Why....does this happen

[boomer3297]

Hi All,

Hope you can help me. I took this at my daughter's(redhead) dance competition and many of the shots came out like this. Is it a result of a slow shutter speed or my Sigma 70-300 APO's inability to keep up with the action? The girl on the left is almost spot on? Should I use a different focusing method? Please help! By the way, They won the competition.
Thanks!

[René Damkot]

Shutterspeed is too slow to freeze the motion.
Use ISO 1600 next time. Then you'd had 1/200 s. Still barely fast enough, but better.

[Twitch1977]

This is a result of slow shutter speed and camera shake.

This is why people shell out money for the really expensive lenses.

Kurt

[narlus]

Originally Posted by Twitch1977

This is a result of slow shutter speed and camera shake.

This is why people shell out money for the really expensive lenses.

Kurt

but that expense is generally for large apertures, which wouldn't help in this case, as the DoF would too shallow to get all the dancers in focus.

[René Damkot]

... then again, an expensive lens would have preformed exactly the same at ISO 400; f/5.6

edit: Damn, Narlus beat me to it...

[JeffreyG]

Originally Posted by narlus

but that expense is generally for large apertures, which wouldn't help in this case, as the DoF would too shallow to get all the dancers in focus.

OP only wants one dancer in focus, so a faster lens would be fine.

[bphillips330]

Looking at the picture and the exif. your shutter speed is to slow! Unless you were on a tripod, even then 50th of a sec is pretty slow to stop actions. That is one of the limitations of that lens. I owened one too, till I invested in the 70-200 is. f5.6 is as wide as that lens goes. The only way to get faster shutter speeds at that apeture would be bump iso up to 800, if not 1600. You will get more grain in picture, but you will be able to keep the shutter speed above 150 (I thnk) Faster the shutter speed, more you will be able to stop the motion.

Why the first girl is in focus, and not your daughter, looks like focus is on her, maybe they moved and you camera originnaly locked focus on the other girl. Or the other girl happed to stop her head at just the right moment while your daughter was still moving.

[PhotosGuy]

Or the other girl happed to stop her head at just the right moment while your daughter was still moving.

Works for me.

[Mike R]

F/2.8 from a fast lens would have allowed for a faster shutter, I would guess that for dance, you need a minimum of 1/250, maybe faster and when focused on your daughter, she would have come out fine. With your current lens, you can raise your ISO to obtain a faster shutter speed. It will introduce noise into the shot but nothing that you wouldn't be able to clean up depending on the size print you want. For Sports,Dance and Theater, I use a 70-200 f/2.8L USM. The cost with shipping was about $1300. If I'm close I'll use my 85 f/1.8 @ f/2.2

[SuzyView]

Yes, I have shot many sports events with my sons now and I finally last year decided to get the 70-200 2.8 IS. I shoot at least 1/250 even indoors. It's good with ISO 2.8. But for really fast dancing, you cannot expect perfection, but with flash you have to sync and get it right. The 85 1.8 is what I use for indoor basketball if I can't bring the 70-200. That is very useful at f/2 and 1/250.

[boomer3297]

Thanks for the quick replies..... I had my camera set to AI focus but I guess the camera is slow to adjusting, would AI Servo be any better? Actually, I just looked at the manual and it suggests to set the camera to auto AF point and AI servo. Would you concur with this suggestion with your experiences?
Thanks again!

[JeffreyG]

Originally Posted by boomer3297

Thanks for the quick replies..... I had my camera set to AI focus but I guess the camera is slow to adjusting, would AI Servo be any better? Actually, I just looked at the manual and it suggests to set the camera to auto AF point and AI servo. Would you concur with this suggestion with your experiences?
Thanks again!

Boomer, the problem in your image is not a focus problem. I see girls both in front of and behind the target that are sharper than the target. This means all of the fuzziness on the target is because her head is moving faster than the shutter speed you had could freeze. You needed to shoot that scene with a shutter speed four times faster at a minimum.

As for focus, I never use auto point selection and I never use AI Focus. I would have shot the dancers with Servo focus and center point.

But again - your problem in that shot was not related to focussing.

[SkipD]

In addition to the suggestions above, timing is everything for an event like this. Spending time at their rehearsals could let you learn when there are moments of minimal movement (such as a moment when everyone is changing direction - capture the instant that the subjects are essentially stopped, even in mid-air).

[elysium]

Originally Posted by René Damkot

Shutterspeed is too slow to freeze the motion.
Use ISO 1600 next time. Then you'd had 1/200 s. Still barely fast enough, but better.

Yup that is pretty much what I would have said looking at the EXIF.

[lungdoc]

Other option is flash, if allowed (if not maybe at a rehearsal, pictures will be similar anyway). External flash, especially if you can bounce it, can work wonders and a lot cheaper than fast lenses.