Tips/settings for paintball?

[Wobble]

I play.. or played till I hurt my knee.. now Ive taken to shooting pics of my team and have almost as much fun, at least enough to get me by till after my knee surgery..

anywho..

I was wondering if anyone covers paintball events and whatnot, and what settings you use..

for example ive been using AI servo, ISO 400 and shutter priority of 1000 have had "ok" results....

but what im most interested in is metering.. cneter weighted? evaluative?.. whichs is probably better..

I notice in many of my pics insted the person im shooting is out of focus because the camera chose to focus on a bunker in the foreground..

any tips, ideas.. etc etc?

I use a 350 D with a Sigma 55-200DC though im fixing to order a EF 70-200L which I figure will work much better..

anyway, thanks for any advice.

[Wobble]

http://pages.suddenlink.net/ja001son/joeshot.jpg

this is an example of one of the pics that is ok but could have been VERY nice.. if the camera had focused properly.. you can tell more of the focus was on the bunker thanthe player, causing alot of the "splatter" to be out of focus..



oh yea, another question.. the "AI SERVO" seems to work.. "ok" thus far.. it definatly TRIES to track and stay in focus.. but for example if someone is running across the field and I shoot 10 shots.. 2 or 3 will be somewhat out of focus.. will upgrading to the L lense help this any, or is a limitation of the body?

[bigjon0107]

oh yea, another question.. the "AI SERVO" seems to work.. "ok" thus far.. it definatly TRIES to track and stay in focus.. but for example if someone is running across the field and I shoot 10 shots.. 2 or 3 will be somewhat out of focus.. will upgrading to the L lense help this any, or is a limitation of the body?
This is a combination of the lens and the body. The 350D is definitely not known for its auto focus system by any means. As for the lens, the AF motor could be a little slow, but in the described case, i would be a pretty safe bet that it is the body's AF system.

As for settings, i use AV, that way i can control my DOF and in essence the effect of the photo.

But one of the most common mistakes that i see in paintball shooting would be that the photog shoots down on the player. Try getting down on a knee or even laying down. Just that angle will greatly improve many shots.

Just a little something but there are MANY more people on this forum that have much more experience shooting paintball then i do.

-Jon

[Wobble]

well Im hoping the tracking improves with the better glass, the lense I was using tends to hunt alot anyway..

[Rickiii]

I play.. or played till I hurt my knee.. now Ive taken to shooting pics of my team and have almost as much fun, at least enough to get me by till after my knee surgery...

Sounds familiar. I ended up fracturing my knee, and messing up my hip. So, not much playing for me lately.

Since I am going through pretty much the same with my settings, I am hoping to get some good info out of this thread.

[HoRnYTuRbO]

nice splat! as for the OOF looks like ur lens hunt whens its focusing on a dark spot. Does this happen with light color jerseys?

my setting are AV, AI servo, ISO 200-400 and evaluate

[Suicidenote]

nice capture of the "splat".

I've played but never shot paintball before, but will say that the best PB pics I've seen are usually cropped pretty tight.

[Rickiii]

Anyone else care to share?

For me it seems that AV works the best. I need to drop my ISO down a bit

[nyy]

I've photographed paintball about 8 times. I prefer AV, and usually shoot at the largest aperture possible. This obviously gives you a small dof, and the fastest shutter speed. ISO depends on the conditions, though I usually use 400.

I find myself having to compensate constantly because when bunkers get covered in paint, they tend to reflect a lot of light and throw my metering off.
http://jpegd.com/Photos/Paintball/APL63007/sample4.jpg
http://jpegd.com/Photos/Paintball/APL63007/sample3.jpg

[yoyoboy]

Turn you camera, 90% of the time you should be shooting in portrait, the exceptions being for breakouts, full body shots of people crawling in the snake, and sometimes when for bunkering.
I usually use center point focus, running off the back button. not sure what setting this is on a rebel. Nice splat!

[OCPickle]

I have to politely disagree with yoyoboy on the portrait mode. Although I think it is important to remember to shoot in portrait I think landscape lends itself to paintball more. The reason being is that many players are squating down with their guns horizontal. Not to mention it is easier to catch balls in midflight in the landscape mode. That being said, I think more photogs need to shoot in portrait more.

[pbpancho]

I have to politely disagree with yoyoboy on the portrait mode. Although I think it is important to remember to shoot in portrait I think landscape lends itself to paintball more. The reason being is that many players are squating down with their guns horizontal. Not to mention it is easier to catch balls in midflight in the landscape mode. That being said, I think more photogs need to shoot in portrait more.

One of the big reasons people advocate portrait is for magazines. Portrait shots make for full page photos without any cropping, and I know some editors prefer them in many cases. I know when I am shooting for a magazine I make an effort to shoot more portrait than when I am just shooting for a website or myself.

[OCPickle]

Yes pbmags tend to like portrait shots more but not exclusively. I didn't go there because that was not what the OP was asking. See you in the middle :D