Exeter racecourse

One of many shots taken today at Exeter races. I have a few queries regarding focusing. The scenario: shooting on a 20D with a 100/400 L. Camera on av setting on max wide aperture 5.6 iso 400 as the light was fading a bit
shutter speed 1200. I like the effect that max aperture has on the shot in terms of depth of field. The focusing is set to centre focus (one sqaure in the middle) and im on one shot with rapid fire. would this set up lead to focusing difficulties only quite a lot of shots seemed out of focus today. bit dissapointed but it was my first effort at horse racing with new digital gear any advice would be appreciated.

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I have found with shooting racehorses that the horse is going in one direction - forward but the jockey is going in another. What has worked for me is Manual/AI Servo/Center Focusing. Set the ISO for the light available and the aperture for the distance and see what's left with speed. Horses aren't going that fast compared to racecars so speed isn't that big of a deal. 1200 seems too fast. 500 should work fine which will give you more room on the aperture setting. Also, if you can position yourself so the subject is coming more towards you than in front. Check out pictues by gmen...he's got it.

Gazza

The shot is fine - it just lacks a little sharpening in post processing. You shouldn't consider shots out of the camera a done deal by any means, particularly where sharpening is concerned, as shots do tend to come out of the camera looking a little soft. You can adjust the amount of sharpening in your camera, but many people would advocate turning off sharpening altogether and deal with it in processing for the best results. I can't show you a sharpened version of your pic as my hosting is down at the moment, but it will sharpen quite appreciably. Have a look at those shots from today again, you may have more keepers than you think.

A1 servo is the best focusing method for this type of shot - you need to get the subject in the viewfinder early and keep it there as you track the subject to give the focus system time to lock on.

But if you're anticipating taking a shot over a jump like that, why not manually focus on the jump and wait for the high point of the action?

Thanks guys for the input theres a lot to think about there. I did consider the manual focosing thing when I was having a post mortem on the shots, will try that next time.How does the sharpening thing in photoshop elements work ? I would like to see the gmen pics how do Isee them ? Will be doing a more in the new year with point to point racing coming up to put these ideas into practice.

These are using AI Focus with the 300D.Trust it. You should get better results with the 20D. If you manual focus, then try pre-focusing on a point where you expect the action to be. Best not try focusing on the fly at first.

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