Sports Photography... How do you guys shoot?

Dean.

Dean.

Suspended / Banned
Messages
118
Name
Dean
Edit My Images
Yes
Hey everyone,
A buddy of mine is windsurfing later and asked if I'll come and take some pictures of him.
I'm going to take my D3100 with the 70-300mm Nikon Lens

I'm going to start by taking some pics using the auto-sport dial and see what settings my camera uses before having a go in manual.

What settings do you guys usally go for? Do you always try to get the best exposure using wide aperture and quick shutter speeds to freeze the action??
 
The question is what do you want the photos to look like?

Blurred background, sharp etc?

If you want sharp the as you say above, work it to your quickest shutter speed.

When i'm doing photos for Rising Sun Racing in the MR2 championships and the BMW champs the drivers i shoot for like a mix of both so sometimes im shooting at 1/60 and sometimes i'm shooting at 1/1000.

I know cars are totally different to boarding but i also tend to try and focus on different parts than just the obvious, for example we use our mates braking systems so i purposely aimed to have a shot of the rear wheel and arch in focus and after a few attemps came away with a good shot.

same with the motorbikes yesterday sometimes i try aim for the face of the rider if they are not using a black out visor to capture the concentration.
 
dalegt4 said:
The question is what do you want the photos to look like?

Blurred background, sharp etc?

If you want sharp the as you say above, work it to your quickest shutter speed.

When i'm doing photos for Rising Sun Racing in the MR2 championships and the BMW champs the drivers i shoot for like a mix of both so sometimes im shooting at 1/60 and sometimes i'm shooting at 1/1000.

I know cars are totally different to boarding but i also tend to try and focus on different parts than just the obvious, for example we use our mates braking systems so i purposely aimed to have a shot of the rear wheel and arch in focus and after a few attemps came away with a good shot.

same with the motorbikes yesterday sometimes i try aim for the face of the rider if they are not using a black out visor to capture the concentration.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that Dale, this is what I've come up with from the Internet, one of my books and some info from this forum, tell me what you think?

TO FREEZE THE ACTION
Shoot in S (shutter speed priority) or A (aperture priority) (different sources say different things, guess ill try both)
When ins S, use 1/1000 shutter speeds (move up or down depending on the shots)
High ISO 800 or 1600
VR set to "ACTIVE"
Set AE/L AE/F button to AF-ON

FOR BLURRY SHOTS WITH THE SUBJECT IN FOCUS
Shoot in S, with shutter speeds of 1/60, 1/80, 1/100

FOCUSING
Dynamic area AF or single servo AF? not sure which one to use, some people suggest DYNAMIC to never miss anything, others say single point and always use the centre point.

WHITE BALANCE
Auto white balance (outdoors so not to worry about artificial indoor lighting)


CREATE AN ACTION SEQUENCE
Wide angle to fit it all in, 1/1000 shutter speed, high ISO, continuous drive for a burst of photos (4-5 pictures) auto focus then switch to manual to lock in place
Use photoshop to stitch them together
 
One thing with wind surfing, you're dealing with water which is really reflective and can mess up exposure.
I'd spot meter on the actual surfer as the exposure mode and not use evaluative or anything wider.

Personally (i dont know how nikon handles auto iso) but i'd go with AV, wide open, tracking focus mode on all points, continuous shot, spot meter and a *fixed* white balance (sunny, cloudy etc ) otherwise all your shots could come out different tints.
Make sure the ISO is set so you can get a nice fast shutter speed. Not sure about surfing but action sport 1/640th to me is the minimal acceptable.
I'd also turn *off* any IS/VR modes as they can mess you up tracking something moving in 2 different planes at once.
 
No problems, for example I personally and this is just me. I always shoot sports in "M" .

This IS however just my own preference so shooting over the other modes as i like my freedom and try to keep the iso low as possible to keep it nice and crisp.

I shoot full high speed burst and as im on a Canon its the Servo mode for focussing, i use single point centre point focus as if you use a full setup and let the camera choose there is a slim chance it might not focus where you want it too and you may miss a good shot.

I don't know Nikons wodring for their focus names but basically use the one that permanently tracks the focussed point, which in my work is the center point.

White balance i usually let the camera do the work as it seems to produce decent results on its own.


This was at an iso of 100 with f/8 @ 1/160 and came out lovely smooth and crisp.

aprilla1_zpsddddbc4a.jpg


You can go alot lower but I don't usually photograph bikes so thought i would go for a more reasonable speed and make sure i hit the mark so to speak
 
But as above, the smaller the target I usually keep a higher speed to reduce potential blur on the subject hence the 1/160th on the above
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top