5D Mark III AF settings

themadman wrote in post #14236163
It won't increase your shutter speed (up to 1/200 anyways), but without going into the details, it doesn't matter. Your flash speed becomes your new effective shutter speed.

1. Go into manual.
2. Set your SS to 1/200
3. Set your aperture to f4
4. Set your ISO to 400-800 (should be relatively noise free on the 5D3)
5. Put on your flash, and bounce off ceiling or wall.

EDIT: Here is a shot taken with more or less the settings I explained. It is one of my cats jumping around. Faster than your kid I guarantee

EDIT 2: I realized the above shot was taken with the 7D so here is one taken with the 5D3

Thanks will. This is what I mean when you are using flash you don't have to shoot at 1/50 you can shoot at 1/200 at ISO 400 with the flash set to 1/4 bounce of the ceiling

4x4rock wrote in post #14236173
The shutter speed is way to low. At 1/50, you'll get motion blur at any rate. Some suggested using flash which can help with freezing the action but it'll not help increase the shutter speed.

Another thing is add more lights

Short of getting a real fast lens for this type of photographs, you have to either increase lights or use flash.

If your using flash you can increase your shutter speed to maximum speed sync which on the 5D3 is 1/200

With a flash you probably will want to keep the shutter speed low and not increase it to let in ambient light

dynamitetony wrote in post #14236318
With a flash you probably will want to keep the shutter speed low and not increase it to let in ambient light

Why do you want ambient light? Just causes more motion blur.

Getting a faster lens isn't really a total solution in that light, either.

One stop faster with an f/2.8 zoom...that's not enough. Three stops to an f/1.4 prime...and then your DoF is clearly too small to hit in the example shot (his shoulder would be in focus but that's about it).

themadman wrote in post #14236151
Three solutions, one free, two cost money.

1. (free) Become more tolerant of noise.

2. Get a flash (best option for indoor photography IMO)

3. Get a faster lens. (aka has a larger max aperture, f4 isn't exactly huge)

4. Buy more light fixtures and/or brighter bulbs.

themadman wrote in post #14236332
Why do you want ambient light? Just causes more motion blur.

To look more natural

Otherwise it would look like an obvious flash shot

Look at the cats. Lots of ambient light and no problem with blur

dynamitetony wrote in post #14236414
To look more natural

Otherwise it would look like an obvious flash shot

Look at the cats. Lots of ambient light and no problem with blur

Cats were shot at 1/200, essentially making the flash the main source of light in those cat shots, which will stop motion, which is why they are nice and crisp.

When you are at 1/50, ISO10000, there's too much ambient lighting hitting the subject, especially in the OP's example, hence you get motion blur.

dynamitetony wrote in post #14236231
You don't need a faster shutter speed if you use a flash

The flash will freeze the action

...and this is only partially true.

Flash will freeze the action, provided it's the main source of light for your subject.

themadman wrote in post #14236163
It won't increase your shutter speed (up to 1/200 anyways), but without going into the details, it doesn't matter. Your flash speed becomes your new effective shutter speed.

1. Go into manual.
2. Set your SS to 1/200
3. Set your aperture to f4
4. Set your ISO to 400-800 (should be relatively noise free on the 5D3)
5. Put on your flash, and bounce off ceiling or wall.

EDIT: Here is a shot taken with more or less the settings I explained. It is one of my cats jumping around. Faster than your kid I guarantee

EDIT 2: I realized the above shot was taken with the 7D so here is one taken with the 5D3

Thank you very much William .
Your steps did it for me. I tried my flash just to see the overall photo and i liked it. I need to practice more I think.

Great shots by the way and beautiful cats. Can you tell us your PP for the second shot. And what case of AF did you use and which AF point selection did you use?

The flash would be the main source and obviously shutter speed would depend on the individual environment

All I was saying was to keep some ambient light

dynamitetony wrote in post #14236414
To look more natural

Otherwise it would look like an obvious flash shot

Look at the cats. Lots of ambient light and no problem with blur

He took the cat shots...

He shot at 1/200 with the flash bounced.

dynamitetony wrote in post #14236485
The flash would be the main source and obviously shutter speed would depend on the individual environment

All I was saying was to keep some ambient light

Depends on the ambient light.

If you have typical household tungsten lighting, the color balance between the flash and ambient might conflict. You might get a properly exposed subject with good color temp but with a background with ugly yellow/orange cast. Of course you can gel your flash to counter act this, but then why bother with house hold snap shots?

Really depends on the look you are going for.

So is it better to not let ambient in and have a dark or black background?

dynamitetony wrote in post #14236485
The flash would be the main source and obviously shutter speed would depend on the individual environment

All I was saying was to keep some ambient light

The challenge with ambient light and flash is the ambient light can cause some blur. If the flash is bounced correctly it should look relatively natural. I understand what you are getting at, but you just have to be careful when mixing ambient light and flash when shooting fast moving subjects.

dynamitetony wrote in post #14236574
So is it better to not let ambient in and have a dark or black background?

When indoors, a well bounced flash can create the illusion of ambient light. Depends on the room I guess.

Sniper258 wrote in post #14236482
Thank you very much William .
Your steps did it for me. I tried my flash just to see the overall photo and i liked it. I need to practice more I think.

Great shots by the way and beautiful cats. Can you tell us your PP for the second shot. And what case of AF did you use and which AF point selection did you use?

Thanks for the compliments. Those shots have little PP. Just white balance adjustment and whatever default sharpening happens in Lightroom.

As for AF settings (I am still learning the 5D3 af myself so don't take these as the gospel) I used "case 6" but I moved the tracking sensitivity one to the left. I also have both AI servo image priority on focus, not speed. As for what points I used, I use the group setting where you get 9-12 points. I find this is useful for fast moving subjects. I am sure someone more skilled than I can get away with just one tho