Advice on Basketball Auto-Focus issues

unknownphotography · February 23, 2010

Anyone have and advice for preventing this: (frames 5, 6, 7)

I have missed dozens of basketball shots due to the autofocus switching back and forth to the background. Is there any way to constrain a focus to within a certain range. By the way I commonly shoot with a Canon 30d and 70-200 f2.8 IS and 50 1.4 USM for Basketball.

Thanks!

slipkid · February 23, 2010

I know that arena (URI), right next to the ice rink where I spend my winters. I am not a Canon shooter, some one here will chime in.

donek · February 24, 2010

Your camera appears to be focusing on what is in the center of the frame. It's most likely set to do so. You need to keep your focus point on your subject or manually focus at the basket and leave it there. I shoot Nikon. They offer something called 3d tracking which will track a subject, sometimes getting it right in bright sunlight. Using it in a gym indoors would simply be a recipe for disaster.

unknownphotography · February 24, 2010

donek wrote:

Your camera appears to be focusing on what is in the center of the frame. It's most likely set to do so. You need to keep your focus point on your subject or manually focus at the basket and leave it there. I shoot Nikon. They offer something called 3d tracking which will track a subject, sometimes getting it right in bright sunlight. Using it in a gym indoors would simply be a recipe for disaster.

I have played around with the focus settings, different points, all points, AI focus vs servio etc.. Cant seem to get it right. I have thought about just using manual focus but that would really be limiting.

donek · February 24, 2010

unknownphotography wrote:

I have played around with the focus settings, different points, all points, AI focus vs servio etc.. Cant seem to get it right. I have thought about just using manual focus but that would really be limiting.

The camera is going to focus on what you point it at. Most of your frames are pointed at the crowd. Put your subject dead center and it will stay in focus.

David Evertsen · February 24, 2010

donek wrote:

The camera is going to focus on what you point it at. Most of your frames are pointed at the crowd. Put your subject dead center and it will stay in focus.

There is a setting on your Camera to show the focus point on the LCD screen while reviewing them. You can also look at the focus point while looking through the pictures in the Canon software on your computer. You will be amazed how many are off just a tick and cause your issue, with white uniforms it should not be a problem, just takes time to learn and follow the action..

Gringriff · February 24, 2010

Try the back focus button to hit the player every few seconds with a new focus point instead of using the shutter button to focus. You will still miss some but that helps me get a lot more hits.

Andy

Cuong · February 24, 2010

Set your AF mode to AI Servo and AF point selection to automatic (all 9 AF points activated). When you're focusing, use the center AF point to lock focus and the camera will focus-track your subject when it moves away from the center point as long as it's covered by one of the surrounding focus points (page 76 in manual).

Cuong

unknownphotography · February 24, 2010

Cuong wrote:

Set your AF mode to AI Servo and AF point selection to automatic (all 9 AF points activated). When you're focusing, use the center AF point to lock focus and the camera will focus-track your subject when it moves away from the center point as long as it's covered by one of the surrounding focus points (page 76 in manual).

Cuong

Thanks! I'll try this.

I don't always want the subject in the center of the frame. (especially in basketball) I don't have this problem when shooting other sports as much.

Advice on Basketball Auto-Focus issues

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