Polo - Lacey Green, Buckinghamshire

[djguk47]

Couple of firsts... first use of a 100-400 L Lens and first time photographing a Polo match.
The day was cold and heavy grey cloud... "British Spring Day"
Polo:

• playing area is 3 times the size of a football pitch
• 8 horses galloping at about 30mph plus two mounted umpires
• provided the ball is inside the area of play, the players can be outside the area of play so standing on the safety side line (2 metres outside the field of play sideline) can still be fairly dangerous

WDYT

50D, f/5, 1/1000, ISO800, 130mm


50D, f/6.3, 1/1000, ISO 1600, 400mm


50D, f/6.3, 1/1000, ISO 1600, 400mm


David

[Canon-Fodder!]

Re: Polo - Lacey Green, Buckinghamshire

Hi David;

For 'first-attempts' - well done... Getting clean uncluttered shots is NOT easy in these scenarios by any means...

A great capture of the flying ball in #2 ! What a great shame it's not 'isolated' away from the horses head! Could you ask them to do it again

A couple of comments if I may;

Some say that the 100-400 wide open at f/5.6 is not at it's best and that you should use it a touch down from f/5.6 and from 400mm. I have the 100-400, and that is not my experience with my lens; I'm very happy with it's performance at f/5.6 at 400mm; so I would suggest that you give it a go... I can't see the EXIF data here, so not sure what (if any) priority you used... but couldn't initially see why you'd chosen f/6.3 for #2 & 3... f/5.6 would have given you a tad extra speed as well...

I'm assuming that these are quite heavy crops (?); if not, I'm unsure what you've done on the processing. I see you used ISO1600, but the 'graining' doesn't appear to be 'noise' !

The whites in #2 & 3 look to be blown; if you shot RAW, you'll probably be able to recover some definition there.

But all up - I'd be very happy if these were my first results with the 100-400 under the conditions you used it!

Cheers...

[paul linton]

Re: Polo - Lacey Green, Buckinghamshire

Hi
Just a quick comment,were you shooting hand held as all your horizons are not very straight (unless they are playing on a hill)this is easly fixed when you crop.
Also like CF said not sure of your settings i use AV for action shots and would of set the aperture to f/5.6 and changed the iso to get the shutter speed needed on such a overcast day good to see you kept your iso settings to the full 1-stop don't try 1/3-stops adds more noise, keep to the 100,400,800,1600 iso.
Anyway enough comments from me,I like pic #3 the best captured the action really well and it must be hard to get the ball flying in the air luck or judgement !
All the best Paul

[djguk47]

Re: Polo - Lacey Green, Buckinghamshire

C-F & Paul,
Thanks for the comments very much appreciated as this is the only way I will learn.

I had set Tv to 1/1000 and left ISO on Auto. Leaving ISO on Auto was possibly the mistake.
I shot them in RAW and processed through DPP then into Elements 7. I think I may have applied more sharpening in Elements which looking at the shots now was another mistake.

Yes the shots were all hand held as using a tripod at Polo would be very difficult the speed and the very rapid changes of direction. The only time you could pan using a tripod is if someone makes a breakaway and is out on their own. A player can change the direction of the ball by only two inches and the whole direction of the game changes as is happening in shot #1.

Although Polo fields are in theory flat, they are often on a hill and there are a couple of grounds that I have played on that if you are on one side of the pitch you can only see the top half of the players on the other side as the grounds are so big.

As for catching the ball, I think I am lucky with this as I played Polo for about ten years and have an idea where the ball should be from the angle of the Polo Mallet and the type of hit being taken. However, with a full blooded hit the ball can leave the ground at about 100mph.

Somewhere in the processing I manage to loose the Exif data.

Will have another go at these tonight as I have about 80 or so shots to play with.
Thanks

David

[colin C]

Re: Polo - Lacey Green, Buckinghamshire

For a first attempt, with the weather conditions against you, that’s a very good result. For those that have never been to a Polo match, you wouldn’t believe the speed of the event and just how quickly those “Ponies” can change direction. Couple that to the speed of the ball and you have a very exciting sport, which is very difficult to photograph. You have to anticipate all the time and with a telephoto lens, you are blinkered. I used to do some stuff for the Anstey Polo Club in Wiltshire and I don’t mind admitting that it was hard work, primarily through the amount of concentration required.

I presume this was at Guards Polo Club, which can be a bit tricky with some of the background views, but on this occasion, with such dull lighting, your position didn’t matter too much and you have made the best of it.

Number three is my favourite, but it could do with a little help post processing. The automatic white balance is normally very good on Canon’s, but it needs a little tweeking in RAW on this shot. There is a slight magenta cast which doesn’t help and the whites have nearly blown, but shadow detail in the ponies has been held well. I suspect there is more detail in the Hi Res shot, but this is the Low Res shot that you have presented to us and all we can comment on.

To get the best out of the shot, I would look at the RAW file again and expose it just for the whites, save the new file under a new name, make a selection of just the whites and lay that on top of the existing shot as a new layer. That will give you a full tonal range with good shadow and highlight detail.

Look forward to seeing some more!

Colin

[gsgary]

Re: Polo - Lacey Green, Buckinghamshire

If you set it at 1/1000 they must have been badly under exposed and made lighter in post which is why you have the bad grain