have a camera menu that allows you to make crude adjustments to the amount of global sharpening the camera software does.

Unfortunately, it is not always good to globally sharpen an image.

You can have much more control by doing a vast majority of sharpening post process.
Many professional photographers sharpen in stages:
1. Capture sharpening, which is done lightly and usually as a global edit.
2. Local sharpening that is done to only part(s) of an image.
3. Output sharpening, the amount of which is determined by the intended use of the image. You would output sharpen an image destined for electronic display less than you would the same image destined to be printed.

There are other sharpening considerations, like edge frequency in an image, and the range of sharpening techniques we have available.
Enough considerations to warrant an entire book on the subject:
Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)