What Shutter Speed to catch Runners?

Mark Morb

Mark Morb

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Hi,

I took some photos of my other half running in a 10K race the other week. I'm out of my zone when taking pictures of sports, etc. (I'm an architecture/landscape kind of guy). They didn't come out great because I was not using a fast enough Shutter Speed...so nice backgrounds but slightly blurred runners.
Had the camera on Aperture Priority and was mainly opening the Aperture in order to increase Shutter Speed. Realised too late that I should have increased my ISO rating (It's manually set to 100 at the moment).
Now, I guess I should have been using Shutter Priority mode and choosing a shutter speed...(although my Sigma 10-20mm performs best at smaller apertures).
What Shutter speed should I be using to freeze this kind of action???

Any advice appreciated...

Thanks,
Mark Morb
 
Ideally at least 1/250 but 1/500 would be better.
 
presuming you dont want to try manual then...f4, iso 400, av mode.. shutter speed will be fast enough on a decent (lighting) day.. your right when you say you should have upped your iso.. i dont think I have ever used iso 100 for anything.. 200 lowest i go and generally start at 400 for sports (unless middle of summer blazing bright day then 200)
 
Thanks for all the useful replies...I shall try them out at the next running event in a few weeks time. (although may have a practice outing first)

Thanks again :)
 
Use a tripod and swivel with them, the runners would then be sharp and a blurred background, worth a try and with a bit of practice on cars/bikes etc.
 
I took some shots of runners at the Manchester 10K the other day.

I just used Av mode to get a nice depth of field, let the camera do the shutterpeed for me. All my shots came out fine.

In sunny weather you want the shutter at 1/500 or above. The faster the better really, and if you keep your lens wide open you can get stupidly fast speeds. I was taking photos today in sunlight wide open at f/2.8 and got nice crisp images at over 1/1000.
 
8utters said:
I took some shots of runners at the Manchester 10K the other day.

I just used Av mode to get a nice depth of field, let the camera do the shutterpeed for me. All my shots came out fine.

In sunny weather you want the shutter at 1/500 or above. The faster the better really, and if you keep your lens wide open you can get stupidly fast speeds. I was taking photos today in sunlight wide open at f/2.8 and got nice crisp images at over 1/1000.
Click to expand...

I too use Av mode for the depth of field, had a check at some shots I took at a track and field event to see what shutter speed I was getting and 1/3200 at f5, maybe I did not need ISO 320 :lol::lol:
 
Yep Av just makes sense for sports and action shots, don't want to be messing around with the shutter speed and then go ahead and miss the action shot you need :D
 
Again all good advice, I could not get those Speeds using Av mode, but it wasn't a particulary bright day and I was using ISO100 :-/
Also the Sigma 10-20 I was using that day (to try and get some "arty" type of running shots) is best at F/9 and Higher, there's blurring/focus issues around the extremes once you start going wider than that..
 
8utters said:
Yep Av just makes sense for sports and action shots, don't want to be messing around with the shutter speed and then go ahead and miss the action shot you need :D
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No Manual makes sense ... but if not happy with manual or fast changing light then AV :)
 
Well, if your constantly chaning position like I always do when doing those kinds of shots then i'l use Av becuase the light is different for every shot. Especailly in a city where the shadow and sunlight is always different becuase of buildings etc like it was when I covered the Bupa 10k in Manchester on Sunday. If you're in the same position then yea M is better...

I shoot on full Manual the rest of the time, just use Av occasionally.
 
Sorry to revive an old thread like this... but another question about this type of togging:

Is it better to let the camera choose its AF points or pick one manually and wait for the runner to run into it?

Also, on a 40D... AI Servo?

I haven't done much action photography...
 
8utters said:
Well, if your constantly chaning position like I always do when doing those kinds of shots then i'l use Av becuase the light is different for every shot. Especailly in a city where the shadow and sunlight is always different becuase of buildings etc like it was when I covered the Bupa 10k in Manchester on Sunday. If you're in the same position then yea M is better...

I shoot on full Manual the rest of the time, just use Av occasionally.
Click to expand...

I would say manual is better in this situation, simply because you can fine tune it to your liking rather than the camera getting confused by all the changing light in AV mode.
 
Albedo said:
Is it better to let the camera choose its AF points or pick one manually and wait for the runner to run into it?

Also, on a 40D... AI Servo?
Click to expand...

use center af .. but if your close to the runners then change your af point to a higher position so there face is always in focus..yes aiservo


the above is all presuming that you are picking subjects and photographing them..

if you just want to point at the finish line or a certain spot and get each one as they pass then that would be different... but I am geussing you want the former :)
 
Really you need a minimum aperture of F4 as this enables you to get a fast shutter speed 1/1000+ even in overcast conditions and gives good subject isolation.

A telephoto lens is perfect because it gives you a few chances at each shot if you keep zooming back as the runner comes towards you. Very useful if their race number or face was obstructed during either of the earlier shots.

To be honest, centre focus point or the top one in portrait view both work fine to get good focussing. You want to be using AI Servo for quick focussing, and I normally use single shot mode rather than continuous
 
tarmac_chaser said:
To be honest, centre focus point or the top one in portrait view both work fine to get good focussing. You want to be using AI Servo for quick focussing, and I normally use single shot mode rather than continuous
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I take a quick burst of 2 maybe 3 (@8.5 fps)... the difference between the eyes open and shut is massive and its not something you can predict .
 
KIPAX said:
I take a quick burst of 2 maybe 3 (@8.5 fps)... the difference between the eyes open and shut is massive and its not something you can predict .
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Depends on the event size really and how many people you have helping you. That works on smaller events but when you have nearly 2000 runners and multiple shots of each to process, it takes a lifetime!
 
tarmac_chaser said:
Depends on the event size really and how many people you have helping you. That works on smaller events but when you have nearly 2000 runners and multiple shots of each to process, it takes a lifetime!
Click to expand...


true.. probably best for the winners and just get owt of the rest :) I ahve to admit to not doing that many ..my wife has run a few 10k races so mainly the ones she is involved with...
 
I'm going to throw the cat amongst the pigeons here.....

At my last polo tournament, I experimented with using Shutter Priority and setting the ISO to Auto. (I can here the cries of horror from here!) But it worked out really well. I used a constant shutter speed of 1/1000th (Using a Sigma 50-500) and when the sun was out I got ISO 320 and 400 and when it went behind a cloud, I got ISOs between 640 and 1200. Saved a lot of fiddling about and I was able to concentrate on shooting the action.

OK, now you can tear me to shreds!! :D
 
Shutter priority or manual with auto iso is what I would do too. Seems like a no brainer.
 
Albedo said:
Sorry to revive an old thread like this... but another question about this type of togging:

Is it better to let the camera choose its AF points or pick one manually and wait for the runner to run into it?

Also, on a 40D... AI Servo?

I haven't done much action photography...
Click to expand...
I'd say AI Servo. But note that when you choose AI Servo instead of One-Shot mode the "all points" option does not work in the same way. When you use all points in AI Servo mode you must first aim the centre point and acquire focus with that point. Then, if the subject slips away from the centre the camera will continue to track it. You must first lock focus with the centre point for it to work properly. You can, of course, use AI Servo and any single FP you like. This may allow you to select you a better composition, with a little more space in front of your runner than behind.
 
Ai servo (on a 30/40D) with all points can be a mixed blessing. Some days it seems to work great other days it's hopeless. I think it's got a lot to do with the light but I've never done any kind of testing under different conditions to see.
 
Jamougha said:
Shutter priority or manual with auto iso is what I would do too. Seems like a no brainer.
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Not all cameras have auto iso and its hardly manual then is it? But you are right.. auto modes are no brainers :)
 
tdodd said:
I'd say AI Servo. But note that when you choose AI Servo instead of One-Shot mode the "all points" option does not work in the same way. When you use all points in AI Servo mode you must first aim the centre point and acquire focus with that point. Then, if the subject slips away from the centre the camera will continue to track it. You must first lock focus with the centre point for it to work properly. You can, of course, use AI Servo and any single FP you like. This may allow you to select you a better composition, with a little more space in front of your runner than behind.
Click to expand...

So are you saying that it's best just to use a single AF point in AI Servo mode?
 
I don't have enough experience of shooting runners to advise you one way or the other. I was just making sure that people understand the difference between how the camera operates when you shoot with all focus points enabled in One-Shot mode and all points enabled in AI-Servo mode. The behaviour is completely different. The camera manual does cover the topic, but people easily forget.

Some people think that when you use all points in AI-Servo mode you can just point the camera in the general direction of the target and let one of the points pick it up. Well that isn't sufficient. You must pick the target up, firstly with the centre point, then if the target moves away from the centre it will continue to be tracked by one of the other points. The target needs to be big enough to cover both the centre point and one of the others at the same time. If it is too small then it can slip between the focus points and focus can become completely lost. I suspect a runner will be big enough for that not to be a problem.

If you are trying to pick out an individual runner from a crowd then I reckon a single FP will be the best choice. If you have a solitary runner then you may be better off using all FPs and that will give you more freedom to reframe your target once it is in focus.

Like I said, I don't shoot runners, but I do (try to) shoot birds in flight and using all points can be very useful, if the subject is big enough. If the subject is small then it is better just to use one FP and try to keep it targeted on the bird at all times. That can be very tricky. I find that separating AF function from the shutter button, using the custom functions, can help a lot with recovering focus if I slip off the target.
 
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