Rodeo disaster at ISO 6400!

[Hardrock]

So I thought the rodeo was outside and it wasnt. Actually it wasn't even a rodeo it was a roping event. I went to photograph a friend and the lighting was terrible the arena was huge but bad lighting. I figured out that I had to shoot at least 1/400th of a sec in order for the horses to not be to blurred. My equipment was a Canon 50D and Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS. A couple of the shots were at ISO 2500 but the rest were at 6400. MY settings for almost all were F2.8 1/400 at 6400 ISO. I was running low on memory card so I switched to Jpeg and believe it or not the Jpegs came out better than the raws due to some type of horrible banding and pink and blue noise that CS3 could not get rid of. So all in all I think they came out ok but please let me know what you think!

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[er111a]

#5 in my fav so much action in that shot

 

[oldmacman]

NUmber 3 is a great shot of the rider with the severe lean and kicking up dirt. Too bad the second rider is chopped in half.

I think these could use some tweaking as the shadows are dark and lack detail. Have you done any PP and do you use NR software?

 

[iAstonish]

They're not as bad as you made them out to be haha

There is some noticeable blur in some and noise in others, but I could imagine how difficult the lighting was to master. Keep shooting and experimenting with your settings and timing and you will just keep getting better.

Good job for your first try. Keep at it.

 

[Idahophoto]

Not to bad actually, yeah it sucks but had the same thing happan to me though not with such a big event. I had done a concert my kid was doing at school so had the ISo pumped up to around 3200 6400 or so then went and shot some photos for a nursing home my mom asked me to do forgetting about the setting lol. Part of the way through I realized what was going on. I almost died I almost always shoot at ISO 100. At least its better than forgetting to take off the lens cap and shooting 15 rolls of film before finding out lol.

So don't sweat it. if you really need help there should be a lab or something Im not sure but they look good to me right off and should hold up fairly well unless you need real large prints made

 

[LaFoto]

Not too bad, after all! Wish I had a chance to up the ISO that high with my camera...!

Your focusing looks good, it's always on your friend even when he comes up to you. The banding you're talking about still shows in 3, but no longer in 6, which is my personal favourite, as he is so nicely in action throwing his rope, while we see the calf on the far right, caught by the other already.

 

[MohaimenK]

to the OP, check the menu and turn on the "high noise reduction" in your camera and it works wonders! Then you can PP it later but you have a much better start once it's already processed through the camera.

 

[Hardrock]

Thanks everyone!

It was definitely alot of fun. I used CS3 to make some adjutments to these but CS3 really didnt do much as far as noise reduction on the raws. Maybe I need to look for an alternate NR software? I guess the camera reduced alot of the noise on the jpegs and they actuatlly turned out better. There is no way I could have done this with a prime lens so I really learned the importance of a zoom! There was a lady there selling her pictures during the event and she was using a Nikon D3 with a Nikon 70-200 F2.8 but she also had 2 AB b800 lights set up. She was able to shoot at ISO 800 with the lights. I tried my 430ex but it couldnt keep up and was inconsistant with distances. Im going to print these for my buddy (no larger than 8x12) so hopefully they come out decent.