Bit of help

Ziggy

Ziggy

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969
Name
Mike
Edit My Images
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Hope I can get some help.

I have tried a couple of times and always seem to struggle with taking shots of action sports. The main sport I go to is speedway racing but I seem to struggle to take decent shots.

I went yesterday and fired off about 150 shots but very few of them are good captures, seem to really struggle with sharpness and focus.

When I check the data on them (I was shooting in S mode) to try and shoot about 1/250 to try and get the action look without freezing the motion.

On pretty much every picture the camera chose f2.8, is this my problem - Would I be better shooting at say f4 and allowing the auto ISO to do what it needs.

I have tried to understand this but I seem too thick to understand.

All help greatly appreciated.

Here are a couple of examples of what I mean.



 
It looks to me that it is a focus issue. If you look at the first photo his right leg is in focus but his head is out of focus. Try increasing the ISO to 400 and use f8 aperture which should still give you a decent shutter speed and use center spot fousing and make sure you focus on the head. Hope this helps.

Dai
 
Into manual mode, shutter at 1/250 and aperture at F/8. Increase the ISO until you can get this combo. You can play with the shutter a bit too see what works best, but your problem here is lack of DOF and misfocusing on other parts of the body. At f/8 even if you missed focus on the head and hit the leg, you should have acceptable sharpness on the head.
Of course practice getting the focus in the right place as good practice.
Also remember these bikes are moving, so make sure you use AF-C focusing, as AF-S by the time the focus is locked, the bike has moved quite a distance. AF-C will track the bike as it moves for as long as you hold the shutter half way and keep the focus point on the subject.
 
If only the weather would get better to allow me the chance!
 
Hi Ziggy, do you travel to away meetings at all? Im a bit of a Rye House fan, and have been going for about 20 years on and off.
 
On occasions I do travel, but most the places are quite a distance away with us only having 2 clubs in Scotland.

Go to watch Glasgow and Edinburgh a lot, Berwick is also fine as is Newcastle and Workington - Any further is too far to be honest.
 
Ziggy,

What's Newcastle like to shoot at?

I'm up there to see the folks this weekend (inc Monday) and I was thinking of giving speedway a bash.

I had a look at photos on the Diamonds website and I was wondering if the wire fence caused problems.

Cheers.

Phil
 
It is not too bad, they have a sloped stand which you can get some decent shots at, is far better than Edinburgh where you can basically see nothing.

With most tracks you really need to be in the middle to get decent shots.
 
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Cheers Ziggy

I noticed on their website that photography is not allowed!

I've a pretty big lens so it may be noticed as well - have you found that there are problems in practice?

Phil
 
I never had any problems but was a while ago i went there as it is pretty far for me to travel. Just keep the flash off.
 
TCR4x4 said:
Into manual mode, shutter at 1/250 and aperture at F/8. Increase the ISO until you can get this combo. You can play with the shutter a bit too see what works best, but your problem here is lack of DOF and misfocusing on other parts of the body.
Click to expand...

Bingo. This is primarily a focus issue, not a shutter speed one, and I agree with this poster that manual mode is the way to go with this. Try going to a busy road to experiment with your settings so that you'll be ready to shoot the bikers next time you go to an event.
 
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