Headless Horseman Pics?

[choirchic]

We're going to MNSSHP in September and I would REALLY like to get a nice shot of the Headless Horseman...

Any tips? DH has a Nikon D80 if it helps any.

 

[YesDear]

I think the best places to get that shot are at the turn past the Liberty Tree Tavern heading toward the brdge. The other place is at the circle facing Main Street.

Remember that the lights will be low at the park. Not a great deal of light. At both of those places you wil be facing the horse and rider. Motion will be reduced because the are coming toward you. You will have longer time to focus, though not much.

Take the fastest lens you have. and take as many pictures as fast as you can.

This horse is moving faster than you think.

That is my opinion. I am sure others have more!

 

[manning]

I think the best places to get that shot are at the turn past the Liberty Tree Tavern heading toward the brdge. The other place is at the circle facing Main Street.

Remember that the lights will be low at the park. Not a great deal of light. At both of those places you wil be facing the horse and rider. Motion will be reduced because the are coming toward you. You will have longer time to focus, though not much.

Take the fastest lens you have. and take as many pictures as fast as you can.

This horse is moving faster than you think.

That is my opinion. I am sure others have more!

Focusing. here is an old trick. I used it (coming down the aisle) years ago when I did weddings.

You pick a spot where the subject is going to pass and you prefocus on it. When the subject hits that spot you take the picture.

 

[PoohJen]

What not to do....
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 26.0mm (35mm equivalent: 42mm...
Exposure Time: 0.400 s (1/2)
Aperture: f/4.0
ISO Equiv.: 400
Whitebalance: Auto Metering Mode: matrix

Actually, considering the subject, I kinda like how it turned out!

 

[choirchic]

That is actually a really cool picture...

 

[Donold_Fan]

Here's one of mine...

 

[Donold_Fan]

And here's another

 

[jfulcer]

I didn't take this at the MNSSHP, it was actually at a haunted mansion event in 2003 so I've not sure if it's the same track. I'm back by the Liberty Tree tavern also. Got some cool stuff at the event. I've done post processing on this because the picture was pretty dark (taken with my G3 but the flash had pretty much no effect. EXIF said I used Red-eye. Guess with the headless horseman that doesn't matter does it?)

He was moving at quite a clip. You really only get one chance.

 

[orchjoe]

That is a pretty cool shot. It's neat to see the motion of the rider.

 

[PoohJen]

Thanks, it is a fun shot. But it's weird having the blur ahead of the horse.

I recall this horseman coming down Main St at full gallop, so I was suprised at some the the shots above where it almost looks like he is posing! Nice shots everyone!

 

[Kyen]

Here is mine. I was standing across from the Liberty Belle Riverboat

It looks grainy because I had to brighten it

 

[choirchic]

I didn't take this at the MNSSHP, it was actually at a haunted mansion event in 2003 so I've not sure if it's the same track. I'm back by the Liberty Tree tavern also. Got some cool stuff at the event. I've done post processing on this because the picture was pretty dark (taken with my G3 but the flash had pretty much no effect. EXIF said I used Red-eye. Guess with the headless horseman that doesn't matter does it?)

He was moving at quite a clip. You really only get one chance.

That is an AWESOME photo!

 

[jfulcer]

It looks grainy because I had to brighten it

While it's not the best out there, Noiseware Community edition is a free noise reduction tool. It can make a considerable difference. I'd suggest trying it out. I ran your pic through it and it looks a lot cleaner. It'd be better to run the noiseware on the original though.

 

[Kyen]

While it's not the best out there, Noiseware Community edition is a free noise reduction tool. It can make a considerable difference. I'd suggest trying it out. I ran your pic through it and it looks a lot cleaner. It'd be better to run the noiseware on the original though.

Thanks, I think it's a nice improvement

Think I'm going to run all of my really dark night pictures through it

 

[jfulcer]

You also might want to consider brightening it up a bit too, with a photoediting piece of software. I took your original (hope you don't mind too much) and did a quick "Auto Level" in Photoshop and then ran it through Noiseware. The autolevel will brighten up dark picters pretty nicely but you get a lot of noise - which noiseware then removes. Of course, you're always losing a bit of quality applying filters/etc but I figure when I do it to my pics that need help that's just what I like. Here's a leveled/noisewared version of yours:

 

[Kyen]

Thank you for telling me about that program!!