horse jumping for critique

I put a couple of horses in "show me your horses" thread and saw this is in pets - so hope this is the correct forum
anyway I thought I would add here for a full critique

six images in all

I used a manual exposure and used the grass around the jumps to set the meter. then also changed to use auto ISO

also because of my position , these have had a huge crop - but with the 60D at raw , you can still get a good crop and retain pixels - I had to resize to get the 700 pixels height i wanted

so please feel free to pull apart, as i need to start re-learning post processing having recently moved from film to dslr

should have edit images OK set

another 2 images

final two

Hi etaf,
Thanks for sharing these and welcome to the forums. I did see your post over in the "Show your horses" thread as well. I was going to comment on over there on the one with the little girl on the sorrel horse (your second post above "another two images"). I thought it was a little soft and and the cropping you had to do may explain that.

First off I would work on your timing and angle a little. The little girl on the paint horse shows good timing. The first shot not so much.

It is good that you shot in manual but I am really curious about your decision to use auto-ISO. With bright sunny outdoors shots like this you should be able to get plenty fast enough shutter speed to stop action with a very reasonable ISO. I always use a hand held incident meter to set my exposure it is typically, on a day like yours, ISO 400, 1/1000 - 1/2000th and F 5.6. But I know a lot of guys that will use a trick like yours, metering off grass, or the back of a hand , or something, to get a proper exposure. Your very first shot, the girl on the grey horse is at ISO 200, 1/640th and F/5.6. 1/640th is really marginally fast enough to stop a jumping horse. I would really like to have seen ISO 400 and 1/1250. If the girl on the sorrel horse is at the same exposure that could explain some of the softness. You've got a relatively new camera with good high ISO handling. don't be afraid to exploit that.

HTH Good job. Thanks again for sharing these. Did you move from Canon film bodies?

just playing to see the difference and learnt NOT to, on these bright days as i expected it to change and it could not, as I was not changing the speed enough ,so learnt a little which was the aim

ISO 200, 1/640th and F/5.6 that was the manual setting i started with and was also hoping for a little movement and tried panning - but didnt work out really

all the shots I posted are at 1/1000 or 1/1250
not sure which one is sorrel -had to look that up
last image 1/1000 f4.6
focus was on leg/ankle/house blanket thing

i have a Sekonic L-308 that i carry around and does flash and reflective/incident/co​ntrast
but didn't use it, maybe i should start, and didn't have access any where near the jumps

how do you use , if you cant access the areas ?

thanks for the suggestions and comments

Yes, EOS5 and EOS600 using fuji portra 100asa for portraits / weddings and 400 occasionally - I then went to a canon PRO1 when it first came out , to save lugging all the kit around but didnt really work out

good action but I feel many are too tightly cropped, they feel crowded and the horses have their noses hard up against the edge, nowhere to go.....

I was thinking that as i was cropping them - but saw a few tight shots here on jumping and thought i would try
Theres loads of picture still available as these are very hard crops - so i will have another look at them

leaving a little more space for the horses to jump into

I love these. A faster lens might help capture the movement better. The ones with the whole horse being shown are better by far.

etaf wrote in post #14591692
j

i have a Sekonic L-308 that i carry around and does flash and reflective/incident/co​ntrast
but didn't use it, maybe i should start, and didn't have access any where near the jumps

how do you use , if you cant access the areas ?

That's the whole idea of an incident meter. As long as you are getting the same light as what is hitting your subject you'll get a correct exposure. You can be half a mile away and if the light is the same hold it up and get a reading and set your exposure and forget about it. Way more accurate and I just find it easier. I use a Minolta IV-F but from what I have read the Sekonic is a good one. And a lot more popular. I think if you start using it you will really get dependent on it.

Aithon wrote in post #14595612
I love these. A faster lens might help capture the movement better. The ones with the whole horse being shown are better by far.

What do you mean faster lens? Wider aperture? Faster focus? How is either going to capture movement better?

No, the ones with the whole horse are not better. Etaf, with these two shots with less cropping you now have the frame divided exactly in half. Way too static. You do want to have some empty space in front of the horse to jump into but not that much. Just my suggestion, but on these try cropping so the horse's nose is about 2/3 the way across the frame. In other words, so that the empty space is about 1/3 of the frame or a little less. This will meet the composition rule of 1/3d's and I suspect you will find these a lot more pleasing. Maybe. They are, of course, your photos.

Oh-excellent I thought you need to be close to the subject - I will be off to play with that to later
thanks

excellent point on rule of thirds - I will go and modify again

yep, but i want other peoples views and will try anything and then see what i think in the end

It was suggested the horse standing on hind legs or just off maybe the shot people prefer so i had a few of those and thought they looked static , as though the horse was rearing- and the crop is probably wrong

quite crop - and do look much better already
Thanks

etaf wrote in post #14597097
quite crop - and do look much better already
Thanks

Yep, I think these are the better crops. I like the way you can see people watching in the background. Now, can you crank up the colour and vibrancy just a bit, dont over do it.

i have cs3 and elements 7
whats the best way to

I dont know, I only have the Canon programs DPP and zoom browser, but if you increase the contrast and saturation a bit it might bring the detail out more. All your photos had more colour and contrast in the first crops, what did you do to them there?