Help please

D

DanielP

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Dan
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Very new to photography and just about finding my feet with how to use the camera properly and composition exposure etc...

I have one niggling problem that has presented itself a couple of times now. I have been shooting showjumping in very bright weather and in order to get a nice exposure on the horse/rider the white signs around the arena are horribly blown. I have tried deliberately underexposing and then correcting in light room but my processing skills are not great and I am not really happy with the outcome.

Any hints on how to shoot when there are white things around on a bright day?

Cheers
Dan

(why cant all sings be a boring mid grey lol)
 
Somewhere in your camera's menu there wil be a setting to have the camera adjust the contrast/brightness to minimise the effects you're talking about.
Nikon calls it Active D-lighting, Sony calls it D-range Optimizer, Cannon I presume has something similar. You should get some help from setting that to high.
 
Cheers guys

I am shooting with a Canon 40d so will have a look for the contrast settings, sure they will be in there somewhere
 
Expose for the horse and blow the fence and background if necessary.
 
Dan - Mark aka DemiLion is our resident horse expert :)
 
Not really - Nat probably has more experience than I do in a commercial sense, as does Neil_G, both in terms of dressage & SJ. Throw Polo into the mix and you've got Treeman, Tobers and Fabs.

Tbh there is no 'right' way of doing things, but there are conventions that you can chose to follow or not....



....like panning! :D :coat:
 
I was "biggin" you up Mark. No disrespect to the other guys of course :)
 
DemiLion said:
Expose for the horse and blow the fence and background if necessary.
Click to expand...

Couldn't put it more succinctly than that unless you have an ND filter with a clear patch in the middle. :D

Seriously though, it's the subject that matters so that's what you have to expose for. If you shoot raw, you may be able to recover a little more from any blown highlights but if they're too blown then you may just have to rethink your shooting position and find a viewpoint with a less contrasty background. Or just put the camera down and watch the horses. ;)

DemiLion said:
Not really - Nat probably has more experience than I do in a commercial sense, as does Neil_G, both in terms of dressage & SJ. Throw Polo into the mix and you've got Treeman, Tobers and Fabs.

Tbh there is no 'right' way of doing things, but there are conventions that you can chose to follow or not....



....like panning! :D :coat:
Click to expand...

Back! Back to Beelzebub with ya! :p

bigrob said:
I was "biggin" you up Mark. No disrespect to the other guys of course :)
Click to expand...

None perceived Rob (well, not by me anyway. :D)
 
fabs said:
Or just put the camera down and watch the horses.
Click to expand...

Strange you should mention that!

I've spent so much time with my eye glued to a viewfinder that I've hardly properly watched a horse trials for ages. I'm at Gatcombe this w/e and am seriously tempted to leave the camera at home and just enjoy the day.



I might take the G9 though ... you know ... just in case! :D
 
DemiLion said:
Not really - Nat probably has more experience than I do in a commercial sense, as does Neil_G, both in terms of dressage & SJ. Throw Polo into the mix and you've got Treeman, Tobers and Fabs.

Tbh there is no 'right' way of doing things, but there are conventions that you can chose to follow or not....



....like panning! :D :coat:
Click to expand...

zzz.. huh.. wha.. :suspect:

id agree with the concensus though, expose for the horse and/or rider. if necessary tone the overexposed fence/background down in Lightroom or similar afterwards.
 
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DemiLion said:
Strange you should mention that!

I've spent so much time with my eye glued to a viewfinder that I've hardly properly watched a horse trials for ages. I'm at Gatcombe this w/e and am seriously tempted to leave the camera at home and just enjoy the day.



I might take the G9 though ... you know ... just in case! :D
Click to expand...

Exactly what I've said all along. I spent a whole season shooting polo at Herts and it was only at the last tournament, where I wasn't the photographer, that I realised that I hadn't actually watched any polo!!
 
i went with the OH to a BEF Futurity yesterday as she was helping the owner of the stalion she rides with a mare and foal.. i watched the 5 or so before them without taking a single photo, it was sooo nice :lol:
 
this is not a sarcastic remark but a simple solution - move in order to shoot in the best possible light, why make life difficult for yourself? I can assure you that this is what most photographers would do. If you can not shoot backlit then make the sun work for you and shoot head or side on.
 
soccersnapper said:
this is not a sarcastic remark but a simple solution - move in order to shoot in the best possible light, why make life difficult for yourself? I can assure you that this is what most photographers would do. If you can not shoot backlit then make the sun work for you and shoot head or side on.
Click to expand...


Tbh the problem isn't usually the position of the sun but the amount of dynamic range required to get both the combination (horse & rider) as well as the obstacle correctly exposed in bright light - although it will obviously have some effect. This is especially true on XC courses where the fence flags are made from spectacularly ugly plastic that tend to blow out at the slightest opportunity or failing that throw a huge amount of CA into the mix (in which case blowing them is occasionally preferable). Depending on what an SJ obstacle is made from, that can be as close to pure white as you are likely to get as well. When you balance that against dark bays or even chestnuts it can throw any chance of a naturally balanced exposure out of the window.

The other problem is that often you don't have a huge amount of choice as to where to take the photograph from, especially if you don't have ring access (which I suspect is the case here). Available focal length, backgrounds, angles of fences and their approaches, type of shot required and safety all come into the mix and are usually more important considerations then where the sun is unless of course it's getting low on the horizon enough to result in lens flare.

It's certainly a good suggestion as a subsidiary consideration though.
 
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