In need of a critique

[Tony The Pony]

what can i do to make these photos better? and feel free to add anything else you see fit. feel free to be hard on me, but not insulting.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/Tony_The_Pony/Photography/IMG_0457.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/Tony_The_Pony/Photography/IMG_0459copy.jpg
and
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/Tony_The_Pony/classyportrait2.jpg
^ in that one i edited the backgorund with a gaussian blur.

[mlc]

The first is a great action shot - I like it. The third looks like you edited the background with a gausian blur (lol) and the horse does look seriously fed up!

[Wildewinds]

You may want to rotate the second one. :)

The first one is nice. Probably as good as you could expect during that time of the day. I'd try a larger aperture to blur out the rather distracting background.

The third is actually a very good edit. At least at that resolution. If I had to nitpick, I'd fix the bottom of the neck and front and back of the leg and do something about the two wavy lines going through the grass. That being said, I didn't look at it and immediately say "photoshopped." Good job.

[Tony The Pony]

I used the canon powershot S2 IS for the images, ususally manual mode doesnt work out to well without making the original image dark. would shooting in aperature priority mode still freeze the action?

[Wildewinds]

A larger aperture would require a faster shutter speed, so it would stop the action even better. :)

[Tony The Pony]

ok, thanks :) any other suggestions?

[Jon, The Elder]

Tony - Shooting jumpers and with that S2, you got a couple of nice ones. Open up the lens a bit if you can.

www.pbase.com/jpferguson

[xstrio]

on the 1st on the first thing i noticed is the fence, has it just fallen of or is it low, if he hit the fence would have been good to catch it just as its hit , try using the burst mode and take a few shots at once, then select the best one

[Tony The Pony]

thats a low fence. Thanks for the critiques. i'll have to look into burst mode sometime. im still trying to figure out the s2.

[CptTom]

hi there, I know how hard it can be photographing all things equestrian - my wife drags me around with her horse!
If, for whatever reason it isnt possible to jump a higher fence you can increase the apparent height by taking the picture from as low down to the ground as possible. This will change the perspective of the shot. I would like to see some of your other 'horsey' work.

[eos_o_eos]

Little tighter and shallower DOP and then its all good. I love horses, been so many years now since I have been near them.
Love the portrait shot but would have had them a little further away from background, again to help isolate the subject and utilise DOF. Nice lighting

[Tony The Pony]

yeah, getting a more narrow depth of field is something i'll be working on. its quite hard for me to get it right ;p thanks all for the constructive critisizm. and cpttom i like your idea of getting lower on the ground, i'll try it next time.

[cdmonkey]

Hi, great shots, just feel they need a little extra pp, hope you dont mind, I did a bit of selective adjustment on the horse and rider.

Carl

[cdmonkey]

did a little pp on one of the other pics as well, these are just quick edits that I think help, I would probably spend a little longer on them to make them stand out a bit more.

Carl

[Jon, The Elder]

try this -


www.pbase.com/jpferguson/image/61368664