Equine Photography

[Jamie McCoy Photography]

I would not say that lens, or shutter speed, or even strobes are going to help in this situation.


Horses are a matter of timing on the photographers part.


PRACTICE, PRACTICE, and more PRACTICE

 

[fido dog]

I would not say that lens, or shutter speed, or even strobes are going to help in this situation.


Horses are a matter of timing on the photographers part.


PRACTICE, PRACTICE, and more PRACTICE

You couldn't be more correct about the practice part. Each camera and photographer are different.......period. The combo is truly unique to each person. I will disagree with the "shutter speed and strobes" part. You MUST be able to shoot in an arena at no less than 1/200. Therefore you must have powerful lighting. Backdrops are a different story. I just shot a futurity at 1/125 @ f8.0.

 

[Mike Jordan]

Before you use flash indoors like this, make sure you check that it is ok to do so. Especially if you are just a spectator and it's an event of some kind going on. Many times flash is not allowed during competition... and even if it isn't posted that it isn't allowed, you wouldn't want to be the photographer that took a flash picture that caused a horse to lose... or even be the focus of the rider thinking your flash caused them to lose. This goes for a lot of indoor events, not just with horses. I've shot hundreds of indoor dog events and I never used flash, even when I was told it was ok.

Now if you can arrange to set up during practice, that's different. What you can do is set up your lights in one area of the arena and have the people come through that area so you can get your pictures. This gives you a controlled lighting area (with your choice of background) so you can concentrate on the shot and not everything else.

I think arenas, barns, convention centers and other indoor events like this are some of the poorest lighted areas I've shot in. Most have a mixture of lighting, floresent, tungstan, halagon, iodine and sometimes daylight coming in through doors, windows and skylights. Getting a good white balance can really be a challenge, which is why I always shoot in raw and try to get a few shots with a known white source in it... either one I bring or someone in a white shirt or teeshirt.

One other thing I've found, a lot of times you can get marginal shots that look fine on the screen or in small prints. It's when you have to blow them up or crop a lot that you really see how fuzzy and blurry they are from movement. Fortunately, many people just want shots for their web site or maybe a 4x5 or 5x7 for their scrap book. If I know ahead of time they are going to want 8x10 or even bigger, I know I'm going to have to work extra hard to get the shots to support this. This is when I'll do a lot of panning (although that won't help much with feet movement) or go for the static shots.

Besides a fast lens (I shoot 2.8L most of the time but have a 85mm 1.8 for when I need the little bit faster lens) it helps to have a camera that you can crank the ISO up to 1600 and still get acceptable noise levels. The key word is "acceptable" of course.

Mike

 

[JCPics]

I guess this is an old question,

I think the main problem is the shutter speed. Of course a speedlight would definitely help, but if the shutter speed is too slow, you won't be able to capture the shot. I've taken some MLB shots (just for fun), where 1/250 will stop the motion of a 90mph fast ball, or the body movement of the players.

 

[spyder]

i have been having the same problem with sports photography at night.i suggest getting a faster lens if possible, then set your cam on aperture priority and up the iso as high as possible/needed. have your aperture as big as possible(lowest number). this will give you the fastest possible shutter speed for the given circumstances

 

[Sw1tchFX]

If I were getting paid to do this, i'd go out and buy a few SB-600's, and an SB-800 or SU-800, and if those couldn't reach, the slaves, than radio triggers.

You keep saying that your biggest problem is light, or lack thereof. If you have little light, than CREATE light. Clamp up about 3 or 4 speedlights around the arena, put your shutter speed at the flash sync and go at it. You can use a couple of lights to give off some ambient light, and than you can use others for your key and fill. Not to mention gels could be used for color separation, set your WB to tungsten and use tungsten gels on the key and fill light, than the ambient would be a slight blue and the horse and jockey would be a normal color temp. there are just possibilities galore. If your flash can reach when it's on your camera, than you'd be fine with them off the camera in i-TTL mode.

This way, you have absolute control of the lighting and you can make it look any way you want it to.

 

[pandinus]

I forgot to mention this:
There is a lot of planning involved in equine photography. If there is a given course they have to ride, then you have to place your self with that in mind. If there is not, then it will be harder work.

If you want to shoot horses at play, you should have your camera ready when the horses are set out to pasture. The first three to ten minutes are usually just horse play.... So that will give you a great chance to shoot this. (Here in Norway horses are kept in stabeles and paddoks thrugh the winter, and come april or may they are set out on the pastures for the first time of the year. This is a great photo op.)

Best of luck

 

[JerryPH]

The danger is in spooking the horse.

That is a very major concern. Many shows will no longer permit flash, just for that reason.

A little hint... sometimes an acton picture taken further away (or zoomed in less) will have a greater effect of "stop action" than when up close and lighting do not permit. You can always bring the pic up to 100% and crop it down to what you need.

On a related note, as a younger man, I was giving a martial arts demonstration, when someone flashed me at the perfectly wrong instant. I was fine, but my training partner needed $2900 worth of dental work as a result of my demonstrating high kicks. Not fun... the photographer was not to pleased to have to pay the bill. He was asked several times not to use the flash, but insisted.

Most concert and sports events now forbid flashes for similarly distracting reasons.

Its the smart thing to do, to ask if flashes are permitted at public events or restricted in any manner before setting up.

 

[NateOntario]

ISO 400
105mm AF
f5.6
1/250
30 ft. away
And a BIG ass flash.......:mrgreen:
You can use arena lights to lessen the shadows.

Like the others have said.......timing is everything!

This is what I've been training to do for the last three summers/falls.
I'm actually in my hotel at a show right now.......

Good Luck Man!

That background hurts my eyes, but the horse looks great, especially from that distance.

 

[fido dog]

That background hurts my eyes, but the horse looks great, especially from that distance.

Yeah....That arena has a VERY high wall compared to most and everythings WHITE!! We don't put backdrops in the riding area, just the posed shots.