Shooting people on a Rollercoaster...

TheNissanMan

TheNissanMan

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Fun one here and after advise...

I'm off to see my sister and family tomorrow and looks like were going to a theme park. My nephew absolutely loves Rollercoasters and as I don't would like to capture some shots of him on them.

I'm guessing there isn't going to be enough time to get a good AF lock so was thinking af focusing on a single point on the rollercoaster and switching AF off, with a v. high shutter speed and continuous shoot mode would this enable me to grab (hopefully) some shots of him?

Or is there a better option ?
 
I imagine it will be like a lot of other fast moving objects. If you can pan with it as it goes by there's no reason why shouldn't get some good shots. Try not to go too high on the shutter speed, as this might freeze the background as well, giving no sense of movement in your picture.

If possible, try a couple of practice runs on some of the coasters before the one that contains your nephew. That way if you are making any mistakes you'll have a chance to see what is going wrong, and be able to correct for it, before the important one that you don't want to miss.
 
You want to be looking at a fairly fast SS above 1:250, the lowest aperture your lens will allow then change your ISO to get a correct exposure, centre focus point and a little panning,

As Scarecrow suggested, try a few practice runs first, if it ain't working out too well, slap your dial on the running man :D
 
Best check the theme park conditions of entry as well. I tried taking a few at Alton Towers recently and was politely asked to refrain as they sell the pictures themselves. They aren't bothered whilst you're queueing or walking around but seeing as they screw you for £4.50 a picture for the official ride photos they don't like you trying to get your own.
Just something else to think about.
 
Is that for real, how on earth can they enforce that with the crowds they get there.

Your camera's AF should be able to cope with a rollercoaster as long as you set it to AFc or continuous pick it up a way down the track and let the AF follow it until you get to the point you want to take the picture.

The AF on a D300 keeps up with superbikes at 160mph so a rollercoaster should be OK :)
 
The girls decided to go to town leaving the two little ones at home so we had a veg day, by veg mean playing frisbee and football in the garden all day. I was run rings around by my nephew who never stops :D :D :D

Loved it really :lol:

I was there for an extra day which gave me a chance to play with the camera with people whicch scares me senseless at the moment, purely becasue I worry about what if they don't like the photos...

Will see what crit I get for the photo's (posted earlier), hopefully some good pointers :D
 
i guess you can shoot with the camera still (to keep the background in focus) and get the moving 'coaster/people - like so:

4480866993_fecb10ec6e.jpg



or pan the camera and get in focus people, but blurred background, like so:

4481526554_6b76d660f6.jpg



I personally think panning gives you a more dramatic and realistic version of movement than the former, but it is slightly more difficult technically.

shutter speed will depend on how fast the coaster is going at any one time, but have a play and see what you think, start at around 1/200 and go from there!

have fun!
 
R.e. shutter speed - consider using a 3 bracket set, maybe 3/4 stops apart.
 
And always shoot 3 frames at once, that is. In fast mode (CH on Nikon)
 
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