All Forum Comments
Comment by Blaze posted on Appleby. Horses and action at 13/06/2013 - 20:18
Ironic that the people should be more interesting than the horses
I like the man in the first one but prefer the colour/over exposure of the last.
I like the man in the first one but prefer the colour/over exposure of the last.
Comment by Blaze posted on Q and Fisheye at Appleby Horse Fair at 12/06/2013 - 06:59
Good advice, Mike. I aways carry spare batteries (some non-rechargeables that I have) but had never thought of a memory card. I can easily do over 500 shots at a horsey event (continuous shooting makes it easy !!)
I'm astonished just how well the Eneloop batteries last though I have noticed they are not holding the charge quite as well as they were. But there's still plenty of life in them after 2 years.
I'm astonished just how well the Eneloop batteries last though I have noticed they are not holding the charge quite as well as they were. But there's still plenty of life in them after 2 years.
Comment by Blaze posted on More Action shots at 11/06/2013 - 12:17
Nice set of photos and relaxed looking pooches ! Good idea for a project and I might do it myself at a horse show !!! I particularly like #1 and #8 and I think they work well in b&w.
Comment by Blaze posted on DOGS! A Photographic Project at 11/06/2013 - 10:29
Thank you all for the comments - they are very helpful.
The first competition I went to, I was using Av and a slower shutter speed which made panning shots more interesting with the blurred background giving a better impression of speed. But I found I needed a tripod and many more of my shots were not sharp. I noticed a couple of pros there were using monopods, but their Nikons and lenses were far heavier than my Kx !
I changed to Tv on the advice of a pro present at a more recent competition and I found I had far fewer wasted blurred shots. I've been able to crop very closely and keep the sharpness.
Positioning ! I was fortunate to be allowed to be on the course - many competitions won't allow it. It's actually quite difficult finding the perfect place where I could get more than one jump. Shots need to be taken from the front, 45° or side on - those taken from behind are rarely interesting. Then there is the sun - dark horses are terrible against the sun !! The water jumps are always the best but often difficult to find a good position (safety and sun).
Here are a couple where I was able to get low down - it does make a more interesting shot !
I certainly need a lot more practice and will try all the various tips above. The pros all shoot in JPEG as RAW files would be too heavy given the number of shots they do. I only have the one memory card which at 10mpx gives me about 1000 shots (I dropped from 12mpx).
The first competition I went to, I was using Av and a slower shutter speed which made panning shots more interesting with the blurred background giving a better impression of speed. But I found I needed a tripod and many more of my shots were not sharp. I noticed a couple of pros there were using monopods, but their Nikons and lenses were far heavier than my Kx !
I changed to Tv on the advice of a pro present at a more recent competition and I found I had far fewer wasted blurred shots. I've been able to crop very closely and keep the sharpness.
Positioning ! I was fortunate to be allowed to be on the course - many competitions won't allow it. It's actually quite difficult finding the perfect place where I could get more than one jump. Shots need to be taken from the front, 45° or side on - those taken from behind are rarely interesting. Then there is the sun - dark horses are terrible against the sun !! The water jumps are always the best but often difficult to find a good position (safety and sun).
Here are a couple where I was able to get low down - it does make a more interesting shot !
I certainly need a lot more practice and will try all the various tips above. The pros all shoot in JPEG as RAW files would be too heavy given the number of shots they do. I only have the one memory card which at 10mpx gives me about 1000 shots (I dropped from 12mpx).
Comment by Blaze posted on More Action shots at 11/06/2013 - 10:24
Thanks for that, Alan.
I had another look at the light settings and I found that the blue was reduced (I have no idea how this happened, perhaps I pressed something I shouldn't).
I hadn't realised I could use such a high ISO - I thought that in itself could create noise. But I'll give it a go.
I think it's a question of persisting - different light/weather conditions seem to make a huge difference to the settings.
I had another look at the light settings and I found that the blue was reduced (I have no idea how this happened, perhaps I pressed something I shouldn't).
I hadn't realised I could use such a high ISO - I thought that in itself could create noise. But I'll give it a go.
I think it's a question of persisting - different light/weather conditions seem to make a huge difference to the settings.
Comment by Blaze posted on More Action shots at 10/06/2013 - 22:42
What a superb set of photos. So nice to see some different poses - and I'm amazed at the size of the insects and worms !
Comment by Blaze posted on Our Beautiful Garden Wildlife at 10/06/2013 - 14:28
A follow-on from my previous horsey shots, but I have some questions re improvement :
KX + DA 55-300 Tv mode ISO 800 f5 1/640 and 0,3EV
1. All the photos I took yesterday in dull weather and those I took on Friday in brighter weather, seem to have a yellow hue, which I wasn't very happy with.
2. Could I have used a better combination of settings ? I fiddled around and the above seemed to be the most consistent. A lower ISO made the shots underexposed and I didn't dare go any higher because of noise.
2a. Did I need to use such a high shutter speed ?
3. Whilst I realise that with a faster shutter speed the aperture will want to be more open, is there any way of focussing on the subject and not having the background so sharp ? This problem isn't so bad in these shots because the background is far away, but where there are people, it's distracting.
This is the 5th or 6th day of taking this sort of photo and I have binned far fewer than on previous days !!!! One of the most difficult things is timing : catching the moment just before the horse lands, just as it starts to go over the jump, catching the right action at gallop (not always very pretty). I did a fair amount of bad shots where the horse is just coming into shot on the left, though some can be recovered by making it seem deliberate !
Comments would greatly be appreciated
KX + DA 55-300 Tv mode ISO 800 f5 1/640 and 0,3EV
1. All the photos I took yesterday in dull weather and those I took on Friday in brighter weather, seem to have a yellow hue, which I wasn't very happy with.
2. Could I have used a better combination of settings ? I fiddled around and the above seemed to be the most consistent. A lower ISO made the shots underexposed and I didn't dare go any higher because of noise.
2a. Did I need to use such a high shutter speed ?
3. Whilst I realise that with a faster shutter speed the aperture will want to be more open, is there any way of focussing on the subject and not having the background so sharp ? This problem isn't so bad in these shots because the background is far away, but where there are people, it's distracting.
This is the 5th or 6th day of taking this sort of photo and I have binned far fewer than on previous days !!!! One of the most difficult things is timing : catching the moment just before the horse lands, just as it starts to go over the jump, catching the right action at gallop (not always very pretty). I did a fair amount of bad shots where the horse is just coming into shot on the left, though some can be recovered by making it seem deliberate !
Comments would greatly be appreciated
Comment by Blaze posted on More Action shots at 10/06/2013 - 11:40
Bravo !