Beginner Advice on setup - examples on Tour de Yorkshire

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Steve
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Having now got an SLR (last used one over 40 years ago) I have tried my first action shots today as the Tour de Yorkshire went through Wetherby.

I should like some critique advice as to set up for taking such shots but the set up does not seem right (I know I am not very creative but that's not my issue yet) . I have Nikon D5300 with Tamron 16-300 lens. I am trying to avoid auto (after 40 years of pint and click).

All shots were taken on Aperture Priority, f8, ISO400, AF-C, Dynamic Area AF (39points), Centre weighted metering and standard picture control. Shots are as taken.
 
I have just looked at my post and I uploaded 3 JPGs. I did get error saying "Security error occurred Please press back, refresh the page and try again" my file name was exactly as it came out of SD card "DSC_0000.jpg". I did the 3 photos 3 times each and cannot see why I cannot see them here as I am never going to get advice. Can someone tell me where I look to upload photos - everyone else seems to.
 
Thanks but I may be getting old. I do not know what Flickr is - when I google it all I get is that it is something to do with Yahoo. As I have nothing to do with Yahoo I ignore it.
 
Huffy

All I did was click on the upload a file and point to my JPG files. I have done once and it worked but now I have tried again it does not. I do not know where to turn as I have tried all the help items and nothing seems to work. Why does the site have "Upload File" if it does not upload?
 
Ok well without seeing your shots I can tell you that you'll want to be shooting at your lowest f-number, probably something like f5.6 on that lens, basically the biggest aperture possible to let the most light in. Shooting in aperture priority is a good idea because your camera will adjust the settings with the changing aperture if you zoom in or out (cheaper lenses have this downside, aperture priority goes some way towards countering it). Next you want to be shooting at a high enough ISO to get your shots sharp via a fast enough shutter speed. For cyclists you'll probably want to be up above 1/800th, 1/1000th is a safe bet. Don't just boost the ISO to its highest setting because you'll get horrible noise in the photos, but a sharp photo is always better than a blurry one, regardless of noise (in my opinion!) so don't worry if you have to push that ISO up fairly high. You can always edit out noise or stick the photos in black and white after. You probably want to select a focus point and stick with it, that way you'll get more reliable focusing, use servo focusing as well, not sure how you select it on a Nikon but basically it constantly adjusts the focusing with the subject which you'll need as the cyclists are going to be moving (probably towards you).

Hope that helps!
 
Many thanks for taking the time to give advice Sam
I will have a go next time I try action shots.
I just can't seem to upload any photo like everyone else seems to be able to do. My JPEGs are 11.4 Mb yet it says will only upload max of 350kb which I do not understand when I tale what size camera puts on SD card.
 
Many thanks Sam

I have now managed to get them reduced and the 3 I intended to post are. All were taken on Aperture Priority, f8, ISO400, AF-C, Dynamic Area AF (39points), Centre weighted metering and standard picture control so any advice on set up for the future would be appreciated. My initial thought is that I should have just used auto, but I got DSLR so I so as not to use point and click

DSC_0426v2.jpg DSC_0426v2.jpg DSC_0443v2.jpg
 

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ISO 400 is probably about right for the light levels, maybe put it up to ISO 800, that'll half your shutter speed from 1/200th to 1/400th, then drop the aperture from f8 to f5.6 (or whatever the lowest it'll go is), that'll half your shutter speed again to 1/800th and then you won't get blurry photos :)
 
The principal issue isn't shutter speed, it's focus point.

Using 39 point AF, the camera selects what it wants to focus on, not you. Hence it's chosen the spectators in the background on the first two and the wall in the third.

As for shutter speed, in cycling a fast shutter speed is usually the last thing that you want, unless you are shooting head on.
A cyclist captured at 1/500th+ looks like they're stationary and about to fall off their bike.

Somewhere around 1/200-250th, dependant on track speed, should do and then pan with the action. That's give you sharp torsos, but some motion blur in the legs and the wheels.
 
I'd disagree with the comment about shutter speed, especially for a beginner a shutter speed of 1/1000th will get more keepers than shooting at 1/200th. I shoot mountain bikes primarily and I don't like to drop below 1/1000th, but then they're never going to look like they're stationary!

I said about selecting a single AF point as well, obviously you're going to struggle if you're focussing on the background the whole time haha
 
Many thanks all for your advice

I am will take note of all you say an keep learning and keep trying.
 
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