Equine/canine event photography - lens recommendations

So there's a chance that I might get to do some indoor event/dressage photography for equines and canines. As such I'm doing a bit of research into what typical equipment people use for these events, specifically lenses.

At present I know (from limited previous experience and research) that the 70-200mm f2.8 lens I've got will likely do most of what I need on the day; even when I'm on crop sensor. Indeed for anything out-door its likely that it will be all I need to get the shots (although I'd be tempted to use my 120-300mm f2.8 for a bit more range; situation depending of course).

Indoors it seems that 200mm f2 and 100mm f2 lenses are also popular choices along with things like 85mm f1.4. Giving a bit more aperture to play with in those low light indoor conditions.

However I'm shooting on crop sensor so 70mm is actually quite long and I'd like something that would suit this genre of photography whilst also being good elsewhere. The only lens I've got that really fits into the sub-70mm range is the Tokina 35mm f2.8 macro, and whilst its a good all-rounder; its AF is somewhat slow and its focal length really quite wide; esp if you want frame filling of something big like a horse so perspective distortion is a consideration.

At present I'm thinking that a 24-70mm f2.8 might be the most practical of choices; either the original or the L edition (far as I can tell the original beats most 3rd party options - at least in its day - if sometimes only by a margin. The MII is clearly superior, but likely beyond any budget I can put together).


So has anyone any general input from their experiences and findings - or even just general viewpoints on sub 70mm lenses

I shoot a lot of equestrian events...

The majority of the time I shoot with a pair of 7Ds... with a 70-200 on one and a 300mm on the other. When shooting dressage, it's not possible to move around a lot, so I'll sometimes use a tripod and 300/2.8 IS. But for most other types of equestrian events I'll shoot with a 300/4 IS handheld. I use both 70-200/4 IS and 70-200/2.8 IS.

This was shot with 70-200mm...

Alan gave you some good advise. Your 70-200 should be fine for shooting indoors or out. Before I traded that lens for primes, I often used it for equestrian events. Even though I have a 135L and often shot events with it, I rarely was able to shoot at f/2. To keep both the horse and rider in focus, you're normally going to be stopped down to f/2.8 - f/4 with a fast lens.

Indoors, you'll simply need to increase your ISO to get the light you need and that can be a real issue in some arenas. Some of the arenas are so dark, that I didn't even bother to shoot in them.

Your 120-300 could be useful if shooting in a large arena, but most of the time, the 70-200 will be fine. I have shot with my 100-400 (outdoors), but never needed the long end of it.

Overread wrote in post #17166061
At present I'm thinking that a 24-70mm f2.8 might be the most practical of choices...

Bingo!

amfoto1 and bob - my thanks for your views; as a point of interest from yourself and bob how often would you say that you're working in the 70-120mm range (roughly speaking of course) when using your 70-200mm? Just getting a feel for how practical the 120-300mm would be (whilst they do compliment each other well I'd likely only ever take one of the 70-200mm f2.8 or the 120-300mm f2.8 at any one time - simply as a case of weight and having only one good camera body to use them on at once).


amfoto1, it sounds a little like you've moved into using a bit of everything (focal length wise) with your equine photography; which considering the breadth of what can be taken at such events is no surprise (plus its my observation that many photographers will either end up using just one or two lenses or they'll use everything they can when working in a field of there interest - no right nor wrong to either approach; just different approaches).

After trading my 70-200 for primes, I normally shot with my 135L. On larger courses, I shot with a 200 f/2.8L. I never missed the shorter range from 70-120mm, but most of the time I was shooting at larger outdoor arenas or very large indoor arenas. Here are a couple of shots of the indoor arena to give you an idea of it's size. I was sitting near the center and these were taken in each direction.

I guess I'll chime in here with a little more detail and some examples. equine and dogs have a little bit of different need. I'll stick with the dogs and give just a few examples of shots with the 24-70 in show situations:

http://www.studio10web​graphics.com …ts/marie_showin​g_7907.jpg

http://www.studio10web​graphics.com …ukis_from_heave​n_7849.jpg

http://www.studio10web​graphics.com …oking_at_afghan​s_7857.jpg

http://www.studio10web​graphics.com …ith_young_borzo​i_7844.jpg

http://www.studio10web​graphics.com …p_honors_at_sho​w_7914.jpg

If I were shooting equines, I might want more reach to get out in the arena. I don't like the 70-200 II as it is too heavy and does not give me the 'feel' I like with a balanced lens and camera. I don't like carrying a brick around at shows and traded mine in on a 70-300L 4-5.6, which yes, is less light gathering power than the 2.8 but a lot lighter lens that feels right in my hands (almost the same weight as the 24-70.) Maybe 'renting' the lenses you want to try would be a good thing to do, or, just buy one and see how it works for you (that's what I do, then I really get to try it out.) Selling them on consignment or trading them in does not loose that much as these lenses are in demand and the return is pretty good if you want to move on to another. I've been through dozens of lenses that way and now I know I really have what works best for me. The 24-70, as I said, is 'Bingo' in my opinion.

And made it there and back again.

Indoor area, smaller than the ones shown above. I wound up taking both the 70-200mm and 120-300mm - however I shot almost the whole thing (bar 1 shot) on the 70-200mm. Bonus is that my arms don't ache after; although I think with a little repositioning I could have done it with the 120-300mm, but I'd have felt a bit challenged on some shots - 120mm is a bit too long for a whole event, a second lens to cover a bit closer would be ideal in my view.

ISO was up high, but not too bad in the good light at 1600 - I mostly sat at f4 for the day - I felt it gave enough depth of field most of the time; plus the small size and close nature of the event meant that there wasn't much room to really blow things out of focus in the background areas - and I didn't feel that going to f2.8 would be suitable (likely something I'll experiment more with as I get better at nailing the focus). That combined (f4, ISO 1600) gave me 1/640sec to work with, not super fast, but enough. I made the mistake early on of shooting AV mode, but shifted out into manual (unchanging fixed light and quite even over the whole of the arena).

Shooting wise I think the biggest lessons are:
1) Get used to portrait aspect a lot more! Because horse and rider are tall and unless they are side on to you chances are you'll only waste frame in landscape orientation.

2) Riders heads get lost behind horse necks - stand to the SIDE of a jump not in front (and try to guess where they'll look and get the right side of the horse - normally toward the next jump).

3) Getting down low works, but a lot of the time at a decent distance and with a big subject its not critical (it can also exacerbate the loss of heads behind necks)

4) Beginner mistake - always check bag pockets for spare memory cards when changing bags! Otherwise you run out of shots :P

The light was good at the event, any darker or a cloudy say and I think I'd be on ISO 3200 easily - even if I dropped to f2.8 it would still be dim light.