Action Shots

[Katkoota]

Hello there

I am new here. I enjoy photography as a hobby. I am here trying to learn more about it, and hopefully rely less on some auto settings in the camera.

I enjoy animal photography the most I have a couple of dogs who I love to photograph. I especially enjoy taking action shots of them because these sort of photos speak so much about their personalities.

I took the bellow two photos with my nikon D3

This is Snowy.
I am unable to post a link or image

and this is Crystal
I am unable to post a link or image

I also recently got the Nikon D7000 which I am loving so far.

The thing is, I don't like for the camera to do most of the work. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be able to get the full control over it. Why? because pictures like these always require at least 10-20 clicks to get the FULL FOCUS on my subjects (my small dogs) while running. Some will come out nicely, but not the sharpness of the subject that I would love to have (the ones that I posted above, is something that I love, but don't get very often). That said, I know that I need to use the manual mode, but I would really appreciate some tips on the best or good settings on the camera to use for such images. I take these sort of photos outdoors all the time, so I rely on natural lighting.

Any tips? Insight? Please feel free to share with me. I will really appreciate that!

Kat

 

[Katkoota]

Here are the two photos I am able to post them now because i reached the 5 posts in the forum.

and this is Crystal

 

[dexterlitonjua]

Use AF-C/continues auto focus which follow focuses the subject and set AF area to dynamic I really don't know if d7000 have a good 3D tracking but you can try it as well

 

[dexterlitonjua]

are those Maltese??? they are so cute <3

 

[Juanka]

Funny...I also had a maltese called snowy... I guess it is one of the first things you think of when you look at them.

 

[sierramister]

If you want to get the entire dog in focus, you're going to need to use a slower aperture (f/8 or slower).
However, you'll need a slower shutter speed to remove motion blur, which is already evident on the feet.

 

[D-B-J]

If you want to get the entire dog in focus, you're going to need to use a slower aperture (f/8 or slower).
However, you'll need a slower shutter speed to remove motion blur, which is already evident on the feet.

By slower aperture they mean a smaller aperture, which will extend your DOF. And not a slower shutter speed, a faster shutter speed. What was the settings for this shot?

Regards,
Jake

 

[ann]

the first was 1/1000 the second 1/500

no such thing as a slower fstop,

 

[Katkoota]

Use AF-C/continues auto focus which follow focuses the subject and set AF area to dynamic I really don't know if d7000 have a good 3D tracking but you can try it as well

Thanks for the tip. Any idea about the best f/stop and shutter speed to use? What about WB ? Is there the most suitable settings for an action shot that is similar to these that I took?

are those Maltese??? they are so cute <3

Yes they are Maltese pups thank u. I think they are cute too. If interested to learn more about the two, u can visit them in YouTube: YouTube - katkoota's Channel

I enjoy video making too ^_^

Funny...I also had a maltese called snowy... I guess it is one of the first things you think of when you look at them.

That's funny...when I first looked at snowy, I thought if snow.
Crystal's name was taken from the snow-crystal ...again a snow theme

If you want to get the entire dog in focus, you're going to need to use a slower aperture (f/8 or slower).
However, you'll need a slower shutter speed to remove motion blur, which is already evident on the feet.

Yes I would love to get the entire dog in focus. But I still don't know how to successfully do that. If I got the entire dog in focus, it is more of my luck to get it, rather than my knowledge I would really love to learn.

By slower aperture they mean a smaller aperture, which will extend your DOF. And not a slower shutter speed, a faster shutter speed. What was the settings for this shot?
Regards,
Jake

Hi Jake, thank u for your response. So a smaller aperture and a faster shutter speed. So if I set my aperture to like what "sierramister" suggested f/8...what would be the best shutter speed setting to go with it?

Regarding the settings in the above shots, the camera did everything. I didn't manually set the settings. How can I find out?

If I am getting it correctly, the main settings to keep in mind and manually adjust when snapping action shots is aperture and shutter speed? What other settings that are important to set and control to have a better in focus the entire dog picture?

 

[sierramister]

If you want to get the entire dog in focus, you're going to need to use a slower aperture (f/8 or slower).
However, you'll need a slower shutter speed to remove motion blur, which is already evident on the feet.

By slower aperture they mean a smaller aperture, which will extend your DOF. And not a slower shutter speed, a faster shutter speed. What was the settings for this shot?

Regards,
Jake

Sorry, I mistyped, I meant faster shutter speed.

I'm concerned that at 1/1000, there is a heck of a lot of motion blur coming from the dog.

 

[gsgary]

There is no set formula, when i shoot dog show i just set my camera for the effect i want and the conditions i am shooting in, it comes with experiece you just have to practise and practise
I could say shoot at iso500 1/1000 @F4.5 like this shot below but the weather conditions could be different

The shot above was in the morning and the one below in the afternoon with better light, all settings were the same except iso second shot i could drop it to iso250

 

[KmH]

Use AF-C/continues auto focus which follow focuses the subject and set AF area to dynamic I really don't know if d7000 have a good 3D tracking but you can try it as well

Thanks for the tip. Any idea about the best f/stop and shutter speed to use? What about WB ? Is there the most suitable settings for an action shot that is similar to these that I took?

For shutter speed you'll want at least 1/500, and 1/1000 would be better. The settings you need to use depends on how much light you have available. As you stop the lens down to increase the depth-of-field, shutter speed has to be increased to get a good exposure. Unless you have a lot of light, the shutter speed you need to use with a small lens opening gets to slow to stop motion.

When using strobed lighting (flash) the flash duration stops motion, not shutter speed. A Nikon SB-600 at full power has a flash duration of about 1/900. At 1/2 power the flash duration of the SB-600 is 1/1600 or so.

White balance is about the color of the available light. Our brains make adjustments for use so we don't see that tungsten light is orange and flouescent light is green. The camera doesn't have our brain and needs to be told what the light is.

 

[Katkoota]

There is no set formula, when i shoot dog show i just set my camera for the effect i want and the conditions i am shooting in, it comes with experiece you just have to practise and practise
I could say shoot at iso500 1/1000 @F4.5 like this shot below but the weather conditions could be different

The shot above was in the morning and the one below in the afternoon with better light, all settings were the same except iso second shot i could drop it to iso250

thank you so much! I'm gonna try these settings. The lightening outdoors is great! Sometimes, so much of a light because we tend to have sunny days very often here.

I like the second photo of the border collie more. Both photos that you shared are great. I especially love the depth of field and vivid colors. I really appreciate your tips!

Kat

 

[Katkoota]

Use AF-C/continues auto focus which follow focuses the subject and set AF area to dynamic I really don't know if d7000 have a good 3D tracking but you can try it as well

Thanks for the tip. Any idea about the best f/stop and shutter speed to use? What about WB ? Is there the most suitable settings for an action shot that is similar to these that I took?

For shutter speed you'll want at least 1/500, and 1/1000 would be better. The settings you need to use depends on how much light you have available. As you stop the lens down to increase the depth-of-field, shutter speed has to be increased to get a good exposure. Unless you have a lot of light, the shutter speed you need to use with a small lens opening gets to slow to stop motion.

When using strobed lighting (flash) the flash duration stops motion, not shutter speed. A Nikon SB-600 at full power has a flash duration of about 1/900. At 1/2 power the flash duration of the SB-600 is 1/1600 or so.

White balance is about the color of the available light. Our brains make adjustments for use so we don't see that tungsten light is orange and flouescent light is green. The camera doesn't have our brain and needs to be told what the light is.

Thank you so much for this!

 

[gsgary]

There is no set formula, when i shoot dog show i just set my camera for the effect i want and the conditions i am shooting in, it comes with experiece you just have to practise and practise
I could say shoot at iso500 1/1000 @F4.5 like this shot below but the weather conditions could be different

The shot above was in the morning and the one below in the afternoon with better light, all settings were the same except iso second shot i could drop it to iso250

thank you so much! I'm gonna try these settings. The lightening outdoors is great! Sometimes, so much of a light because we tend to have sunny days very often here.

I like the second photo of the border collie more. Both photos that you shared are great. I especially love the depth of field and vivid colors. I really appreciate your tips!

Kat

If you want this DOF you are going to have to spend a lot of money, these were shot with a 300mmF2.8L, these settings will only work if the light is the same as i shot in, just take a light meter reading