Help - - Indoor Horse Action Shots

Chris399 · Mar 4, 2013

I need some help in how to set up to take indoor action shots at horse events. First let me state - I will not be the event photographer these pictures will only be for friends in the events. My access to good shooting spots will be limited and lens choice will have to be a selection of one or two I can easily carry. For lenses I am thinking 24-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8, as these are the fasted glass I have. I will not be able to set up strobes or other other light modifiers. So given my limited use of equipment and mostly poor positioning, do you guys have some suggestions?

Example: I shot this yesterday of a friends daughter at the Houston Live Stock Show and Rodeo (Barrel Racing).

ISO 3200
@ 200mm
f2.8
1/320

There's quite a bit of noise and even at 1/320 it's a bit soft.

(I know I cut a lot out of the picture)

Thanks for any and all advise.

Chris

ceeboy14 · Mar 4, 2013

The best advice I can give, having faced the same difficulty is to change your white balance to compensate for the tungsten lighting. You can do it in the RAW editor but I find it works better en-camera. 3200 ISO is not unreasonable and you may have to go even higher to stop the action though it looks as if you are pretty close to that already.

Panning is going to be the biggest help and anticipating the action the other. Here is a link to someone I think is as good at rodeo shooting as you're going to find with some very good advice as to being ready for the shot. His bird photography is also to die for. Shooting Rodeo when you don't have access - Open Photography Forums

I realize this link is all shot in nice sunlight, but Robert is very open to questions and always gives solid advice.

Designer · Mar 4, 2013

Chris, I think you could crop a little more off the top. Crop to the bottom of the white wall.

tirediron · Mar 4, 2013

Good advice so far, and apparently you've got enough light to get usable pictures inside which is a HUGE plus. I would suggest some work on your framing; don't go so tight! The horse is as important as the rider; we really want to see both faces. Frame wider, and if necessary, crop in post.

vis...

This is a shot tight in on the turn showing the barrel, the horse and the rider. While it would have been better if she'd been looking a little more toward the camera, we can still see to some degree the expression and concentration on her face.

Here we have a great expression and the rider clearly going for hell...

Chris399 · Mar 4, 2013

Ceeboy14 - Thanks for the link. Looked it over and there are some good pointers there. On another subject, I reprocessed one of my last pics per your suggestions and it turned out quite nice.

Designer - I agree about the white wall drawing your eye. I think I will leave the height as is and process the wall out and replace with sand. I want to have room to put her name and event on the top of the print.

Tirediron - Yes, I need more practice in capturing the entire bit of action and cropping more in post if needed.

Thanks to all for the advise thus far.

Chris