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Jess Wealleans · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:28 pm

Hello everyone, long time no see (been on holiday+broken laptops!)

I was with my friend yesterday at a showjumping competition, and took my trusty little olympus E420. Tried some motion pictures, but the light was horrifically overcast, and i didn't know how to get a sharp image from it. I've got sharp ones in bright light but it was very overcast and drizzling.

Here's a picture that i got. How can i lose the noise and get it sharp even in such low light? How can i increase the shutter speed, but keep the exposure up enough, and the noise low? Is it just a case of a good lense? If so, any pointers as to which one?

Anyway, thanks in advance for your blooming valuable advice and i'll go out to another event in a couple of weeks to have a go again!

semmickphoto · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:36 pm

Have him jump in a bright lit studio :)

Jess Wealleans · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:40 pm

semmickphoto · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:44 pm

See... there you go

pjmorley · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 3300

You have no control over light levels here so you just have to accept that there are limits to what you can do with the gear you have. A faster lens would help, I note your aperture is f/5.6 from the EXIF data. Using a lens at f/2.8 would allow to halve your ISO to 200 instead of the 400 that is used but actually, lots of cameras are capable of virtually noise free images at ISO 400. Is this a relatively old camera or does it have a small sensor?

Even then, once you are wide open, you only have ISO to play with if you want to keep shutter speeds up and you have to accept that higher ISO comes with a bit of noise. In the real world, a bit of noise isn't a problem, it's only when you try to submit to microstock that it really becomes an issue.

Jess Wealleans · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:56 pm

hhltdave5 · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:10 pm

rinder99 · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:24 pm

Olys are kinda famous for noise.

Jess Wealleans · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:28 pm

It was a present, so unfortunately i couldn't be picky! Just waiting for my lovely student loan to come in september then i may part exchange my Olympus for a Canon/Nikon or just a better Olympus. I like shooting Sports, i think i've found something that i will actually invest some serious money into! are telephoto lenses with low f.stops the way forward here?

jeffbanke · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:29 pm

Basically, you cannot get there from here, I mean even with a really good camera, and the best of lenses, one is going to have difficulty on days like the one you mentioned.

You cannot go down to f2.8 because you need the DOF to get the horse and the jump in focus

You cannot go up in ISO without introducing noise, even the best of cameras are going to have difficulty going beyond ISO 1600 and still getting the image accepted for stock.

You cannot lower the shutter speed below 1/1000 th without getting blur from the movement of the tail which will be moving much faster than the horse due to the whip effect. (Tip of the whip moves faster than the handle and causes the crack noise)

So, basically you are between a rock and a hard place, you don't have the right gear to do it, nor do you have the right lighting. Sorry but true.

Shoot on days where you can shoot at 1/1000th at f5.6-8 and ISO 100-200

Jess Wealleans · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:40 pm

With the weather being like it is in england this summer (for those of you who don't know - torrential rain + flooding constantly across everywhere so clouds everywhere but also hot at the same time, gah)so it's generally not ideal AT all for it.

Hopefully i can get some late july/early august that are better. Thanks for your help though!

jeffbanke · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 3:04 pm

You are welcome, and yes telephoto lenses with low F stop capability are the way to go for sports, but are extremely pricy for good glass ($xxxx) anything less is not going to get you where you want to be