Some horses

[rhubarb]

Hi all, went to a point ot point a few weekends ago. I've never been before, and wanted to try and get close to the horses to get some good shots. Well it was a damn sight more difficult than I thought. The horses only do two laps and you can only really be at one fence for a race, and there was only 6 races in the afternoon, so unlike motorsport where you get a few chances, here you have to get the shot right first time. Suffice to say I didn't, but I did get some shots that I was reasonably happy with. It was a really grey cold day as well, so even these didn't come out as I'd hopped. But as an afternoons outing goes it was quite exciting, especially beig so close to the fences as the horses come over. Any thoughts on the photos greatfullly recieved.

1. One of the first shots I did, played around in PSP a bit, think I might have made the red too red?



2. A bit too blurry I think, it was the last race of the day, 1st lap 18th fence, horses were tired, and this is the penultimate shot of a sequence of 5 where 2 horses go down quite badly (jokey in the yellow, ambulanced off)



3. The aftermath of some earlier carnage, one seriously hacked off jockey



4. Favorite of the bunch, however again I think I've been over zelous in PSP, there seems to be odd colour eminating from the bootom of the cloud



I realise they are all quite dark too and possibly a bit out of focus(?), is there anything I could have done to improve these. They've all be cropped a bit too.

[FourWheelDrift]

rhubarb said:

2. A bit too blurry I think, it was the last race of the day, 1st lap 18th fence, horses were tired, and this is the penultimate shot of a sequence of 5 where 2 horses go down quite badly (jokey in the yellow, ambulanced off)

Would make a good entry into this months "Impact" photo competition, but as you say it's a little blurry, good pic all the same.

I take it you were just the other side of the white rails?

[rhubarb]

FourWheelDrift said:

I take it you were just the other side of the white rails?

As it's just a local one there a fair amount of the course without railings at all, just rope, so you can actually get rather close, I did think at that point when the horse got up having gone over and looked at me that horses really are rather big, and a bit of rope was hardly likely to stop it if it wanted to run in my direction.

However having seen the news today that 7 horses have died at cheltenham this week alone, I think I'll find other ways to while away a Saturday afternoon.

[cvp]

I like number 1. In terms of improvement I guess all I would have done is try and use as wide an aperture as possible to throw the background out of focus. Has the added advantage of giving you a higher shutter speed.

Number 2 as you say a bit blurry because it's the end of the day.

For number 3 I wonder what a slightly tighter crop would give in terms of taking out the organge flag on the left hand post which si slightly distracting.

Overall though I do like 1 and 3. Is the any fence where you could get a more head on view? That could be quite interesting.

Chris

[trackcar]

this is a winner for me .. no matter that the foreground is blurry .. it spanks you across the face with a damp copy of the radio times .. smashing snap! wish I'd taken it

[matt gravy]

I think these are quite good. Certainly conveys a bit of the atmosphere which is good. Looks like you just had fairly dull light which has made the images look a bit flat. Main thing is you caught the moment, doesnt matter that its not perfectly sharp etc.

Good job.

Matt

[dcw@pr]

i beg to differ on this photo. the blurryness of EVERTHING BUT the falling jockey really adds to the photo. if he was blurred as well you would be in trouble, but he's not, so it's a great photo. well done

[te51cle]

Yep, No. 2 is good. Horse racing is all about movement and thundering hooves, you've captured not only the action of the fall but the atmosphere and feeling of danger due to its close proximity to the other horses - who are still going at full tilt. You've even got a few divots thrown up by the horses which fill in the otherwise blank top left corner.

First one is too red though - it shows up in the neutral grey of the clouds. I presume you wanted to boost the red of the jockey's silks, if so try making a selection of the jockey's head and arms, feather the selection by 2-3 pixels and then make your colour adjustments.

[Mannginger]

This pic almost looks 3D. Maybe it's that the closest horse' foot is down to the bottom of the pic, but it does look as though it's about to gallop out of the pic.

Can any photoshop wizardry enhance this effect?

I do like the focus on the falling rider.

On another point - they are big beasties aren't they - bloody unpredictable sometimes too. Bad combination!

Phil

[rhubarb]

Guys, thanks for all your comments, all very encouraging.

cvp said:

Is the any fence where you could get a more head on view? That could be quite interesting.

There's nothing dead on, although there were a couple of pros there with huge lenses who just ran out in to the middle of the track quite away back, took their pictures and ran back, would have loved to have seen what their shots were like. It was my first time there, and I thought I was brave getting as close as I did.

dcw@pr said:

the blurryness of EVERTHING BUT the falling jockey really adds to the photo. if he was blurred as well you would be in trouble, but he's not

I only wish I'd planned it that way, I'm affraid it was all sheer luck !!

This is the shot just prior to the one where the jockeys are coming off. It's amazing the difference a split second makes to a shot. While I like it, there's not as much drama as the last one.



Anyway thanks for all your comments, I might go back next weekend afterall especially now I've got a new faster lens