Equestrian

[PhotoGeek]

Any c&c for a beginner?

[Jon, The Elder]

Not a bad beginning. So much of equestrian shooting is about timing. Ideally, the horse should have all four feet off the ground and the front hooves at or just over the bar for this type of shot. Your angle isn't bad, but a bit more 'profile' would have helped seperate horse and rider. A burst of three or more will generally get you right on. You can also get a surprisingly good shot from the rear. This requires having the rider still showing somewhat of a "rear profile". Difficult to describe in a short comment.
Keep working at it. Good horse shooters are few and far between.
You can figure out the DOF/shutter/ISO as you go along.

[Croasdail]

You know... it is many subtle things that take an image from being good, to something that stands out. Some of those are for instance, when shooting sports, it is a good idea to get low. It always makes the subject look more dominate. Subtle tweaks in exposure make a difference. These shots look a little over exposed, which has the net result of decreasing the contrast. Shooting with a larger aperature will help blur the background and isolate the subject more. Having a fast enough shutter speeds will crisp up the image. There are so many little things that make a difference.

A really good place to start is by reading Gavin's (gmen) post on shooting sports. You can find it HERE (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=116971). Feel free to ask him questions - he is very knowlegdable and willing to share. If not - Dwight will like answer for him.

Anyway... these are a really nice start. If you want to do more, search for more images here and in magazines, and try to figure out how the photographer took the shot. You can learn a lot about technique my copying others style. Cheers and keep at it.

[Amorous]

The suggestions above are very good. To freeze the action and get a good separation of the subject from the background you need a fast lens. 70-200 f/2.8 is a perfect lens for equestrian. Use Av mode and set the aperture at f/2.8, and it will give you a nice background blur. For panning shot however, use Tv mode and set the shutter around 1/30 or 1/40. Timing is very important and try about 45 degree angle if possible.

I tried my first equestrian shoot a couple of months ago. Here's the thread. http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=176731&highlight=equestrian

[PhotoGeek]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I was doing this for a friend's daughter on a hot, sunny Southwest day. I'll head back out when the temp drops and the light is not so flat, and do some more using the suggestions. I was using a 70-200 2.8L, on AV at about 4.0 since I was not sure if 2.8 would have suffiecient depth to get the whole horse. One thing I noticed when going back over all my shots was that by the time the rear hooves were off the ground, the fronts were typically extended for the landing. I was wondering if the low height of the bar was decreasing the liklihood of capturing the position setiprime described.