Focusing using AF-C (Continous)

hewhoknows

hewhoknows

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Matt
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Just wanted to ask a question about continous focusing when shooting high speed sports. I've had the opportuinity to shoot some ice hockey, martial arts and horse riding events lately and have been using a combo of the following equipment:

Nikon D90
Sigma 70-200 f2.8
Sigma 24-70 f2.8

and have been playing around with different focusing methods. Obviously the best focusing option for fast moving objects is AF-C but ive been struggling to get crisp shots, mainly due to missing my focus point ALOT of the times.

Just wanted to ask about continous focusing modes and how long it takes to get used to it as it seems a bit of an art. Does anyone have any tips or tricks they could share when shooting sports stuff??
 
are you using back button focus? IMHO af-c + back button focus (in the d90's case, it's using the ae-l/af-l button to AF-ON in menu setting) is the best way to go..
 
im pretty sure nikons have it but perhaps try back button focus, i was in the same boat as you and tried back button focussing and my hit rate improved dramitically, make sure you keep the active focus point over and your subject whilst holding the back button and fire, as long as youve kept the point over the subject youll have in focus shots.
Hope this helps, forgot to say it also tracks them when they come towards you or when your side on.
Someone beat me to it, ah well bit more on info on it.
 
rampanthamster said:
are you using back button focus? IMHO af-c + back button focus (in the d90's case, it's using the ae-l/af-l button to AF-ON in menu setting) is the best way to go..
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^^This, it is also just the nature of high speed stuff that shots get missed more often.
 
If I’m doing sea gulls of a pier, knowing my AF continuous will go way off focus if I lose touch with a bird I’m panning, which is about 90& of the time. I'll get into the habit of letting go of the shutter/focus button the instant I lose touch with the bird, in this way my lens wont go to far out of the focus range I’m working in ... I can possibly zoom out a bit or at least still see it in near focus and be able to quickly pick it up again with the AF.

Also and in conjunction, if you have focus lock buttons on the end of your lens you can fix focus, even if your finger if half down on the shutter/AF button the lens buttons will lock the focus at the last point….letting it go again will snap back to AF.
and you should find you can keep the lens in general focus range of the action, and not have to wait for the lens to hunt down lost action.
 
I'll be honest and say that i had never really looked into back button focusing until it was mentioned in this thread. I had heard of it before but figured i was ok with the 'normal' way of focusing so never really persued it any further.

Now ive read up on it and switched my AE-L/AF-L button to AF-ON and have been using back button focusing for the last 24 hours. Seems pretty easy to get used to but haven't used it in a sports environment as yet. After reading up on it I can definitely see the benefits so am looking forward to testing it out.

Thanks for the advice guys :)
 
OK so had a bash at back button focusing shooting my dog running around in the back garden. The location of the button doesn't seem to bad to get used to and I have had fired off about 20 or so test shots using a 70-200 f2.8 sigma with my camera set on AF-C and dynamic area focusing. Although im still get alot out of focus I think i can see that with a bit of practice on my technique this is definitely going to be the way to go when shooting sports stuff. Got a few decent ones on pretty good focus but still know I need LOADS of practice.

Thanks for the heads up and for the tip on BBF, determined to better at this area of my photography :)
 
Glad to see another convert to the back button club ;)

to be honest i find dynamic area focusing a bit hit and miss. Try using single point and just track your subject a bit better if possible. Can obviously be tricky with fast moving subjects but in my experience it works well with a bit of practice.
 
I have set up my D300 so that it doesn't take a picture until the shot is in focus,maybe you can do the same with the D90.

Realspeed
 
Ive done it on my D700, so again not sure if its the same for the D90. In your menu screen, look for AF-C Priority Selection, then choose 'Focus'. Other options should be 'Release' and 'Release + Focus' if I remember correctly. The shutter should then only release once the shot is in focus.

Hope that helps
 
Nikon_Nick said:
Ive done it on my D700, so again not sure if its the same for the D90. In your menu screen, look for AF-C Priority Selection, then choose 'Focus'. Other options should be 'Release' and 'Release + Focus' if I remember correctly. The shutter should then only release once the shot is in focus.

Hope that helps
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Cant find that option on my D90 menu system unfortunately so not too sure its a option but im gonna try to dig out my manual
 
Just did a quick search on t'internet and have read that the 'focus' release priority is only available in single servo mode on the D90, and will release no matter what if in focus or not in AF-C...
 
Gary Coyle said:
Erm no, it's more likely user error, inexperience and equipment not up to the job or a combination of all 3
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Well i'm gonna stick by my statement, in the 'How many shots do you take at an event' thread there are people that shoot sports for a living getting a less than 25% hit rate, are they all suffering from the same problems? Would that low hit rate be expected in a studio? or is it the nature of the higher speeds/movement that contributes to the lower success rate?
 
Another suggestion for the OP: If your lenses have image stabilisation (or whatever the Sigma version is) try turning it off.

I have found that under certain conditions (i.e. high shutter spped and high frame rate) the stabilisation system doesn't have time to correct itself between shots and can cause out of focus results. With Nikon VR lenses this effect can be seen when the shutter is faster than 1/250s and the frame rate if 5fps (on the D90) is used.
 
I've used bbf on all my cameras, but cannot get on with it on my D7000 as my thumb hits my nose.
 
The23rdman said:
I've used bbf on all my cameras, but cannot get on with it on my D7000 as my thumb hits my nose.
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I'm the same with my new d3100. It's just too liccle to be able to do it comfortably.
 
TCR4x4 said:
I'm the same with my new d3100. It's just too liccle to be able to do it comfortably.
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It annoyed me at first, but now I have accepted it it makes little real difference. The files are so lush I don't care!
 
Bristolian said:
Another suggestion for the OP: If your lenses have image stabilisation (or whatever the Sigma version is) try turning it off.

I have found that under certain conditions (i.e. high shutter spped and high frame rate) the stabilisation system doesn't have time to correct itself between shots and can cause out of focus results. With Nikon VR lenses this effect can be seen when the shutter is faster than 1/250s and the frame rate if 5fps (on the D90) is used.
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none of my lenses have VR or image stabilisatioin so thats defo not a contributing factor. In all honesty i think is user error on most parts
 
PaulJC said:
Well i'm gonna stick by my statement, in the 'How many shots do you take at an event' thread there are people that shoot sports for a living getting a less than 25% hit rate, are they all suffering from the same problems? Would that low hit rate be expected in a studio? or is it the nature of the higher speeds/movement that contributes to the lower success rate?
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Theyre talking gash or using low end gear or dont know how to use it correctly then, admittedly i use the best there is and i never hit less than 98% :D
 
Gary Coyle said:
Theyre talking gash or using low end gear or dont know how to use it correctly then, admittedly i use the best there is and i never hit less than 98% :D
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Think your probabaly right about low end gear. I just went to an owl sanctury and tried shooting some owls in flight using a old 24-135 siggy using BBF and AF-C, not too sure how much was user error or equipment not up to the job but couldnt get much in focus other than stationary birds and i was shooting at least 1/500th!!
 
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Gary Coyle said:
Unfortunatly Matt thats how it is, 1/500th is very slow for birds in flight.
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I would agree if they were wild birds in flight reaching maximum flight speed but these were captive birds flying on average 5 meters from perch to handler an I would expect to be able to capture a decent image iver such a small flight path.

Think i went up to 1/800th at max but would have to check my exif data. I guess im trying to work out whether this is down to user error through not getting my focus points bang on or older equipment that cant keep up.
 
PaulJC said:
Well i'm gonna stick by my statement, in the 'How many shots do you take at an event' thread there are people that shoot sports for a living getting a less than 25% hit rate, are they all suffering from the same problems? Would that low hit rate be expected in a studio? or is it the nature of the higher speeds/movement that contributes to the lower success rate?
Click to expand...

i wouldnt be in business very long if i only got 25% or less keepers at an equestrian comp.
 
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