Action Photography Settings - Requesting Help

[SH_Lieca]

I have a Canon AE-1 Program and I plan on going California to spend some time with some friends who all skateboard. I have never shot skateboarding well and I was hoping I could get some advice on camera settings and technique. My camera has program mode, would this be acceptable to use for skateboard photography? I will be shooting Ilford 400 HP5 Black and White on a Canon Zoom Lens Fd 35-70mm 1:3.5-4.5 If not, what should i set my ISO, aperature, shutter speed to when shooting sunny California skateboarding? Thank you!

 

[dxqcanada]

You ISO typically is set to the same as the film you are using.

As you are shooting moving subjects you will want to control shutter speed, to capture the movement without blur (1/250+) or with blur ... so you should set the lens on A and manually select the shutter speed you want ... let the camera automatically figure out the aperture so you don't have to worry about that part.

 

[wfooshee]

AE-1 Program is either Shutter-priority, Program, or Manual. You want to control shutter speed, so set your shutter speed to as fast as you can get away with in the light conditions. If you don't want to use the maximum aperture of the lens, set it a couple of stop slower than that, but don't go slow enough to introduce motion blur, especially shooting handheld.

ISO is not a variable on a film camera unless you're pushing film when processing; set it to the film's speed, which you've said is 400.

You've said sunny, so at 400 ISO, you ought to easily be able to use the camera's fastest 1/1000 shutter speed without any difficulty.

If you want to try motion blur for effect, use a tripod so the only motion is the subjects, but 400 film may be too fast for that in the sunshine.

 

[LWW]

AE-1 Program is either Shutter-priority, Program, or Manual. You want to control shutter speed, so set your shutter speed to as fast as you can get away with in the light conditions. If you don't want to use the maximum aperture of the lens, set it a couple of stop slower than that, but don't go slow enough to introduce motion blur, especially shooting handheld.

ISO is not a variable on a film camera unless you're pushing film when processing; set it to the film's speed, which you've said is 400.

You've said sunny, so at 400 ISO, you ought to easily be able to use the camera's fastest 1/1000 shutter speed without any difficulty.

If you want to try motion blur for effect, use a tripod so the only motion is the subjects, but 400 film may be too fast for that in the sunshine.

Agreed. 1/1,000 and let the aperture be the rubber number.

I’d guess it would settle in at f8.0.

 

[Sharpshooterr]

I have a Canon AE-1 Program and I plan on going California to spend some time with some friends who all skateboard. I have never shot skateboarding well and I was hoping I could get some advice on camera settings and technique. My camera has program mode, would this be acceptable to use for skateboard photography? I will be shooting Ilford 400 HP5 Black and White on a Canon Zoom Lens Fd 35-70mm 1:3.5-4.5 If not, what should i set my ISO, aperature, shutter speed to when shooting sunny California skateboarding? Thank you!

SH, boarding can be a lot of fun to shoot. Also I'll assume you're going to SoCal. BUT I'll assume you're not going soon as per covid?
SC can be very sunny so remember the sunny 16 rule. With iso 400 you'll be at 400 but that's too slow for action so my preference would be to open the lens all the way to oof the backgrounds((BG) unless you want the BG focused.
You should be at a min. of 1000th to stop all the movement. To shoot wide open you'll need to be at 2000th at f4. I'll assume that if you set the speed the camera will adjust the f-stop, unfortunately your lens is a variable so maybe if you set the f-stop the camera will float the speed, not sure?
Remember that the closer you are to your subject the more the the BG will render oof.
I shoot a Canon film camera too but use the EOS 1n so I can interchange the lenses with my modern digital bodies!

 

[wfooshee]

As I stated, before, because I know the camera, it has no aperture-priority mode, and 1/1000th is the fastest shutter speed.