Sports shooting question

Racerx7734 · January 19, 2009

I have been practicing shooting cyclists while panning in TV mode and my shots are just not coming out as clear as some other folks.

I use the center focus point when shooting in AV to freeze everything and have had great success, so now I use the same center focus point when panning in AV mode but the amount of "in focus" content at the center is very poor. Should I use all the focus points when trying a pan shot?

Thanks all.

ziggy53 · January 19, 2009

It looks like you are using a Canon 40D (by your profile).

Which lens?

What aperture and shutter speed?

How far away is the action?

How fast are they traveling?

Are there any distractions for the camera's AF?

Have you tried AI-Servo?

Racerx7734 · January 19, 2009

ziggy53 wrote:

It looks like you are using a Canon 40D (by your profile).

Which lens?
L series 70-200 4.5 NON IS

What aperture and shutter speed?
Honestly it varies.

How far away is the action?
Anywhere from 50' to 100'

How fast are they traveling?
Fast!!!.....Mountain bike racing.

Are there any distractions for the camera's AF?
No

Have you tried AI-Servo?

I have not......I was going to play with that next.

I have had some good results from time to time.........but it's hard you know, you look at other peoples work and it looks amazing.......but you never know if it was the ONLY amazing shot they got out of 1000 taken.

Honestly I'm trying to teach myself and I dont have the money to take classes, so your guy's help is really my class room.

and I really appreciate it.....

pathfinder · January 19, 2009

Racer,

I looked at your gallery - http://www.wmsmith.smugmug.com/gallery/5738434_scVgz#349884608_6aWXE - and I think you are doing a very creditable job. These guys are booking straight at you and they seem well captured to me. I don't really think the issue is poor focusing. These are tough subjects to nail!

I could not tell your exif data as that seems to be turned off. But for these subjects I assume you are shooting at 1/500th or higher?

I assume you are shooting jpgs. Do you have your 40D set up to do incamera sharpening for you? I think you need to adjust your jpg creating settings in your camera. The neutral settings in a 40D create a softer, lower contrast image. If you adjust the image settings in your camera you can pump up the contrast and the sharpening significantly.

I suspect your lens suffers from some chromatic aberration also. This can be attacked by running your jpgs through Adobe RAW 4.1 or newer as well.

Don't get all paranoid about your glass, I have several L lenses from Canon that need to have the chromatic aberration corrected in ACR to really make the images tack sharp. No one ever looked at images at the magnification we do today, when they were shooting film.

By the way, you are making the full size originals as well as 2X and 3x down loadable to anyone who wanders in, like me. This is probably not what you want to do, is it?

Racerx7734 · January 20, 2009

pathfinder wrote:

Racer,

I looked at your gallery - http://www.wmsmith.smugmug.com/gallery/5738434_scVgz#349884608_6aWXE - and I think you are doing a very creditable job. These guys are booking straight at you and they seem well captured to me. I don't really think the issue is poor focusing. These are tough subjects to nail!

I could not tell your exif data as that seems to be turned off. But for these subjects I assume you are shooting at 1/500th or higher?

I assume you are shooting jpgs. Do you have your 40D set up to do incamera sharpening for you? I think you need to adjust your jpg creating settings in your camera. The neutral settings in a 40D create a softer, lower contrast image. If you adjust the image settings in your camera you can pump up the contrast and the sharpening significantly.

I suspect your lens suffers from some chromatic aberration also. This can be attacked by running your jpgs through Adobe RAW 4.1 or newer as well.

Don't get all paranoid about your glass, I have several L lenses from Canon that need to have the chromatic aberration corrected in ACR to really make the images tack sharp. No one ever looked at images at the magnification we do today, when they were shooting film.

By the way, you are making the full size originals as well as 2X and 3x down loadable to anyone who wanders in, like me. This is probably not what you want to do, is it?

Thanks so much for the information, I did change the camera settings as you suggested and the shots did come out much cleaner with no need for noise reduction in post production....

What would your suggestion be for the AF point when panning in TV? right now I use the center AF point......would more of the subject come into focus using all 9 AF points in TV?

The full size pics are available to anyone in the public galleries but I am charging in the professional galleries. Should I change this?

pathfinder · January 20, 2009

Racer,

i don't shoot sports as anything, but an amateur. For that matter, I shoot everything as an amateur.:D

I do have a few frames here that will give you an idea of what I captured watching trials riders last fall at Duluth. Most were shot in Av mode, with an ISO high enough to try and keep my shutter speed at least 1/250th. I did not always succeed. I have not tried shooting with the ISO in AUTO, but I wonder if that might not work fine.

Like you, I prefer to shoot, and AF with my center AF spot, in One Shot mode.. If the light is poor, using all nine AF spots will help the camera find something to grab onto. For high speed sports this can help a lot. I just find that too often it grabs onto the wrong thing for me. (I rarely use AI Focus or AI Servo. I think they tend to work better if you are shooting high frame rate sequences, and the first frame may not always be right on the mark.) Hopefully, some of the real sports shooters will tell us how they do it the best soon.

You are making your original files available to the world on your website. Right now, anyone can drop in and download your image. If you are trying to sell them, I think this is an invitation to them to take them without paying, but that is just because I am a curmudgeon.

mtzo · January 21, 2009

Hello from Greece & it iw really nice to be here (since this is my 1st post).

I have been practising with panning as well but with a totally different approach.

I shoot it manual, setting the shutter at 1/125 or lower in order to get the pan and setting the aperture @ f8 or higher (depending on the distance from the subject) in order to avoid any back/front focus problems (or any other focus problems eg. focusing on a leg...) that may occur from using Servo.

I hope that I helped a bit.

Racerx7734 · January 21, 2009

mtzo wrote:

Hello from Greece & it iw really nice to be here (since this is my 1st post).

I have been practising with panning as well but with a totally different approach.

I shoot it manual, setting the shutter at 1/125 or lower in order to get the pan and setting the aperture @ f8 or higher (depending on the distance from the subject) in order to avoid any back/front focus problems (or any other focus problems eg. focusing on a leg...) that may occur from using Servo.

I hope that I helped a bit.

Hello in Greece.......and thank you so much for the help.

I'm planning on giving this a shot as well. I also purchased a book called "understanding Exposure" that I heard from a friend was outstanding.

I'm going to try all these and get back to you.

Thanks.

speedracer04 · January 21, 2009

mtzo wrote:

Hello from Greece & it iw really nice to be here (since this is my 1st post).

I have been practising with panning as well but with a totally different approach.

I shoot it manual, setting the shutter at 1/125 or lower in order to get the pan and setting the aperture @ f8 or higher (depending on the distance from the subject) in order to avoid any back/front focus problems (or any other focus problems eg. focusing on a leg...) that may occur from using Servo.

I hope that I helped a bit.

This is pretty much how i shoot to but most of the time slower to show movement better. I set the shutter then set the aperture to whatever will make the photo come out well. Im not sure what TV mode is but i think manual works best.

as for were to focus i use the center or one of the left/right depending on the area, say for instance the car (or bike) is going to be going. If the front will be in the left part of the photo i could have the focus point be the on the left side. for bikes though i would think you would want the drivers head in focus and not the front headlight as with a car. I think that if you do the 9 point or whatever it does not really know where to focus. Also make sure your camera focus is on AFC (continuous) and not AFS (single)

The slower the shutter speed the harder it is to get a sharp photo but they also look more dramatic so it is worth it.

i hope that makes some since im trying to type fast at work

one more thing to remember is that there is no way for all of the bike/car to be in focus if it is not a strait side shot. so in most cases you would want the front in focus.

Sports shooting question

Comments