Action Shot Help

GooniesNeverSayDie11 · Oct 13, 2011

I would blame it on technique also. You need to increase your shutter speed by a large amount. If it was bright out as you said, there is no excuse for being below 1/1000th of a second. You can tinker around with the AF modes, some work well for some and not so well for others. I typically stick with center point focus on fast paced stuff ( birds in flight for example ) because its typically going to be your fastest and most accurate AF point.

Also, "In lieu of" means "in place of" so I am not sure it works in this sentence. ( That was just going to bug me if I didn't say it :lol:

)

Ballistics · Oct 13, 2011

In light of, not in lieu. Honest mistake.

cnutco · Oct 13, 2011

Ballistics said:
In lieu of another members football shots, I recently attempted to shoot a game this weekend. I took 797 shots, and I have 0 that are usable. I tried Continuous autofocus, but it would usually have the ball in focus and the receiver out of focus. I shot around 1/250-1/500 and came up with very blurry shots. I tried panning as well with no luck.

Any one have any tips on shooting fast paced sports? It was incredibly bright outside, so the light was not the issue. I blame it on my own ignorance.

Shooting sports takes practice. Do not beat yourself up too much about it. As Derral pointed out, equipment has a lot to do with it.

Post up some example pics along with your settings.

tevo said:
TheBiles said:

tevo said:

I am in the process of getting a job at sportswurlz, a local company that goes to sports events (high school) and photographs them, this thread is very beneficial to me! Bump ^^

Click to expand...

I'd be interested to hear how your experience goes! That seems like it would be a pretty sweet gig.

Click to expand...

At 40 dollars per football game (JV and Varsity are separate), and 20 for each other sporting event, w/ at least 2 sets of JV/Varsity each week, I would say so!

Good luck with that. Shooting under the lights can be difficult!

Here is one from last Friday.

A very high flying interception...
Dead of the night
Manual
Single Point AF
AF-C
f2.8@250
ISO1240 +/-
D90 and a Nikkor 70-200 vr2

D-B-J · Oct 13, 2011

You need at least a 1/500th shutter speed, if not higher. When i'm shooting soccer in full sunlight, i'm often around F4 and anywhere between 1/1000th and 1/8000th. For me, i love using the 80-200 2.8D. I;m sure the 70-200 focuses much faster, but i have yet to try it. Sounds like you just need a more "professional" lens that will focus faster. Because it is definitely not the body (I use a D7000 as well)

Ballistics · Oct 13, 2011

I'd love to get my hands on a 80-200mm, but finding one used that is in good condition is a difficult task.

whiplash23 · Oct 13, 2011

I had the same problem when I started shooting my son's soccer games. He was only 4yrs old so the action was slower, but the techniques should be similar. First, everyone who said to use only the center focus point while using AF-C is bang-on. I was using a single focal point, but was using the ones along the edge to frame the shot like I wanted. Most everything I took like that was blurry. A very wise member here told me to use the center point (and offered a very technical explanation as to why) and the shots were instantly improved, a lot.

Second, don't beat yourself up about the lens. I had been shooting with my 55-200 VR and feeling like I probably needed a much better lens (i.e. Nikon 80-200 f2.8). Fortunately, two co-workers of mine have the 80-200 and I was able to borrow one for a weekend. The next week, I took in two 8x10 prints. One was shot with the 55-200 VR and one was shot with the 80-200. Only one of the two guys who owned the 80-200 was able to correctly tell which shot I had used the better lens on, and he had a tough time doing so. The 80-200 gave me a lot more options for getting the exposure exactly like I wanted and is without question a much better lens, but the end results printed at 8x10 were not far off.

fatDAD · Oct 13, 2011

Single Point AF
AF-C
f2.8@250
ISO1240 +/-

Forgive me but what does this stuff mean?
I use a D50 w/Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G AF, Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18 - 55mm f/3.5 - 5.6G ED and Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED

MTVision · Oct 13, 2011

fatDAD said:
Forgive me but what does this stuff mean?
I use a D50 w/Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G AF, Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18 - 55mm f/3.5 - 5.6G ED and Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED

Single point af - you use a single focus point in your viewfinder and you can change it to which one

AF-C - auto-focus continuous means it will continuously track the subject to keep focus

250 - shutter speed

F2.8 - aperture

ISO - how sensitive the sensor is to light

fatDAD · Oct 14, 2011

Where do I change these settings? Sorry I'm complete noob when it comes to this stuff.
thanks

MTVision said:
fatDAD said:

Forgive me but what does this stuff mean?
I use a D50 w/Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G AF, Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18 - 55mm f/3.5 - 5.6G ED and Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED

Click to expand...

Single point af - you use a single focus point in your viewfinder and you can change it to which one

AF-C - auto-focus continuous means it will continuously track the subject to keep focus

250 - shutter speed

F2.8 - aperture

ISO - how sensitive the sensor is to light

cnutco · Oct 14, 2011

fatDAD said:
Where do I change these settings? Sorry I'm complete noob when it comes to this stuff.
thanks

You would do best by looking at your manual for the d50 as it may differ from my d90 and d300. If you do not have your manual, you should be able to search for free manuals online or YouTube may turn up a few videos on how to change setting on the d50.

Good luck.

Infinite_Day · Oct 14, 2011

fatDAD said:
Where do I change these settings? Sorry I'm complete noob when it comes to this stuff.
thanks

It varies somewhat from camera to camera. If you have the manual for your camera, read it. If you don't, download it from nikonusa.com and read it. The D50 is a decent little camera but not all the controls are obvious on it.