# Photography Critique?



## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

Hmm the first is probably the most appealing. The other two are fuzzy and at strange angles. 

My advice is that you kind of do both. You stay at the jump but as the horse is approaching, you follow with your camera lens so you don't end up with a blurry pair.


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## NutBolts (Mar 30, 2011)

The canon 7d is an amazing camera. There should be an object tracking mode. Typically you want to be following the horse 10 ft in front of the jump and panning with the horse at the same time as it moves through the jump. If you focus on the jump first you might be focusing on a rail or infinity (backgroud focus) Focus on what you want to take a picture of. It takes some practice. What lens do you have? That makes a HUGE difference! Your shutter speed is well in range. You also should get a monopod so that you can keep the cameras steady up and down.

Shoot RAW so that you have full control over the photo. 7d has a lot of focusing methods. Also there should be a sports mode that will take fast action shots.

I don't want to hurt your feelings. But that camera is way more that capable of taking sharper photos. Those are soft and should be WAY WAY sharper. You just have to do a bit more research and practice. try dpreview.com forums and go the canon 7d section and ask the crowd there. I'm a sony shooter. the 7d is a great camera, but you also need some good glass! hope this helps.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1019


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## omgpink (Aug 16, 2008)

Defiantly following the horse will give a much better result than if you waited on the horse to approach the jump. 
I use this technique when I capture photos at races and for the most part, in general.
Still, your camera settings can have a lot of effect on how your photos will turn out. 
If I have the right settings on my little point and shot I can get really crisp action photos out of it. 
Just keep practicing and play around with your settings to see what you can get out of your camera.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Dressage10135 (Feb 11, 2009)

Did you take all these pictures too? I knew that grey pony looked familiar! :lol:

http://www.horseforum.com/horse-pictures/pictures-small-weekend-show-120076/


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## Azale1 (Jul 5, 2010)

You have a good start, just need a bit of practice. These are the things that I noticed right off the bat for all 3 of your photos. They are underexposed and out of focus, but this is a common mistake and easily fixable.

In regards to your question of tracking or setting up camera to the jump and taking your photo at that point. I suggest until you get really comfortable and consistent at taking tack sharp photos and getting the results you want I would stick with panning. It is much easier and your camera does have a good tracking ability.

1st Photo your angle is perfect and great timing in the jump. The horse looks happy, the rider's face isn't too shadowed out. But leaving a bit of room in front of your horse is much more appealing to the eye. Remember the rule of thirds. Leave some room for your horse to move into. Other than that I think this photo was very well done.

2nd photo does have good timing but there are a lot of not so appealing distractions such as the gate to the right and the jump post cutting off part of the horse's face. Positioning yourself a bit more would have avoided this. And again leave some room for the horse to jump into.

3rd photo is much like the 1st. Good angle, good timing. I would next time though go with a smaller DOF to blur out those tents that are distracting my eye fromt he horse.

I want to say again that you do have a good start and are capturing the good moment, just be sure to pay attention to the whole photo, not just the horse. Can't wait to see more.


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## Showjumper91 (Apr 18, 2012)

Thanks for the advice everyone. I know the camera is much better than this but I am still learning. This is my first competition and have only had the camera for about a month 




NutBolts said:


> What lens do you have?


I use a canon 70-200mm f4 IS lens



Dressage10135 said:


> Did you take all these pictures too? I knew that grey pony looked familiar! :lol:


Haha yes I took those as well. She is my younger sister


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## Showjumper91 (Apr 18, 2012)

Any more tips on how I can improve?


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## NutBolts (Mar 30, 2011)

Showjumper91 said:


> Any more tips on how I can improve?


Get to know your camera, read the manual and pratice focusing with how the manual says to do it. 

Pratice on cars driving by, or through a ball for your dog and try to capture him, keeping him in your focus points. Another thing to remember, is your 7d us 18 Megapixels, so You don't have to zoom in as close you have alot of cropping room still left with that many pixels. Instead of widening out to 200mm stay at 175mm then when home and you're post processing, you can crop to make look like it was shot at 200mm. But don't crop to heavyly though.

Also if you look at your second photo up top, You're not even focused on the horse, you're focused on the fence leg in the middle of the photo, which leads me to believe you focused first, then waited for the horse.

First and foremost, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!


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## Showjumper91 (Apr 18, 2012)

Ok so I have played around a bit with the settings and how i focus on the horse. Have I improved and can I do anything better?
These were taken at 1/800 shutter speed, 320 IOS, f4
These were also shot in RAW. These were converted into jpeg but they don't look as good


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## NutBolts (Mar 30, 2011)

Yes these look a little better. Try stopping down the lens to 5.6 to increase your depth of field a little bit. Also what program did you use to convert these photos to jpeg? RAW means what is means RAW photo. You must do some post processing with RAW photos. They need to be sharpened big time. RAW means you must manually work the photo. Change WB, Exposure, Saturation, Contrast, sharpening...Is it at all possible you could send me the whole RAW file to my email address and I can do some Post processing to show you the dif between your current photo and a photo processed?





Showjumper91 said:


> Ok so I have played around a bit with the settings and how i focus on the horse. Have I improved and can I do anything better?
> These were taken at 1/800 shutter speed, 320 IOS, f4
> These were also shot in RAW. These were converted into jpeg but they don't look as good


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## Showjumper91 (Apr 18, 2012)

To convert the photos I used Digital Photo Professional which came with the camera. I would love to see what you could do with them  Just send me your email
I will also change the aperture a bit next time
Thanks for the tips


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## Kaibear (Mar 4, 2011)

You're off to a good start! The first photos are a bit underexposed, but that can be fixed with an editing program. If you can afford it, I'd really recommend Photoshop. I usually shoot at 5.6 or 6.3, keep my autofocus on continuous and put my frame rate at high (I'm Nikon so it's a bit dif). Also, keep in mind that these newer cameras take clear shots at higher ISO's, so don't be afraid of shooting at 400 or even higher so that your shutter speed is as fast as possible. Put it on shutter priority, focus on the horse, pan along with it as it approaches the jump, then start cracking off frames as it's about to jump and as it goes over the jump.


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## NutBolts (Mar 30, 2011)

Showjumper,

Check these out. They turned out pretty well. I used Adobe Lightroom 4. I suggest you buy that software and learn to use it. Look at yours then look at mine version. You just needed to sharpen them up a bit. Then I used photoshop and used the unsharpened mask on a second layer of the photo then lower the opacity to 40% then flatten and saved as a jpeg.

So you are starting to focus better just need to learn how to post process from shooting RAW. They are nice photos.


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## NutBolts (Mar 30, 2011)

Here is a side by side. I don't have the best software at work so I couldn't do any resizing. But this is close enough.


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## Showjumper91 (Apr 18, 2012)

Ahh that is much better. I have Photoshop CS3 and I pretty much know how to use it. So I just create a copy and sharpen it up and then lower the opacity of one so they blend a little?
Thanks


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## NutBolts (Mar 30, 2011)

Showjumper91 said:


> Ahh that is much better. I have Photoshop CS3 and I pretty much know how to use it. So I just create a copy and sharpen it up and then lower the opacity of one so they blend a little?
> Thanks


If you are shooting RAW, I assume you have Adobe camera raw is what you use to process your raw photos right? Or are you using your canon software to import the RAWs from your SD card to your camera?

If you're using Adobe cam raw. Sharpening will be the last think you do, imo, process the photos you like fix colors, exsposure, ect. then sharpen in adobe camera raw to your liking. 

If you are using canon software, do the samething above,

Then check this link out: Sharpen Images in Photoshop: How Professionals Do It | Best Design Options


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## Showjumper91 (Apr 18, 2012)

Hey sorry to keep posting pictures but I took these yesterday in RAW. They have had a few colour adjustments and converted to jpeg. They were shot at 1000 shutter speed, 200 IOS and f5.6


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## Kaibear (Mar 4, 2011)

Latest photos are much better! Way to go!!


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## NutBolts (Mar 30, 2011)

Kaibear said:


> Latest photos are much better! Way to go!!


I concur. Looks like you need to sharpen them up a bit more before you convert to jpeg. Do you use canon software or Adobe Camera Raw to open your RAW photos?


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## Showjumper91 (Apr 18, 2012)

I use canon software. I didn't really work on these ones too much. For these I put the in camera sharpening up to 7 (out of 10) where it was previously at 3. After I upload them to the computer, I put the sharpening up to 10, change the colouring a bit and then convert them to jpeg. Then I put them in photoshop and crop them. 

Thats basically what I do with them. but I know I probably need to do more


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