Tennis shots but not sharp, how come ?

[kayintveen]

I've photographed a tennis trounament this weekend but having some problems with the sharpness of the pictures. im not quite happy with them. im not sure if its my technique, camera or maybe backfocus of the lens

i **** with a eos 40d
with a 70-200 2.8/L IS on ai servo and sometimes i tried just normal focus.
but both same results. please let me know what you think

http://www.kayintveen.com/_MG_3782.jpg
http://www.kayintveen.com/_MG_4715.jpg
http://www.kayintveen.com/_MG_3886.jpg


http://www.kayintveen.com/_MG_3782.CR2
http://www.kayintveen.com/_MG_4715.CR2
http://www.kayintveen.com/_MG_3886.CR2

[FIXXER04]

Try these: center point autofocus selection, AV or aperture priority and continue to shoot wide open @ 2.8. Play with your iso to keep shutter speed around 1/1200 or higher and shoot as tight as you can.

[slider2828]

I was shooting with the exact same setup, but as you can tell the sky was overcast. It can be a lower light setting than if you were shooting in the bright sun. It like perfect conditions, 1/250 is the best I have found for motorsports, but once its overcast like in your conditions, with shadows and stuff, you gotta increase shutter speeds to like 1/640. Also since you want to capture the WHOLE person including racquet and stuff, your DOF needs deeper? (opposite of shallow)... So I would at least do F4 in those conditions, F10 or 11 is bright sunny day. You just gotta play around with it, but more time behind the lens helps....

[bigv616]

quick shutter speed is key, to freeze the action with relatively clear ball, I have to go up to 1/3200 or 1/4000, sometime just have to bump ISO to get hight speed. Another problem could be with your lens, you should turn IS off, it is not useful for sports. 70-200mm F2.8 IS is also known for its softness wide open.

[kayintveen]

Thanks guys!
but if you read the exif you see i used shutters like 2000 to a few times even 8000. i used 2.8 and 4. still no sharp images.

will test my lens today for back or front focus to be sure

[slider2828]

Also what are your settings ON the lens?

are you using 2.8-infi? (helps a lot with focusing)
IS should remain on imho
Stabilizer on 2?

God I hate photobucket......

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c242/gaert/Bike%20for%20Breath%202009/EDIT_IMG_4306071209.jpg?t=1247515058

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c242/gaert/Bike%20for%20Breath%202009/EDIT_IMG_4296071209.jpg

[mikeassk]

Have you ever used this lens before?
By the sounds of things it seems as though you are unhappy for the soft shots but are surprised. Are you surprised because the lens has performed flawlessly before in non sports shooting?

[mikeassk]

Also what are your settings ON the lens?

are you using 2.8-infi? (helps a lot with focusing)
IS should remain on imho
Stabilizer on 2?

God I hate photobucket......



IS makes zero difference. On or off it does nothing at these shutter speeds.

[40Dude6aedyk]

When you have a chain-link fence behind the player, the lens will focus on that. Also note that the depth-of-field can be very narrow if the lens is wide-open. Since the player is such a tiny part of the picture, I would not be surprised your lens was not focussed on the player. It's hard to get focus on such a small area. I only looked at the first pic because ...

You have the jpeg's in your post, but my browser just shows the filenames and not the pics, so maybe you didn't link them in.

[bigjon0107]

IS makes zero difference. On or off it does nothing at these shutter speeds.

Actually, i have heard and seen that if you take a frame right when the IS kicking on or while shifting, it will produce a softer image.

[mikeassk]

^ I would love to see those results.

[slider2828]

Also probably she doing the 9 field focus and not point focus, I think trying that would help.

[kayintveen]

i had focus point in the middle. the hard thing is that i can only see this ammount of sharpness when checking it on the computer. i think i need a 1d mark III to see on screen if the image is perfect sharp am i correct?


my lens settings where 1.4m focus distance
is on mode 1
AF of course