60 D Sports Mode.

Gerrard

Gerrard

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527
Name
Paul
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Yes
Just taken some motocross shots and they are crap..
I have it on sports mode and I'm about 15 ft away and its blurred.
I'm going back for race day tomorrow so any tips on how to improve the shots.

IMG_0524.jpg


PS.. Its got a 17-55 standard lens.
 
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I'm no sports expert, but that looks like the kind of shot you have to pre focus for.

The AF just hasn't had time to get a lock.
 
What lens are you using? We're you in AF mode?

Shoot in shutter priority mode and at a decent shutter speed as you need to "stop" the movement. Someone will give you what is a good shutter speed to use but I would imagine at least 1/250 as a minimum.

Make sure you have the drive mode set to AI servo and set the camera to high speed continuous shooting.

Set your WB to auto.

Andy
 
Cheers guys..
Not being sure but as I was fiddling with the controls and trying lots of settings so it might not have been on AF.. cant be sure to be honest.
So I will use the lens on AF tomorrow and that might improve things a tad.
So leave the sports mode alone then by the looks of it.
 
i shoot some football but not motor cycle stuff. What i use when doing football was i set my ISO to around 800, Aperture mode, wide open and Using AF-Continus mode.

I get good result, but like i said i'm sure someone will have a better method.
 
In Malaga you aren't short of light. The EXIF in your shot says 1/500 at f7.1 ISO100. That's lots of light. :) You picture doesn't have obvious motion blur, though you could easily afford to go 1/2000. Your main problem is lack of focus. Nothing in the picture is in focus, so the camera must have focused close.

Try using Tv mode, set the shutter speed to 1/2000 and leave it on Auto ISO. Set the focus mode to AI Servo, and use high-speed continuous shooting. Prefocus on something a bit behind where you want to catch the bike, then the lens won't have to move so far initially.
 
gridlock said:
In Malaga you aren't short of light. The EXIF in your shot says 1/500 at f7.1 ISO100. That's lots of light. :) You picture doesn't have obvious motion blur, though you could easily afford to go 1/2000. Your main problem is lack of focus. Nothing in the picture is in focus, so the camera must have focused close.

Try using Tv mode, set the shutter speed to 1/2000 and leave it on Auto ISO. Set the focus mode to AI Servo, and use high-speed continuous shooting. Prefocus on something a bit behind where you want to catch the bike, then the lens won't have to move so far initially.
Click to expand...

Thanks I will try this out and see what happens.. :thumbs:
PS.. The setting was on sports mode but I didn't alter anything.
 
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Gerrard said:
Cheers guys..
Not being sure but as I was fiddling with the controls and trying lots of settings so it might not have been on AF.. cant be sure to be honest.
So I will use the lens on AF tomorrow and that might improve things a tad.
So leave the sports mode alone then by the looks of it.
Click to expand...

It's a good idea to know what settings your camera is set at.
 
gridlock said:
In Malaga you aren't short of light. The EXIF in your shot says 1/500 at f7.1 ISO100. That's lots of light. :) You picture doesn't have obvious motion blur, though you could easily afford to go 1/2000. Your main problem is lack of focus. Nothing in the picture is in focus, so the camera must have focused close.

Try using Tv mode, set the shutter speed to 1/2000 and leave it on Auto ISO. Set the focus mode to AI Servo, and use high-speed continuous shooting. Prefocus on something a bit behind where you want to catch the bike, then the lens won't have to move so far initially.
Click to expand...

This might be for another thread but nearly all my photos are over expossed.
 
gridlock said:
In Malaga you aren't short of light. The EXIF in your shot says 1/500 at f7.1 ISO100. That's lots of light. :) You picture doesn't have obvious motion blur, though you could easily afford to go 1/2000. Your main problem is lack of focus. Nothing in the picture is in focus, so the camera must have focused close.

Try using Tv mode, set the shutter speed to 1/2000 and leave it on Auto ISO. Set the focus mode to AI Servo, and use high-speed continuous shooting. Prefocus on something a bit behind where you want to catch the bike, then the lens won't have to move so far initially.
Click to expand...

Focal length was 18mm on an 18-55 lens. ISO was set to 100, so you could set ISO to 200-400 to increase shutter speed available. Once you're happy with sharp shots you can slow down the shutter speed to include movement.

It could also be you're stabbing at the shutter button and not picking up focus.

Try zooming in a little then pick the bike up early and follow it with your lens (panning), whilst holding the shutter button half way down to get it to follow focus. AI servo mode is great for this.

You'll have an idea where it'll be jumping so take the shot at that moment, or use the fast shutter mode and take 3-4 in a row. Remember to keep following the bike after you've taken you finger off the shutter button.

Have fun. Looking forward to seeing your next attempts
 
In sports mode, doesn't the camera automatically engage servo focus? If so, I'm thinking that the centre focus point is not over the rider here, so the camera has tried to find focus with only the sky behind to focus on and has got confused.
 
I thought sports mode was the same as auto focus but for moving things.
 
Byker28i said:
Focal length was 18mm on an 18-55 lens. ISO was set to 100, so you could set ISO to 200-400 to increase shutter speed available. Once you're happy with sharp shots you can slow down the shutter speed to include movement.

It could also be you're stabbing at the shutter button and not picking up focus.

Try zooming in a little then pick the bike up early and follow it with your lens (panning), whilst holding the shutter button half way down to get it to follow focus. AI servo mode is great for this.

You'll have an idea where it'll be jumping so take the shot at that moment, or use the fast shutter mode and take 3-4 in a row. Remember to keep following the bike after you've taken you finger off the shutter button.

Have fun. Looking forward to seeing your next attempts
Click to expand...


Cheers Byker

I have been trying a different thing each week just to see what happends.
I was doing Light Trailing a couple of weeks ago and I was pleased with that.
Could improve of course LOLs
 
mr_pants said:
In sports mode, doesn't the camera automatically engage servo focus? If so, I'm thinking that the centre focus point is not over the rider here, so the camera has tried to find focus with only the sky behind to focus on and has got confused.
Click to expand...


Gerrard said:
I thought sports mode was the same as auto focus but for moving things.
Click to expand...

Hi Gerrard

Sports mode is known as a basic function / setting you choose with the dial on top of the body, this then sets up the camera in a specific way - for sports in this case, it will give priority to a fast shutter speed and enables the AF system "Servo mode" - which will track the subject / object you have focused on, the mode also enables continuous shooting.

You can choose if the lens AF or MF by moving the switch on the lens itself...

Hope this is of some help...
 
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Oh and good luck for today, hope some more of your shots turn out today :thumbs:
 
Hi andyred.

Today has been a no go.
We look after property over here and the owners have booked some people in one of there houses so we had to go cleaning today.. sods law.
Second choice is I will get my mate who also is called andy to ride his bike up and down the road at speed and I will try some settings that way and see what happen's.
The motocross is almost every other week so I wont have long to wait, but I will post more photos soon.

Cheers mate. :thumbs:
 
Sports mode is rubbish. Dont bother with it.

For MX, start by setting the camera to AV mode and set the aperture at it's widest. Set iso to 400.

The select AI focus and only use a single AF point, to start with use the centre.

Those settings will get you crisp shots, though the standard 18-55 kit lens will need upgrading at some point, it's not the fastest AF lens!
 
I'd have to agree with jim, use av mode to control depth of the shot and adjust the ISo until you have a workable shutter speed.

Moving the focus to the AF-on or * button (depending on model) and using ai servo mode and the center point will also help. So you'll be holding AF-on or * with the center point over the moving subject so the AF tracks then take the shot at the time you want.
 
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mr_pants said:
In sports mode, doesn't the camera automatically engage servo focus? If so, I'm thinking that the centre focus point is not over the rider here, so the camera has tried to find focus with only the sky behind to focus on and has got confused.
Click to expand...

Yup.

That, or the OP hasn't given the AF system enogh time to find the target.
 
I think there is another pratice day this week end so I will have another go.
Cheers
 
Assuming you're stationary and capturing the subjects in the same place it might be worth having a play with manual focus too, and with the high burst rate of the 60D you should get a few keepers.
 
ltchippy said:
Assuming you're stationary and capturing the subjects in the same place it might be worth having a play with manual focus too, and with the high burst rate of the 60D you should get a few keepers.
Click to expand...

Yes I will be standing at one of the jumps. :thumbs:
 
I would imagine that in Sports mode the camera engages AI Servo AF with all focus points active. In that mode you must pick up the subject with the centre point initially and then the camera will try to maintain focus on the subject if it moves away from the centre. If the centre point is not on the subject when you initiate focusing then all bets are off. For AI Servo to work effectively you also need to track the subject for up to a second before releasing the shutter so that the camera can work out the speed and direction of movement (towards or away from the camera) and figure out where to set the focus by the time the shutter trips.

In the example above, if the centre point was not on the subject, but on the sky, it may not have found anything to focus on. In that situation it would begin to sweep the focus all the way to wards the closest focus possible and then back out to infinity. Given that nothing here is in focus it looks like you tripped the shutter when the focus was very close to the camera. My guess is that you failed to pick up the subject with the centre point and to track it before firing. Either that or maybe the lens switch got accidentally knocked from AF to MF, but with the image as OOF as that I would think you might notice through the viewfinder.

It's perhaps worth noting that with the setting you had for focal length and aperture, with a subject focused at 15' away your depth of field would have extended from around 5' all the way to infinity. In other words there was actually no real need to be autofocusing at all. You could have manually set the focus to ~15' and everything in shot would have appeared sharp. If you had zoomed in to 55mm (which I would have been tempted to do) then at f/7.1 your DOF would have extended from 12.5' to 18.8', which would be about perfect for the subject, but to maintain sharpness with that slim margin for error your focusing would need to be spot on.

If you had shot portrait at 55mm instead of landscape at 18mm you might have got framing something like this....

20120120_131339_0524_LR.jpg


Which I think is more dramatic and interesting.
 
Thanks Tim..

Lots of the info from you and the others here. Its great for me as I'm new to photography and I'm making lots of basic errors and need a bit of help, but as with other things its great when you get it right, and hopefully next time I will be better.

Cheers
 
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