Taking jumping pictures etc. - some advice

Eriskayowner

Eriskayowner

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Congratulations to all that are brave enough to post any pictures on here of us doing stuff, but I thought I'd add a tip on how to take pictures of moving objects.

Moving the camera with the horse, and keeping the camera moving with the horse whilst taking the picture will look, to the camera, as if the horse is still, and therefore won't be blurred.

Just thought I'd mention it. There are some great pictures on here, but they could have been soooo much nicer if they were sharp and clear!

If anyone else wants to add any points (I'm by NO means an expert) then please feel free!

x
 
I'd love to be a pro photographer ;) and have a DSLR camera that's probably much too good for me :(

but most compacts nowadays have a sports mode, which does aid the pictures in anti blur.
Keep the button pressed halfway down, follow your object and at the exact moment you want your picture..snap :)
Take practise pictures beforehand of what angel you want and what zoom you want - keep in mind, the more zoom you have the faster you'll have to move!! :)
 
Good advice Kellysheroes - I forgot about the bit about keeping the shutter button half way until ready. I discovered this also works with the very poor iPhone camera, although I do not rate it AT ALL as a camera. I also use OH's DSLR but to no massively high standard! ;)
 
From what I can remember, a smaller aperture setting means a larger 'hole' so if its darker, use the menu to decrease the aperture setting and if its bright sunshine, increase the aperture setting...but don't quote me on that!
I like doing my best to mess up panoramic views haha I have never gotten a good one yet! Need a tripod before I venture into that area.
Not sure what othersettings my DSLR has, I haven't got the batteries charged up :( not had it long but I generally put it on manual, and have a play with the settings and see whats the best photo I can get! :)

Other things I learnt from my photography mad ex boyfriend was don't have too much of a subject in the picture and sometimes photos can be more effective if the subject isn't in the centre of the photo...I am in the process of trying to learn how to make water look like smoke and how to blur the background and focus the subject :)
 
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Not a pro at all and rarely use a proper camera these days, all done on crappy mobile lol or stills from vids.

But for cameras....I always just put it on sport mode and sequence shot :) And then delete the extra ones.
 
With my DSLR I always take the first photo on auto so that i can see the settings it decides to use. Then if its too blurry, buit quite bright i will change it to shutter priority enabling me to change the shutter speed and i will turn it up untill it makes the photo too dark.
By no means do you want to be using a high ISO as this makes a photo very grainy!

My top tip is moving with the horse and always having it focused!

Hope this helps! :)
 
I shoot on aperture priority for sports, normally f4 but do open the lens right up to f2.8 if the weather is particularly bad. The camera will then pick the best shutter speed to use whilst allowing light into the camera. The danger with choosing shutter priority is that a fixed shutter speed may not give the image any depth of frame... equally if the light changes whilst you're shooting, you may end up with images that are too dark/too light. hmm I'm not explaining myself very well, it's too late!!

High ISO is not a bad thing, if it means you will get sharper images, you will need to crank your iso up... it's just how well your camera deals with the noise- on my old slr anything over ISO800 was unusable, however I shot on ISO1000 a few weeks ago with my current camera and got some really decent photos with low levels of noise.

I tend to pre focus on the jump then move the centre of the viewfinder to directly above the jump rather than focusing on the horse and tracking it into the jump as it will move and so your focus point moves too. If you pre focus on the jump anything coming into the forefront of the image will be in focus, you then need to work on timing and getting the horse just as it takes off over the jump. Sorry if none of that makes sense, it's way too late for my brain to work haha.
 
Yay loads more great advice!

I'm loving the ISO tips etc but to all those without DSLR cameras, remember the basics still apply, probably even more so. My mother taught me the trick of moving the camera with the object (she used to take pictures of my sister playing netball etc as well) and she was using 35mm film!

I had to play around with the ISO on OH's camera at my sister's graduation - the lighting was sooooo different in different places and a flash was banned :(
 
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