Action shot help

[Mpieris]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazing_...ream/lightbox/

I shot this hand held with my 70-200 f/2.8L II with IS on at 110mm, f/3.5, 1/1000sec, ISO 100. I know my dog is in motion and the softness is from his movement, but I'd like to know what I can do to get him more sharp. Thanks in advance.

[Jayson]

It just looks like the shot is back-focused (notice the grass is sharp by his tail). Make sure your in Servo and try to keep the point on his nose as you track him across yard. That should be all you need.

[Sean Setters]

I concur; missed focus.

[HDNitehawk]

Looks like an AF issue more than anything else. Your point of focus isn't the dog. You could have went faster than 1/1000 second though, ISO 200 wouldn't hurt anything but that isn't the issue.

You should be using AI servo so it tracks the dog. I am not sure what camera you have, as a basic when I use AI servo mode I use center point with surrounding assist points.

[Kombi]

Perhaps also take multiple shots as your dog is approaching.
fora a exagerated action shot, If you can pan your camera to match the speed of the subject you can blur the background and get the subject in focus


harder with our dogs as they are often running directly towards us.

[JJphoto]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazing_...ream/lightbox/

I shot this hand held with my 70-200 f/2.8L II with IS on at 110mm, f/3.5, 1/1000sec, ISO 100. I know my dog is in motion and the softness is from his movement, but I'd like to know what I can do to get him more sharp. Thanks in advance.

if your camera body is Rebal, 5D or 5DII.., it's tough to get a good shot of a running dog. i ues 7D for exsaple, set camera to Al Servo, and high burst rate, shuter speed usually faster than1/1200, depending on the light, use smaller aptrue if still can use faster shuter speed.i know some people like to manully set up their exposure, and company with Auto ISO.
when taking picture of the running dog, try to keep the focus point on dog's eyes,and take s burst of at least 5-6 shots and need a little practice. also you can compare which will make the picture sharper when IS is on or off. I personaly turn it off when shoot BIF.
faster shuter speed 9faster is better)and properly focus on the subjuct is the key to get good result.just my 2 cents.

[Mpieris]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. My body is a 5DII. I will try the AI servo mode and take a burst of shots to try and land one that is sharp. I'll speed up the shutter as well to see if it helps.

[Mpieris]

Here are a few shots with AI servo mode set (same 5DII body and 70-200 lens with IS on... Oh yeah and same dog in between hair cuts ��):

Shot at f/2.8 at 168mm, ISO500, 1/320sec
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazing_...ream/lightbox/

Shot at f/3.2 at 168mm, ISO500, 1/1000sec
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazing_...ream/lightbox/

at f/5 at 200mm, ISO200, 1/2000sec
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazing_...ream/lightbox/

I think the sharpness on the last is better than the first two. All 3 are still sharper than the original post which i can credit you guys and the AI servo setting. These were shot on different days with different lighting. The first two were shot in the shade. Appreciate your comments and feedback on whether there is anything I can do to improve the sharpness further.

[ahab1372]

One thing that I learned here is that you also want to turn on all AF points ( at least on cameras that only have a few)

Arnt

[Busted Knuckles]

Lesson number .5
feet and wheels move faster than the dog, human, car... great examples in the shots in this thread. the go cart wheels are blurred even thought the body is sharp because of the differences in the direction and type of motion. A runners feet are also good examples, when in contact with the ground, (assuming the camera is connected to the ground by tripod or photographer) they are motionless relative to the camera, at the top of the wheel or the runners stride they are traveling very much faster than the object they are attached to. If you want to see this phenomena in slow motion/mega scale watch the treads of a bulldozer or walk along beside one keeping track of a single tread. Adding to the complexity - if you really want to... put the camera in motion... you get my thought??? Einstein said it first - motion is relative... and we don't get to pick our relatives.

This is one of the complexities of shooting cars/runners - who do you want the wheels/feet to look?

Rolling shutter effect - photoing dragsters at the end of their run, even using film, you can get a rolling shutter effect, top of the wheel/car is at a different position by the time the slit of the shutter blades expose it compared to the bottom of the wheel/car. Sometimes this cool, sometimes not - which is the car "leaning". This will happen with anything moving really fast... relative to the shutter blades. Remember the shutter is only really all the way open up to 250th or so, then it becomes a traveling slit (someone will double check me on the precise speeds) this is typically a notch faster than the fastest flash sync speed.

If you can use a flash to "stop the action" with little/no exposure coming from ambient (natural/existing) light the leaning/rolling effect can be largely done away with.

Happy shooting!!!!

Here are a few shots with AI servo mode set (same 5DII body and 70-200 lens with IS on... Oh yeah and same dog in between hair cuts ��):

Shot at f/2.8 at 168mm, ISO500, 1/320sec
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazing_...ream/lightbox/

Shot at f/3.2 at 168mm, ISO500, 1/1000sec
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazing_...ream/lightbox/

at f/5 at 200mm, ISO200, 1/2000sec
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazing_...ream/lightbox/

I think the sharpness on the last is better than the first two. All 3 are still sharper than the original post which i can credit you guys and the AI servo setting. These were shot on different days with different lighting. The first two were shot in the shade. Appreciate your comments and feedback on whether there is anything I can do to improve the sharpness further.