Shooting dark coloured moving subjects

JJ!

JJ!

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I was shooting some equestrian show jumping over the weekend and was struggling at times to get the darker coloured horses showing any real details. Everything else was fine! But a few shots of the darker horses also came out ok. Maybe it was where I was focusing on like rider leg or something. It was worse when the horses were further away.

It was with D750 and 70-200 F4. I experimented with the metering modes and spot just blew out the background, matrix was too dark and the lull one with the spot with brackets around (I can't remember it's name!) was better but hit and miss.

It was a pretty clear day, few coulds and lots of other colours around.

Any tips? I took more pics yesterday of our horse who is darkish brown and they all came out fine. It's only the really dark brown and black horses I am struggling to get my head around.

I know it's to do with the camera needing too see a difference in colours, but it's difficult when the entire horse is black.

As always, thanks in advance for help and advice!
 
Two suggestions - shoot raw if you're not already, it allows far more shadow and highlight recovery than jpg. If that's not enough, try spot metering with exposure comp (say -1 stop) dialled in for the darker subjects. (In that case you'd have of course to make sure that the metering 'spot' was aligned with the dark part of the subject - hopefully you were doing that already.)
 
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droj said:
Two suggestions - shoot raw if you're not already, it allows far more shadow and highlight recovery than jpg. If that's not enough, try spot metering with exposure comp (say -1 stop) dialled in for the darker subjects.
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Thank you - will try that!
 
You could try manual metering off something "grey" before setting the exp values manually, grass registers as "grey" so that might work, unless the light is changing all the time of course :-)
Matt
 
Cheap used mirrorless with live exposure preview ? I find it the best thing ever invented for tricky exposure problems because you can see in the viewfinder if the horse is going to be a black blob with zero detail.
 
JJ! said:
I know it's to do with the camera needing too see a difference in colours, but it's difficult when the entire horse is black.
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Is the horse something new, you just got it? :) Or you got the camera because you got a horsie? You seem to be getting in it quite a lot.

Not that much experience on my part but I have (had?) similar problem. It would be nice if could do an incident light metering but it is too late for that, or measure the light reflected by an 18% Kodak??? gray card. I struggle if it is a very bright day but I think it helps me with the black hairy to opt for one up from spot metering (centre weighted or whatever Nikon calls it). I know my answer is clear as mud :(

And yes, autofocus likes to pick the boot or the stirrups or any bit that has a contrast on the horse.
 
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TLR-330 said:
Is the horse something new, you just got it? :) Or you got the camera because you got a horsie? You seem to be getting in it quite a lot.

Not that much experience on my part but I have (had?) similar problem. It would be nice if could do an incident light metering but it is too late for that, or measure the light reflected by an 18% Kodak??? gray card. I struggle if it is a very bright day but I think it helps me with the black hairy to opt for one up from spot metering (centre weighted or whatever Nikon calls it). I know my answer is clear as mud :(

And yes, autofocus likes to pick the boot or the stirrups or any bit that has a contrast on the horse.
Click to expand...

Had camera for a while and had horses for a while.

We got a new lad 9 weeks ago so he will no doubt become one of the most photographed horses out there! Luckily he is a slightly lighter brown and he is easier to take pics of! Never had any real issues with darker horses - maybe was just an off day for the camera and me!!
 
JJ! said:
I was shooting some equestrian show jumping over the weekend and was struggling at times to get the darker coloured horses showing any real details.
Click to expand...
It's the nature of the beast. :D Black or almost black animals are very difficult to photograph and show detail. I hate the phrase 'it's all about the light' but with showing detail of black animals it really is. Other than managing the light I've found the best bet is to lift the shadows in Lightroom (or whatever). All white creatures can be just as problematic. And don't mention black and white animals...
 
MatBin said:
You could try manual metering off something "grey" before setting the exp values manually, grass registers as "grey" so that might work, unless the light is changing all the time of course :)
Matt
Click to expand...

That's what I'd do. In fact that's what I did do yesterday when I was photographing my white cat in the garden.
 
JJ! said:
I was shooting some equestrian show jumping over the weekend and was struggling at times to get the darker coloured horses showing any real details. Everything else was fine! But a few shots of the darker horses also came out ok. Maybe it was where I was focusing on like rider leg or something. It was worse when the horses were further away.

It was with D750 and 70-200 F4. I experimented with the metering modes and spot just blew out the background, matrix was too dark and the lull one with the spot with brackets around (I can't remember it's name!) was better but hit and miss.

It was a pretty clear day, few coulds and lots of other colours around.

Any tips? I took more pics yesterday of our horse who is darkish brown and they all came out fine. It's only the really dark brown and black horses I am struggling to get my head around.

I know it's to do with the camera needing too see a difference in colours, but it's difficult when the entire horse is black.

As always, thanks in advance for help and advice!
Click to expand...

Simply increase exposure compensation, the dark colours will lighten and show more detail. You'll have to dial down the highlights in post to balance it but that's easier and cleaner than dialling up the dark areas.
 
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