My First Photos - Advice?

[DaytonaJoe]

Hey guys, I received my first DSLR in the mail yesterday along with a 50mm 1.8 and some [possibly counterfeit] memory cards. I have little in the way of experience with photography - most of what I know has been learned by reading this forum.

Of course I jumped into one of the most challenging topics, IMO, sports. Particularly I've always wanted to photograph skateboarding. I woke up this morning and the sun was shining, so off I went with a friend and his skateboard.

I quickly found that it's relatively easy to take good shots with a fast shutter speed, but when I tried to create motion blur and keep the subject in focus it was much more difficult. I felt like I was panning very well, but apparently not well enough. I'll give you some examples of what I took with fast shutter vs. slower.

All of the shots were taken in the "H" burst mode with either AI focus or AI servo. I am still not really sure on the difference between these, but AI focus snaps off pictures much more quickly. What is the real difference? I tried to keep ISO low because it was so sunny out and I wanted to minimize noise, but is there an advantage to shooting a little higher? I was using 100 for these.

Finally, these are not straight out of the camera. I did a little curves work and some sharpening.

The first shot is an example of what happened when I tried to use a slow shutter speed (1/60) and pan after the rider, while the second one was with a faster shutter (1/1250). So what can I do to improve my motion-blurred shots and keep the subject in focus?

[polarbare]

AI Focus is designed to allow the camera to select between one shot and AI Servo mode. I can't think of anyone who uses it because it seems to never work quite the way it's supposed to. For action shots like you're doing most people will be using AI Servo for focusing, and most of them will be using the "*" button for focus. This can be achieved using custom functions in you camera (assuming Canon DSLR since you didn't specify what camera.)

AI Focus has nothing to do with the single shot vs. continuous shooting mode, the speed for which is constant regardless of AI Focus or AI Servo.

As far as your shot on the left, you just need to keep practicing your pans and you'll see the quality improve on that.

[DaytonaJoe]

There's no difference in speed between the two? I must have changed something else in the process of switching between AI focus and servo, because I definitely saw an increase in FPS.

Thanks for the response. Natick massachusetts! I'm from plymouth, used to date a girl from Natick.

By the way its a Canon 40d.

[clarence]

On the panning shot, you'll get better results when the motion stays the same distance from you from the beginning of the pan to the end of the pan... e.g., from left-to-right or right-to-left (or up-down).

In your shot, the subject's board is moving away from you. So you just get motion blur. If he was rolling left-right, you'd get a better pan.

On both, avoid amputating fingers (or hands or arms...) and watch your backgrounds... with trees and skies as nice as those, try to avoid cars and houses in the bg if possible.

Looks like you're on the right track... taking lots of pictures, practicing, post processing, posting, and learning.

[DaytonaJoe]

On the panning shot, you'll get better results when the motion stays the same distance from you from the beginning of the pan to the end of the pan... e.g., from left-to-right or right-to-left (or up-down).

In your shot, the subject's board is moving away from you. So you just get motion blur. If he was rolling left-right, you'd get a better pan.

On both, avoid amputating fingers (or hands or arms...) and watch your backgrounds... with trees and skies as nice as those, try to avoid cars and houses in the bg if possible.

Looks like you're on the right track... taking lots of pictures, practicing, post processing, posting, and learning.

Actually, he is moving left to ride - he's sliding the board out perpendicular to direction of travel. I agree with the second part though, I've had a hard time getting the shots framed just right.

[rdompor]

It's likely that AI Servo wasn't very successful for you because you have some setting enabled that only allows the camera to shoot when it is locked on a target. The difference between AI Servo and AI Focus is that Servo will TRACK a MOVING subject (it follows the subject) where AI Focus will continually LOCK onto a subject (it will lock, wait until it realizes the subject has moved and then focus and lock again).

As for your shots, I would've liked to see the skater's face in the first one. Faces are VERY important in sports photos because that's where a lot of the emotion is. For the second one I suggest you practice timing your shots for the peak of the action. Firing a burst of shots is convenient, but even then you're likely to miss the peak action if you simply "spray and pray". Anticipate the peak moment and then capture it. In this case, the peak moment is when the skater has sucked up his legs in the ollie and has reached his maximum height.

Another tip I'll give for when the subject matter isn't too interesting: Your skater doesn't seem very skilled (he's trying to ollie on grass ;) ) and doesn't really make for a great photo. Finding a different angle to shoot from will create a much more interesting image. Shoot/frame/catch/highlight winning features of the subject in a way that most people do not normally see them. That is how you draw attention and create great photographs.

[DaytonaJoe]

It's likely that AI Servo wasn't very successful for you because you have some setting enabled that only allows the camera to shoot when it is locked on a target. The difference between AI Servo and AI Focus is that Servo will TRACK a MOVING subject (it follows the subject) where AI Focus will continually LOCK onto a subject (it will lock, wait until it realizes the subject has moved and then focus and lock again).

As for your shots, I would've liked to see the skater's face in the first one. Faces are VERY important in sports photos because that's where a lot of the emotion is. For the second one I suggest you practice timing your shots for the peak of the action. Firing a burst of shots is convenient, but even then you're likely to miss the peak action if you simply "spray and pray". Anticipate the peak moment and then capture it. In this case, the peak moment is when the skater has sucked up his legs in the ollie and has reached his maximum height.

Another tip I'll give for when the subject matter isn't too interesting: Your skater doesn't seem very skilled (he's trying to ollie on grass ;) ) and doesn't really make for a great photo. Finding a different angle to shoot from will create a much more interesting image. Shoot/frame/catch/highlight winning features of the subject in a way that most people do not normally see them. That is how you draw attention and create great photographs.

Thanks for the excellent advise. Yeah, he's more of a surfer than a skater, and I don't have any zooms yet. We did a couple of shots during the same shoot where I would lay down on the ground and have him jump off a hill in front of me so all that was in the frame was his body and the sky. They looked pretty cool but that was when I was having trouble with the focus, so they were all too blurry.