Horse Back Riding

[Dan Cohen]

This wasn't a competition or anything. Just practice for riders and myself. :D

Shot with 100- 400 on the XT. Shot in AI servo, but I still dont really understand how to use that with the * button?

This is the original picture. Taken in RAW/ RGB and converter to JPEG/ sRGB.

http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/1301/7952/199756.jpg

Here it is after some PP in DPP.

Brightness- -0.17
WB- Cloudy
Saturation- 1
Sharpness- 3

Everything else left untouched. I dont know enough about tone curve to be messing around with that.

http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/1301/7952/199755.jpg

And here are the focus points. I just figured out how to do this in Zoom Browser and thought it was really cool. You can also see my settings in the gray box.

http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/1301/7952/199757.jpg

Next time, Ill use the top focus point instead. I also meant to have aperture on 5.6 instead of 6.3. I must have changed it accidentally some how. 400 shutter just barley got the job done, but it should have been higher. Another thing I learned is that riders like pictures taken at a 45* angle. I also dont like the background. I guess the trees/ sky is alright, but the power line on top isn't good. Lastly, I wish I got more bokeh.

Id also like some advice on how to crop jumping pictures.

[Dan Cohen]

Alright, heres the cropped version. I also recently read that sharpening should be done after resizing, so I did that in PS. Makes a big difference.

http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/1301/7952/199912.jpg

[Warren Buchalter]

Dan,

This thread http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1323
has a great explanation of using the star button. The entire concept was confusing to me when I first read Nill's sticky on sports basics. I got some great help in understanding these concept here from Nill et. al.

To summarize: Set camera to CF4: option 3 and put the camera in AF Servo and that will use the star to focus. Don't let go of the * while tracking your moving object and fire off a burst with the shutter button at the appropriate time.

[Dan Cohen]

Thanks for the link, Ill read over that.

[Anil Mungal]

Thanks for the link, Ill read over that.

Another focusing option is to pre-focus on the part of the rail that the horse will be jumping (usually the middle). I find that much easier allowing me more time to concentrate on framing, and on timing of the horse over the gate.

[Barry Johnston]

Hi Dan,

I too had some focusing issues at show jumping events using my 300 2.8 and AI Servo; and I wasn't very successful using the other focusing points at all. If you focus at the chest of the horse using f/4.5/5.6, the DoF should be enough to keep things in focus.

I have, however, been more successful by prefocusing (as Anil suggested) at about a 45 degree angle to the horse and rider using HS shutter release.

Unfortunately all equestrian events have been cancelled due to equine influenza, which apparently is a highly contageous virus. Due to this, I haven't seen a horse in 6 months.

Good Luck !!

Regards,
Barry.

[Dan Cohen]

Thanks Barry.