- Camera must be in LANDSCAPE orientation, Place the camera directly centered at/ behind “C” 3 to 6 feet from the rail : standing on a mounting block is helpful .be sure view finder is vertical not tilted forward or back ( is clearly 90 degrees from the ground) in order to have correct depth perception.
a. ( this is the same height as the judge viewing stand). The horse must not be out of the camera frame at any time in the test or you will be eliminated.. and the horse must not be out of the froame of the video from the end of the test to the conclusion of the tack check also. Set camera or phone on highest resolution. This will take a lot of storage and use up the battery so be sure you have a battery pack handy and or the phone is completely charged to start.
- Keep the camera centered on the horse on the centerlines.
a. Keep the horse in the LAST one third of the viewing screen in Landscape view
2/3 of the viewscreen in front of moving horse).This will allow the “judge” to see approximately two letters in front of the horse which is necessary for depth perception and line evaluation. In general, keep the horse’s feet in the bottom 1/3 of the viewfinder.
- Zoom is ABSOLUTELY necessary. On a camera or iPhone/Droid (most have a capability of 10X) for the 20x60 ring zoom for the far end of the ring is generally 3.5 to 4 (horse to take up 1/3 of the view finder and must not exceed ½). Anything past X needs some zoom. If the judge can’t see the details, they are not allowed to mark high and must not ‘guess”.
- Try to zoom only once on a movement .( although it may be necessary to also reduce zoom in the same movement ) For the small ring 20x40 zoom for the upper half or the ring generally tends to be 2 or 2.5 .
- Reduce Zoom back to 1x as the horse comes past X towards / near the “C” end . You will naturally have a moment of two where the horse passes directly in front of / and near the camera. It is not always a whole horse view, but keep the camera moving with the horse. If the horse is required to perform a movement directly at “C”,be sure to move the camera so the viewer sees the feet/steps and head/neck connection throughout the movement.