I think that upping shutter speed would help immensely - increase the ISO if necessary too. Flash, as you say, is dangerous - and should be avoided if possible. I would try increasing ISO and shutter speed as much as you can without too much loss of picture quality - and shoot in RAW - you'll be able to edit the photos much easier afterwards

xx

I don`t bother to use the cameras PC software to be honest, I did load it but have only used it a couple of times for viewing rather than tweaking. These are the best I could do in a rush, the first one has a bit of noise but more can be removed to clear it a bit on the upper wall, the colour adjust is almost right, the wall needs to be whiter by a fraction but it made it all too noisy so I let it keep a slight blue cast, the colour of the horse is pretty much right though [ if I know horse colours as well as I think I do anyway ] It could probably be better with a bit of fine tuning.

I have`nt had to try indoor horse show picture taking yet but I would think a pretty high iso and fast shutter speed would be needed - I have the D40 which has noise reduction, does the D60 have it as well ?

The other two, I ran them through basic photo fix on Paint Shot Pro, then Fade Adjustment on auto then sharpen but the second portrait only sharpens to a degree as there was a bit of movement [ don`t know if it was camera shake or if the horse moved ],when you took it








Panning is definitely the way to go as has already been mentioned, it`s been a priceless piece of advice which I was given here as well, it`s made all the difference to action shots for me which was something I was struggling with big time, I still need more practice at it but I`m getting there now, [ enough to have been asked by a horsey magazine to send them my pix of shows for them to use, the first lot of which I`m processing at the mo to send them as soon as I get the show report from the show sec with the riders and horses names that is ]

If you end up going to shows regularly it`s worth getting to know show organisers so you can get permission to be closer to the competitors, at the venue I go to now I got to know their regular pro-photographer who is lovely and no longer do I stand outside the ring since she invited me to stand with her inside the ring, if you can get yourself nearer you`ll find it a big help
I know I`m only a beginner too but with it being about horses I have a particular interest in trying to photograph them, so I hope you don`t mind me sticking my oar in

Shot taken when Panning, just to give you an idea the difference it makes if that`s ok





Hope that helps a little - don`t forget I`m far from being expert myself so please always listen to the others for advice/tips before me

thanks i assume its all in the book about ISO and increasing the shutter speed?? i put it on 3 per second for some..... but that combined with practise lol

panning? word i need to look up....

is that what you used on both headshots???

they look much clearer - ]

to be honest ive just tweaked them using my computer software and although not perfect they are much better (lesss light and orange)!

really appreciate all your help!!!!

any more tips really welcome

Definately up the shutter speed!
I never go below 1/160 handheld (unless I have my speedlight on) and I go much quicker if light permits with moving kids.

Do you mean burst/continuous shots where you press and hold the button and the camera keeps firing ? I used to do that and with the camera on auto sports setting, but I have found manual settings to be far better and to take lots of single shots, picking the moment rather than relying on burst as I don`t now feel that burst setting really adjusts fast enough for my preference, [ bearing in mind I have a beginners D40, not a super dooper high spec top of the range kit ].

*[ I often have my camera set for `continuous` just in case I want to use it for a burst series at any time but you can take individual shots whilst camera is on that setting which is what I do pretty much all the time now ].




Apologies for not explaining panning, in my limited way of explaining it, it`s where you focus on the moving target, let auto focus latch on to it, then follow it as it moves, that way you get the target sharp and the surroundings softer which emphasizes the target and with practice you get the target lovely and crisp - how much of the target is crisp will depend as well though on which focus setting you use [ manual which explain that for your camera ], and depth of field settings

http://www.yophotographer.com/page.php?t=4504

one of my favourite shots so far is this one below from the first horse show I took pics at, in which the horse is sharp but you can see the speed/movement from the slight blur of the hooves



I have yet to try for shots of faster targets but if you have a look through shots people have posted here you can see how panning gives the impression of great speeds of target movement, these taken by Stanokella are ideal to demonstrate it I think

http://www.yophotographer.com/page.php?t=9553

Hope that`s a bit more help

PS, if you look to the upper right of the page you will see clickable links for :

Photography Basics

* Composition
* Depth of Field
* Custom White Balance
* Aperture Explained
* Exposure Explained
* Rule Of Thirds Explained
* ISO Explained


which are a mine of explanatory stuff which you will find very helpful