water skiing / wakeboarding

[rob40wilson03]

hey guys, i need some quick help....

im about to go out (in an hour) with some friends to do some water skiing and wakeboarding and i wanna get some good shots of everybody

equipment:
Rebel XSi with my 28-135 IS

i did this a few weeks ago and a LOT of my shots were out of focus. my method of focusing was to auto-focus on the skier before the boat started pulling them, and flipping it to manual focus. i then remained in the exact same spot on the boat, which i figured would keep the skier in focus at all times

is there a better/easier way to get more in-focus shots?

also any other random tips for this photo session would be greatly appreciated

thanks so much!

 

[RyanLilly]

I'm guessing your focus is is set to one shot, you could keep autofocus on one shot and just refocus with every shot, or you could switch to continuous AF where you camera is always focusing while your shutter button is halfway depressed and it tracks your subject( or other focus button depending on how you have your camera setup.)

 

[photo28]

Make sure you have a fast shutter speed and liek said, you may want to keep it on continuous AF(this is what I do).

 

[Stosh]

I think I see what's happening. Because the guy skiing is always at the same distance from the boat, you thought you could focus once and set to manual. That would work fine for a prime as long as you weren't shooting at f/2.8 or faster. But for a zoom the focus changes slightly during your zoom. There is no set pattern. It could quite possibly be different from lens to lens of the exact same model. So you're going to need to re-focus every time you touch the zoom. Probably better to just leave the AF on then choose your AF mode.

And yes, fast shutter speeds too.

 

[rob40wilson03]

thanks for all the tips guys... i ended up using AI Servo most of the time. i think i got some good pics but i wont know for sure until tomorrow since i left my camera at the boat owner's house. we are gonna try to get on the lake again tomorrow so i'll have another chance to get some more

i really appreciate everyone's input, and would take some more if anybody has it!

 

[rob40wilson03]

I think I see what's happening. Because the guy skiing is always at the same distance from the boat, you thought you could focus once and set to manual. That would work fine for a prime as long as you weren't shooting at f/2.8 or faster. But for a zoom the focus changes slightly during your zoom. There is no set pattern. It could quite possibly be different from lens to lens of the exact same model. So you're going to need to re-focus every time you touch the zoom. Probably better to just leave the AF on then choose your AF mode.

And yes, fast shutter speeds too.

yeah, you're exactly right... plus as the skier moves side to side, it changes the distance slightly anyway, since im not shooting from EXACTLY where the rope is attached to the tow pole

 

[ToddLange]

well with my experience with taken pics of people tubing, i kept the camera on autofocus and just shot away! lol. took so many pics with very little success rate(which i expected due to the boat movement) but basically my camera never stopped taking pics. lol.

i did come out with some pretty good pics though.

so keep the shutterspeed up high and dont stop takin pics! lol. i took about 700 pics in 45 mins. hahahaha

 

[hchristensen]

Yeah, manual focus won't cut it in this situation. Assuming the rope is attached to a tower, and you are photographing from the back of the boat, the fulcrum point of the boarder is behind you, meaning the distance between you and the boarder changes as he swings out to one side of the boat or another. Not to mention the changes in distance if he catches air! Best to keep it on AI Servo or AI Focus, especially if there is dynamic action going on. Make sure your shutter speed is around 1000th of a second or faster.