Schoee Loc: Europe

I am going to a horse race soon and would like to try to get a photo with the horse sharp and the background in motion blur. Any hints on how to achieve this would be welcome.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Get your camera into continuous focus / AI Servo AF, depending on brand. When you half-hold the focus button, the camera / lens will continuously focus, that is, adjust the focus. Now, go out and practice on a moving subject, say cars passing your position on a street. As the car approaches you, begin half-holding the focus button and pan with the moving subject. Press the shutter fully as the subject passes right past you at a perpendicular angle. Check your results.

Panning is a skill that comes with practice. It can be helped with the IS / VR setting on certain lenses. Even if the lens doesn't have a "panning setting", having the VR / IS active will stabilize the viewfinder, making it easier for you to 'see' the moving subject and keep the subject within the frame of the camera.

The slower the shutter speed used helps to blur the background. This is a setting that takes some personal decision making. You want to be fast enough to freeze the subject, if desired, but slow enough to better blur the background. As you practice on the passing cars (or bike riders or similar), consider speeds between 1/400 sec and 1/1000 sec. Review the images on your large screen computer monitor later and judge which speed worked best. Consider the speed of the test subjects with the speed of horses when picking the shutter speed on that situation.

Fayle Loc: Seward, Alaska and Rionegro, Colombia

Panning.
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/discover/panning-photography.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqtTUN-aSSY
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-use-camera-panning-for-photography

Schoee Loc: Europe

Thanks for your detailed and very quick response.

Schoee Loc: Europe

Thanks. Will have a look.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Pan the camera. Same at a car race.

TonyP Loc: New Zealand

Just a few finer details.
Study some horse race photos to decide the photo you want to get.
The classic, for me, is where the horse is striving to lead. Ears pointing forward, One leg, hoof, fully stretched forward.
Depends on the race as well of course. Trotting or Pacer events the horses legs are moving faster so you will need a faster shutter speed to freeze the legs. Gallops the legs are slower and if the rider is using a crop/whip, try and get that action as well.
Get as close to the action as possible and go wide with the lens. I think the best angle to achieve is camera height at saddle height. Try and find where the ‘official’ photographers are and get a similar vantage point if you can.
A horse race from a distance often gives the impression that things are happening rather slowly but up close you will find there’s quite a lot going on ‘in the pack’.
I agree with much of what CHG CANON says but my advice would be to burst shoot rather than trying to time your shot, at first. Digital shots are free so start shooting 2 or 3 seconds before they are due to pass you.
Have fun, its a great day at the races with a camera.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Yes, I should have expanded better on the final few moments of the passing subject. A short burst is needed as the subject passes, not a lucky 1-shot attempt. I've been at so many airshows where people around me are ripping off frames far, far too far away and / or then taking pictures of the rear of the plane well after it has passed. These are all just wasted frames as the only one you'll ever keep is that perfect nearest to exact passing moment, none of the others.

gwilliams6

1) A panning shot from my archives: Hall of Fame Jockey Steve Cauthen rides to victory here in a turf race at Aqueduct Raceway in Queens, New York in the year he became the first jockey to ever win $6 million USD in one year. The next year Cauthen would become the youngest jockey to win the US Triple Crown of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. Cauthen would go on to score hundreds of top victories in both North America and Europe in his Hall of Fame career ,and is the only Jockey ever named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. I took a chance on a panning shot knowing I would get only one fast pass of Steve and hoped my shot wouldn't be blocked by other horses in the race. Steve pulled ahead down the stretch, I followed him and kept shooting as I swung my camera and its 300mm f2.8 lens as he passed by to victory. and I got my one perfect frame with all four hoofs in the air, shooting a film Nikon 35mm SLR camera. It was all manual focusing back then too. And since it wasn't digital back then, we didn't know if we had gotten the exact shot until we processed the film.

2) A panning shot where I purposely shot at a very slow shutter speed while panning, as I wanted this shot to be flowing motion, flowing colors and flowing bodies. In Kingston, Jamaica, in the Caribbean, a race at the Jamaica High School National Track Championships. Shot with a Canon DSLR and 70-200mm f2.8 lens.

Just experiment and practice with panning, before you make your horse racing shots

Cheers and best to you

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ELNikkor

I tried this with passing motorcycles in Indonesia last January. With my D5100, 55-200 lens, I found having a shutter-speed of around 1/40-1/60 of a second gave a nice, streaking blur to the background, and occasionally had the subject very sharp. That panning, though was for a subject only moving on a side-to-side plane, not up and down/side-to-side, like happens with a horse & rider. Fortunately, it is easy to practice with a variety of shutter speeds, probably starting with 1/125 and up, with any horse race until you find the effect you're looking for.

ELNikkor

Here is one that worked. I panned, but did not use a tripod. You may shoot many photos and only have a few turn out, but those will be worth it! (f4.2, ISO 800, 1/40 sec., 80mm [120mm FX equivalent])

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Alex A

With motorsports, the rule of thumb for blurred background on a panned shot, is to set the shutter speed at or lower than the speed of the car. If it’s doing about 150mph, set the shutter speed to 1/150 sec or less. That approach works for other sports like rugby too, so try that for horse racing too.

Schoee Loc: Europe

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. They are very appreciated.

Ruthlessrider

Nice tutorial!

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

You have to shoot at a slower speed and pan with the horse.
I photograph my precision formation flying team at 1/320 or 1/250 th to get the propeller movement but you need to be steady to keep the subject in focus.