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05/01/2009 08:57:11 AM · #1 |
| Hi all, Normally I shoot landscapes and still life, but yesterday I made my first real attempt at sports photography. I went over and photographed some wakeboarders and it seemed like my auto-focus was way off. I was using the setting where is meters the overall shot, was that a mistake? I have a d200 and it seemed like my autofocus was just out of wack. It kept focusing on the background, so the background was sharp but the subject was out of focus (about 60% of the shots came out like this). I took a few shots with manual focus and they were fine. I was shooting at 1/600 to 1/4000 depending on the shot (light), and an aperture of f4-5.6 depending on the shot too. Now, I should mention that I was hand-holding the camera, but I wasn't that far away and I was using the 55-200 lense with the VR. Anyway, I was just curious, when you guys shoot action shots, how do you focus (Auto vs Manual) and what Auto-focus setting do you use... Thanks in advance... |
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05/01/2009 09:03:17 AM · #2 |
| I generally set my camera to spot-focus on the center and do my best to keep the primary subject centered. Action sport shots are tough on auto-focus. I like to shoot as many as possible with the hopes of getting a few keepers. |
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05/01/2009 09:04:52 AM · #3 |
I always use autofocus and a specific single point to focus sports and action photography, that way you make sure you are focusing on the subject. You should be fine then and you should stop pretty much all motion at those shutter speeds.
eta. I assume your camera has some kind of AI Auto focus setting where the focus will "track" a moving subject so the focus will readjust whilst you have the button half presed
Message edited by author 2009-05-01 09:06:04. |
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05/01/2009 09:21:32 AM · #4 |
I'm not sure if the D200 has it, but on the D300 and D700 there are three focus modes (on the back of the camera)- the top one is the one you used, which I wouldn't for fast moving subjects, unless you're using at least f8. The bottom one is for pin pointing static subjects. The middle one is for constantly moving subjects, and does an amazing job at tracking anything moving. If you have that on the D200, start in that mode with the focus point on your chosen subject, then it should follow you around.
I recently shot some really fast moving horses at 1/640, f3.5 ISO 400 on quite a grey dismal day using the tracking focus system. They were perfectly in focus, even the dirt being kicked up was crystal clear, much to my surprise.
Hope you have it on your camera! |
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05/02/2009 06:29:12 PM · #5 |
| Cool guys thanks, I'll check on my d200 when I get home to see if it has that setting, hopefully it does. Thanks again |
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05/02/2009 06:39:51 PM · #6 |
| just checked yes the d200 has the same function as the d 300check this out |
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05/02/2009 08:04:26 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by toddster45:
just checked yes the d200 has the same function as the d 300check this out |
Great link, thanks, I actually broke down and pulled the instruction manual. It shows that there are 4 auto-focus methods, 1.) Single-Area 2.) Dynamic Area 3.) Dynamic group 4.) Dynamic Area w/ closest subject priority.
2 and 3 allow the user to select the point and work best for fast subject movement. #4 also works well with subject movement but the camera chooses the subject. It also says to use the continuous servo mode so that the auto-focus keeps updating when the shutter is half pressed. Although this is not my first reference to the manual, I must say, the manual does a very good job of explaining everything. Good stuff! |
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