I have been shooting horse shows for a few years now and these are a few things I have learned to do to get the best possible image. It is of course very important to know what the ideal horse stance is of any discipline and I recommend googling that to read more about it. In the meantime I can cover some of the basics such as composition and lighting!
- First and foremost is fill the frame. Get as close as you can or zoom in as much as you can so that you can fill the entire photo with horse and rider. Not only will you get the details like facial expressions but you will minimize as many distracting details as you can, like fences or people in the background. I am going to talk more about zoom lens in a minute. Don’t hesitate to get right down on the ground and shoot from a low angle. Often that will eliminate a lot of the background that otherwise would plague you and in my opinion it creates a really striking image of the junior rider in the short stirrup class.
- When I am shooting a vertical image (portrait orientation) I like to get the horse and rider coming straight at me, they’ll be tall and thin and framed perfectly for a portrait. The portrait I save more for flat classes or dressage events. When I am shooting a horizontal (landscape) image, I get the horse and rider at ¾ profile or full-on profile. This is how I shoot most jumping images.
- I set up for my shot keeping these things in mind: light, background and course.
- Ideally, in a perfect world, every day would be an overcast day with flat light and no shadows. Unfortunately I can’t control the weather!! So … let’s consider this : Sunny day? Time of day? Early? If the sun isn’t too overhead yet I shoot with the light in the athlete’s face. Otherwise I try to get them backlit.
Here is a super duper awesome secret that will improve your images on a super bright sunny day. The Canon default contrast is a little high, producing some blown-out highlights and dark shadows under harsh lighting. Change the contrast setting in camera (pg 112/113 of the t3i manual) , go to picture style , press info, select contrast, press set, press the <> key to adjust, then press set then menu. It will show in blue that it’s different from the default. I can’t stress enough how important this is, your highlights will not be overexposed and your shadows will not be pitch black.
There is also more to understand about JPG vs RAW but this opens up another discussion about software and post-processing. For the meantime I recommend you learn the ins and outs of JPG then tackle the next step. - I choose where I am going to hang out based on the course the rider is doing. I pick a spot where I know their eyes and head will be turned towards me over the jump and not obstructed by their horse’s head. I time it so their horse’s knees are just over the rail. Best case is pretty / tight together knees . I then look for the jump with the least distracting background. Commit the course to memory so you know where the rider will be next and so you can quickly (and quietly) move into the next position.
- For fun you could try out the “burst” mode on your camera, as the rider is going over a combination, I know the entry level Canon t3i has this feature, it’s called Continuous Shooting, check your manual, I believe it gives you 4 frames per second. Might make for a really fun “story board” type display on your daughter’s bedroom wall!!!
- Be quiet and do not scare the horses.
- Ask permission if you want to get into an area for a better shot. Don’t be shy. As long as you are courteous and never create a danger then likely you will be able to. (That being said do not go anywhere that is restricted). Also be aware that if there is an Official Photographer on the site that has been engaged by the club then you most likely will be asked NOT to take photos with your semi-professional gear. Please respect this request. The Official Photographer works very hard, is very talented and invests a substantial amount of time and money so they can be there and get the best quality images of your child. Their images will be substantially better than yours and will be worth the financial investment for you to buy. *** You may own the same gear as the OF but I can assure you, his/her images will still be better than yours. Just buy hers ;)
