Action Photos advice

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Tithers

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Hello all, I find myself wanting to get better with my gear and I am hoping that you all have some answers for me. Fingers crossed.:)
Most of my photography is done watching my girlfriend competing on her horse and I am getting a little disappointed with the photos I am getting as in I don't think they are crisp enough and keep fiddling with the normal setting i.e. exposure composition and ISO settings but still not as good as I would want them to be. Im using a Nikon D3000 with a Nikkor 70-300mm. I suppose my question is are there any simple rules to follow when taking action shots.

Many thanks

Look forward to the replies

Phil.
 
Action basically you want as higher shutter speed as possible otherwise movement in the subject is really going against you, on a bright day you should really have no issue getting 1/2000th of a second with your kit if I could do that with my older kit...ideally you want a fast lens like the 70-200/2.8 as this well allow you a shallower DoF to separate the subject from any background distraction plus the larger aperture will allow you to get a faster shutter speed while keeping the ISO lower...

Basically put open you lens as wide as you can and the adjust your ISO to get a fast shutter speed...

Hopefully some of the experienced sports and equestrian photographers will be along real soon to give you the best of there extensive experience :thumbs:
 
What he said ^^^

Cant say i`ve ever taken pictures of horses, but I would think a higher shutter speed would be better to freeze the action. I normally do motorsport which is more slow shutter speeds but panning (following) the car to keep it in focus while blurring the background. I cant imagine it would be easy to do the same with a horse as they move in a different way to a car but with practice it is possible.....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raphaelmacek/5239310740/sizes/l/in/gallery-kookie895-72157625506859490/
 
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The secret here is the shutter speed. Live action shots means fast shutter to capture the moment.
 
Agree with shutter speed needing to be high enough to freeze action and you can practice panning also. On the camera are you using auto iso settings which lets the camera push the iso up to stay within a set of parameters you define, e.g. Set auto iso with min shutter speed of 1/500 th and min/ max iso levels and in aperture priority the camera will adjust iso to minimise iso to expose the shot within the min shutter speed and aperture set.

It's usually rugby I photograph and have found this to help increase the number of keepers. You can then start looking at the exit data to refine settings going forward
 
Bebop said:
I would use a continuous focus setting, not one shot (or whatever the Nikon equivalent is called ).
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You need a camera that is capable of following the action well to make that happen - very few cameras do that well, having photographed equestrian events for many years and knowing a bit about the camera ;) I would use the pre-focus method, after all it is not as if you don't know where the action is going to happen.

Mike
 
mike weeks said:
You need a camera that is capable of following the action well to make that happen - very few cameras do that well, having photographed equestrian events for many years and knowing a bit about the camera ;) I would use the pre-focus method, after all it is not as if you don't know where the action is going to happen.

Mike
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I bow to your superior knowledge as I have not photographed equestrian events for years. I did however have good results photographing sports with my Canon 550D with continuous focus. I hadn't realised this was difficult for some cameras.
 
Blimey didn't realise I would get so many responses so quickly so glad I joined this thanks a lot to all of you I will have a go at all that this weekend and possible post some pictures for some feedback! Many thanks!
 
I have shot a fair bit of equine this year so my thoughts would be to use ai servo for focus mode and a good shutter speed around 1000 if you can get it. Also try panning for some nice results. Stay away from head on shots as they move fast and throw your focus system there u would.go fixed preset.

The shots that sell tend to be from the side showing the grace of movement.

The focus can also get thrown looking for contrast to focus on an all black horse so try using riders legs etc
 
Didn't know that does it have an equivalent or is this just a unique canon feature
 
jd.smith said:
Didn't know that does it have an equivalent or is this just a unique canon feature
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Without wishing to start the usual fight:)

The general rule is that low end Canons are feature rich but not so well built. The lower end Nikons are nicely built but lack features.

It's generally weird that some Nikon users think 'all' Canon cameras have motors built in because they can all use all the same lenses (discounting EFS - different issue). Whereas the opposite is true, they've all got the same focussing system - it's done in the lens. All EF and EFS lenses (barring a few specialist ones) have motors built in.

Whereas the cheaper Nikon cameras rely on lenses with built in motors and the better ones have motors in the body. I've no idea which motor takes precedence when you fit a motorised lens onto a motorised body :thinking:
 
Phil V said:
Without wishing to start the usual fight:)

The general rule is that low end Canons are feature rich but not so well built. The lower end Nikons are nicely built but lack features.

It's generally weird that some Nikon users think 'all' Canon cameras have motors built in because they can all use all the same lenses (discounting EFS - different issue). Whereas the opposite is true, they've all got the same focussing system - it's done in the lens. All EF and EFS lenses (barring a few specialist ones) have motors built in.

Whereas the cheaper Nikon cameras rely on lenses with built in motors and the better ones have motors in the body. I've no idea which motor takes precedence when you fit a motorised lens onto a motorised body :thinking:
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When fitting a motorised lens onto a motorised body the lens is then lacking the feature to be ''screw driven'' by the camera body:)


I have found having a body with the focus motor in it, is that I find I don't want the older noisier lens that can use it:gag:
 
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mike weeks said:
D3000 does not have ai servo focus mode :)

Mike
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D3000 has servo-tracking AF.

It does not have a built-in focus motor, but all that means is it must be used with lenses having their own focus motors that are generally faster and quieter than the older screw-drive type.
 
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