Playing With Your Camera

by Diana De Rosa
I love sharp, crisp images and often when I am shooting for a client I want each photo to show every detail. However, sometimes those blurry, shadowy, partly sharp and partly not sharp, and silhouette images can really stand out.
I’ve got a few examples here so you can see what I mean.
This image taken at the Beijing Olympic Games is an example of helping the gold medal U.S. team stand out even more because of the background being blurred. Had the images of the people in the stands been clear, this showcasing of these champions would have a whole different look and feel.
It was taken with an ISO of 1250, a shutter speed of 500 (which helped to stop any movement of the riders), and an f-stop of 4 (which helps to blur the background).

I was at a Cavalia show many years ago and the use of colorful lights on the horses created some really cool shots. I find that if you have a camera that will allow you to put the ISO pretty high so that you don’t have to use a flash, you will sometimes come out with these amazing images. So, give it a try sometime.
Both of these shots were taken with an ISO of 6400, 125 shutter speed at f 2.8. That allowed enough light so the image could be shot as I saw it. Had I used a flash (which you really shouldn’t do around horses), it would have destroyed the real beauty of these shots.

I love the following image, which is a blurry shot of the driving horses. This is done when your shutter speed is set too low to stop the action. I don’t have the exact data for this one, but I can bet it was probably shot at about a shutter speed of 125. When I want to stop the action, I always try to shoot no lower than 500. In this case, I didn’t want a crisp shot and I like the result.

I love doing silhouette shots because I feel like they give a different perspective to the photo. The picture of the woman bringing her horse from the light of the day into the darker barn is a nice human-horse bond shot.

Most of these shots focus around horses but it doesn’t matter what the subject is. You can do the same thing with a car, a person, an animal or an object by simply playing around with your ISO, shutter speed and f stop.
So, don’t always worry about getting that perfect shot. Sometimes what ends up being a perfect shot may not feel like it at the time.
Do you have any fun photos you’d like to share? Use the comment section below to tell us about the shot and how it came to be.
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