Moving Subject Focus Practising, What Do You Do?

rpsmith79

rpsmith79

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Rich
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Just at at home trying to figure out Nikon's Dynamic Area AF, but i'm struggling to try it out as i don't have any erratic moving subjects to hand, and i'd rather not try it out in the field as i generally just get frustrated when i'm not used to particular way of working

So, i thought i'd start a thread to see if anyone has any good ideas on how or what would make for a relatively easy/cheap method of making some sort of erratic moving subject that i can set up at home to practice my focussing techniques, it would be nice to set up something indoors, but then i supposed it would need to be well lit, but i do have a reasonably long garden that i could utilise, i'm just struggling to think what i could set up that would simulate say birds in flight or whatever

Any ideas welcomed :)
 
It may be a bit off the wall, but a ping pong ball on a string, hang it like a pendulum and set it swinging?. It will not be a erratic as a bird.

Or a remote control car driven by a child in the back garden.
 
huffy said:
It may be a bit off the wall, but a ping pong ball on a string, hang it like a pendulum and set it swinging?. It will not be a erratic as a bird.

Or a remote control car driven by a child in the back garden.
Click to expand...

Hmm, ping pong ball might work, especially if it's windy, that would make it more erratic :)
 
Laser pointer guided cats can be made to move fast and erratically!
 
Kick a ball up in the air and practice fast shooting. Or go to any motorway in Britain (M25 is the best). You'll soon see some mad erratic movement.
 
Go out and practice on gulls ... or keep your frustration in check and practice 'in the field'. :)
 
Some good suggestions guys (and some not so good ones ;) )

gramps said:
Go out and practice on gulls ... or keep your frustration in check and practice 'in the field'. :)
Click to expand...

Funnily enough, it was me trying to shoot some gulls on Sunday morning that partially led to this thread, no matter what i tried i could not track them in flight and keep them in focus
 
Start with bigger objects, Landing aircraft are a good one, then move to large birds - swans, herons...
 
I second the practice on gulls idea. At a cliff, pond, lake, harbour etc.
If they're circling around in front of you, try to follow one particular bird for a while.

In the process you can get good photos and often chance see rarer species as well :)

Keep at it. It does seem impossible at first and regular ish practice is needed to stay competent at panning too.
 
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Rich,I would guess I'm in a similar place and another vote for gulls as a practice "target" I find another benefit with them is if it's bright I also learn about getting the right exposure and not blowing whites,my biggest problem is just getting out enough at the moment very frustrating..... bloody work.

As a new guy i'm trying to concentrate on certain areas: the first is to mount the camera bloody fast and be spot on with the subject in the viewfinder,I figure if I can't get that bit right then i'm never going to track something. Second is operating the shutter without pulling,this can be done indoors corner of a room say I then extend that into trying to follow say a gutter outside, I know this all sounds a bit nutz,but hey somehow I have got to get this better and if I work dawn till dust and get one sunny weekend day I wanna have got some form of familiarity in before I chase the beasties and mess it all up again.

Rich I oft read of the importance of locking your arms in to aid in steadyness but I have a gut feeling I should ponder what my feet are doing more if. I'll try and illustrate: if one has a bird flying in from the right I reckon your left foot should move before anything else away from the bird a bit so aiding my swing and balance,I have no experience of big tripods/gimbals and little with a bigish lens which I hand hold, and I absolutely have not mastered this. But if you haven't got your feet right I can't see one being steady enough to get that sharp shot on something moving while panning.Oh also practice operating the shutter while keeping that smooth swing don't stop the swing to press the shutter. this was driven home to me recently when a cock phessie went up and across me so close to be frame filling,i'm sure in that span of a few seconds I stopped my swing, the result I cut the front half of his head off(bloody gutted) .This was fast mate seconds to react ya know what they are like an explosion of speed,I was utterly unaware of him being focused up on a reed bunting.

So those are the base areas i'm trying to attack to improve from a beginner mate. The biggest thing I think is one is building muscle memory with practice practice practice,so when that bloody kez drops out of the sky the tracking is instinctive, it has to be there is no time to think. Ha that happened to me yesterday much to my amazement I kept him in frame, I don't think the tracking was as smooth or spot on as it should have been,but I am slowly getting closer.LMAO, naturally I made a complete balls up of the exposure but hey if it was easy it wouldn't be so rewarding when one gets it right.

Rich again i'll stress I'm in no way competent at this but sometimes someone learning going through the same problems might be able to share those,something here might be of use.

Oh mate you are not alone in being frustrated,I so understand that..... keep trying buddy that is what I tell meself I don't think this is easy for many,but as with all things the more one does the better one gets. Most of the time I look at what I take picture wide with dispair,I have a wonderful camera and lens and utterly no excuse. I'm very lucky to come to this with a little bit of a skillset feildcraft wise so get the chances and almost always blow them.There is only me that can change that though;)

good luck kiddo

Stu
 
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