Panning Race Horses

[rpcrowe]

Later this month, I have the opportunity to photograph race horses in their practice runs at Del Mar Race Track in Northern San Diego County. This is the track about which Bing Crosby (anyone remember him?) crooned, "Where the Turf Meets the Surf in Old Del Mar"

Anyhow, I plan to use my 7D Mark 2 with my 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens. I have researched old postings about shutter speeds and think that I may want to shoot at varied speeds. Horses are very different from panning cars and airplanes because they bob up and down and their legs are working at all different angles and speeds.

I think that I am going to use aperture priority and set up the ISO and aperture so that my shutter speed is about 1/125 second and then use auto exposure bracketing of + and - one stop which will then give me shutter speeds of 1/60. 1/125 and 1/250 second for each three shot burst. Using the AEB seems to be the best way to get a variety of shutter speeds, to blur portions of the frame and subject. I will see how the images come out and then increase or decrease my original shutter speed.

Nice thing about this opportunity to shoot the practice is that there will be many horses running and I won't have to wait an extended time between races. There will also not be a crowd that I will have to buck to get near the fences. The bad thing about this photo opportunity is that there won't be a gaggle of horses racing each other and I don't suppose that the training riders will be wearing "silks"

Well, you can't have everything

[george013]

Later this month, I have the opportunity to photograph race horses in their practice runs at Del Mar Race Track in Northern San Diego County. This is the track about which Bing Crosby (anyone remember him?) crooned, "Where the Turf Meets the Surf in Old Del Mar"

Anyhow, I plan to use my 7D Mark 2 with my 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens. I have researched old postings about shutter speeds and think that I may want to shoot at varied speeds. Horses are very different from panning cars and airplanes because they bob up and down and their legs are working at all different angles and speeds.

I think that I am going to use aperture priority and set up the ISO and aperture so that my shutter speed is about 1/125 second and then use auto exposure bracketing of + and - one stop which will then give me shutter speeds of 1/60. 1/125 and 1/250 second for each three shot burst. Using the AEB seems to be the best way to get a variety of shutter speeds, to blur portions of the frame and subject. I will see how the images come out and then increase or decrease my original shutter speed.

Nice thing about this opportunity to shoot the practice is that there will be many horses running and I won't have to wait an extended time between races. There will also not be a crowd that I will have to buck to get near the fences. The bad thing about this photo opportunity is that there won't be a gaggle of horses racing each other and I don't suppose that the training riders will be wearing "silks"

Well, you can't have everything

Why bracketing at different shutter speed? Make a choice and do just burst shots. Then you can select some typical images, a combination of sharpness and movement.

George

[rpcrowe]

You are totally correct. This is why I like to put my ideas out on the forum. Thanks...

[george013]

You are totally correct. This is why I like to put my ideas out on the forum. Thanks...

I think it's fun. Shooting in burst will give you a wonderful series of the movement of a horse.
When I remember well, just up to the time movies where used, nobody was sure if the horse was free from the earth with all 4 legs at a same moment. Movies is just a continuous burst of images.

Good luck.

George

[rpcrowe]

Actually it was a series of still images that ended the argument about whether the horse's four hooves were off the ground at one time. Edward Muybridge set up a series of cameras the shutters of which were tripped with threads across the track. The horse breaking the threads tripped the shutter resulting in images like this after the individual shots were composited.
https://www.google.com/search?q=eadw...w=1280&bih=615
Don't we have things easier now!

[george013]

Actually it was a series of still images that ended the argument about whether the horse's four hooves were off the ground at one time. Edward Muybridge set up a series of cameras the shutters of which were tripped with threads across the track. The horse breaking the threads tripped the shutter resulting in images like this after the individual shots were composited.
https://www.google.com/search?q=eadw...w=1280&bih=615
Don't we have things easier now!

Yes, that's what I meant. I still don't know how he did it.

George

[rpcrowe]

I missed the original outing because I had to pick my wife up at the airport as she flew in from visiting her sister. I am scheduled for a second chance this Tuesday morning.

Here are the shots posted from the first meetup...
https://www.meetup.com/pacificphoto/...18/473065104/?

[PhotoByTrace]

Sounds like fun. I look forward to seeing what photos you capture. The pics from others from the first outing are interesting; should be a fun opportunity. Enjoy!

[ccphoto]

Try shutter speeds even lower than 125th.

1/30th



1/15th



1/8th

[rpcrowe]

IMO, the ideal shutter speed would be one that kept the horese head andthe jockey relatively sharp with the legs of the horse blurred.

The problem in determining the shutter speed for this type of shot is that you have movement around many of the various axis in the image. The horse and rider, of course are going forward, but this isn't a straight forward panning shot like panning with a car would be. Rather you have up and down as well as side to side motion. I think that experimentation might be the ticket in this shoot.

I will probably start about 1/60 second and go a bit couple of stops slower for 1/40 and 1/20 second as well as 1/80 and 1/100 second.

Another parameter is whether the horses are running straight across the frame or at an angle to the frame...

The nice thing about shooting the trials, as opposed to shooting "real races" is that I will have many more opportunities to test the shutter speed. Rather than having one race with a half hour delay until the next race happens, I will have many opportunities to shoot... Many more opportunities than during regular races...

[rpcrowe]

As I mentioned earlier, I was trying to get shots with the jockey and the horses face somewhat sharp with the hooves of the horse blurred.

I shot between 1/20 second and 1/125 second. I began to get fairly decent images around 1/40 second. Shots below that shutter speed were blurred. I did not shoot above 1/125 second because I was getting frozen images with no motion blur at all.

As with any venue like this, I had to shoot a lot of shots to get some keepers.

1/40 second

1/50 second

1/60 second

1/100 second

1/125 second

[ccphoto]

40th-50th-60th are my favorites. You are right about 125th.

[rpcrowe]

Here's another one - cropped a bit differently...



This one was shot at: 1/40 second...

I wonder what the light line stretching through the horses hooves is caused by?

[Stagecoach]

I think these are great Richard but they are starting to look a bit over processed and they don't need it.

[george013]

Here's another one - cropped a bit differently...



This one was shot at: 1/40 second...

I wonder what the light line stretching through the horses hooves is caused by?

What you see is a long exposure of a horizontal line due to the horizontal panning. In the middle it was covered a longer time by the left back and right font hooves.
Nice pictures. Good result.

George

[billtils]

Very well done Richard. They're all good but my personal preferences are for the ones at the extremes - the horse's head is nice and sharp in the 1/40s with good motion blur in the rest, whereas the 1/125s captures the horse clearly with just enough blur to say "it's moving".

[Shadowman]

Nice series on the horses.

[FootLoose]

Great results Richard.

[rpcrowe]

Thank you...

[skitterbug]

Hi Richard - I bet you had a fun day experimenting with speed settings, set ups, etc. The results are interesting to me since I tend to want to "stop action". Showing action but still having the main subject crisp and clear is the task I've been currently working on. So I appreciate this display of action shots! Well done! And thank you!