5 day old Faith

[Cheryl Flory]

Here is a picture I took yesterday of a 5 day old Belgian colt named Faith. I plan on going back when another colt is born this week and would like to improve my pictures. From your critiques from my previous picture, this time I
maneuvered a better spot to shoot from so I would get a better angle of incidence, raised the ISO to get a faster speed, kept the subject out of the center, and waited until I got a better head shot from "Faith". And wow, were my hands freezing and sitff and sore by the time the sun got too low. As pretty as the day was, it was COLD! Not like in beautiful warm and sunny Florida.
ISO 400
109 mm
center weighted camera metering
1/2000
f8.0
AI Servo turned on
lens: Canon 280135 IS but had the IS turned off.
And I used the center focus spot only to focus, so I know I got that right on Faith, even though the picture doesn't appear very sharp. This is after some work in PhotoShop with contrasting and unsharpmask and darkening the whites in the snow a bit.

I have another shot where the eye contact is better and there is even a highlight in the eye, but I don't like the feet positioning as well. Which factor would be more important?

How can I get a better shot this week? The picture still doesn't quite "grab me".

thank you for all of your critiques! I really appreciate them!
Cheryl

[Harold Davis]

cheryl, i would turn the IS on. do you pan the camera with the horse as he is moving?

[Alfred Forns]

Cheryl The best advice is to follow through and keep the shutter down You did get an excellent pose in the air wold like it a bit sharper and the fence right behind the head is not helping

If you photograph again with similar condition (fence on the back) Would try using a slow shutter speed and going for a motion blur Will look way cool The SS will depend on direction and speed Waiting for the next !!!!

[Cheryl Flory]

What do I do to get the next set of pictures sharper?
How slow of a shutter speed should I try to get a motion blur?

I did the panning and holding down the shutter button and had the camera set on the high speed continuous shooting.

But I tell you, leaning through the "hot" wires on the fence to get a better angle without getting shocked was a bit distracting. lol

Thanks,
Cheryl

[Alfred Forns]

Cheryl I don't think is a mater of faster shutter speed Probably panning smoother with the horse I know at times I'm not smooth in panning since I need to catch up with the action On these the more you do the better they will get You can even try cars for practice

For blurs I'm guessing to start at 1/125 to give you a chance With digital you will be able to judge the results and adjust

...................btw by fart the one thing that would give you the greatest immediate improvement is having someone turn the juice to that fence off !!! :D:D:D :cool: