D200,Settings for horse racing,lens advice

Going horse racing on monday at Pontefract,racing on grass.Was considering using my 17-55mm.I do have at my disposal 50mmf1.4 and the 85mm f1.4.

Would prefer to use the 17-55.So need some advice on settings for the action shots.Horses I believe travel at approx 35mph.

Hope to shot head on,side shots and few of the horses in the parade ring and winners enclosesure.

As usual, "it depends". What do you want to show? Horses in all their splendor, the tight skin, muscles, venes, etc., in full detail? Or do you want to capture the "spirit of racing", with blurry hoofs, blurry background, focus on the wild eyes, laid back ears, etc.?

So, it depends. AF-C is a no-brainer, and selection of focus point (on jockey head, horse head, closest subject, etc.) you'll have to think about in advance; you don't have the time when the horses come thundering towards you. What to choose depends on the story you want to tell, I can't help you here.

But from there on, it's the good ole matter of shutter speed and aperture: 1/60 or slower if you want the blurred background, 1/400 or faster if you want to freeze the action; sacrifice shutter speed for smaller aperture if you want a lot of DOF. All the usual stuff.

Good luck. Be prepared by the time the horses walk into the box. Take some test shots to ensure the whites don't burn out if it's a sunny day, work with exposure compensation (or manual, if you dare) because the contrast spans the entire gamut, etc. etc. etc.

Horses are beautiful creatures, but hard to capture really well. Work hard.

I got away with my Sigm 70-300 at 200mm on an early morning.

The previous advice is what I wanted to give.

I'll set to group priority, AF-C. 5fps is more than sufficient. As previous stated, remember to play around. 1/125s is a nice median to start from and then start playing around with shutter speed and aperture. Also try to practice on moving targets (such as cars on a road etc) to get the panning right.

O, don't be shy to snap away as you will get out of focus shots.

This won't be applicable, but I trick I use is:

If the horse is moving from left to right, set your group priority focus to the right hand side of the viewfinder and try to keep the horse's head in the focus point group. You should get a nice full frame of the horse with the head in focus.

Good luck and enjoy.

Creeper wrote:
1 trick I use is:

Creeper219654 said:

If the horse is moving from left to right, set your group priority
focus to the right hand side of the viewfinder and try to keep the
horse's head in the focus point group. You should get a nice full
frame of the horse with the head in focus.

Click to expand...

Now THAT'S why I visit this forum. In amongst the dross, there is often a pure nugget. Excellent advice and thank-you!

--
Rob

If you're bored...
http://braveulysses.deviantart.com/

Looking forward to monday,hope the weather is good.If i get any good shots will post some.