Processionals

Hello All

I am a photographer who knows a lot about digital cameras and technique, but am still having trouble with keeping the processionals in focus while they are walking down the aisle.

Many instructors have stated that they are photographing processionals at 1/60th at f/4.5. How are they keeping these processionals in such sharp tact?

Even at 1/200th, and I know that is really dark, but I still get blurriness.

Does anyone have any advice on maybe focus settings, etc.? Thank you.

A bit more info would help:
- what equipment are you using?
- what settings are you using (ISO, aperture, etc. You mentioned only the shutter speed)
- using flash or not?
- what is the lighting condition where the procession takes place (e.g. in a dark church, etc)?

1/200th of a second is very fast for the shutter speed. I thus suspect that you must use a wide aperture if you want any light to hit the sensor (unless you are outside)! Using a wide aperture, you have to be very careful as to where you are focusing as the depth of field is very shallow.

My other explanation is that you may get very underexposed shots and when you try to recuperate then in PP, you get noisy shots which can decrease the perceived sharpness of the image.

Probably a focus tracking issue. Are you using one shot AF? Probably need one of the servo modes.

linarms wrote in post #2131623
Probably a focus tracking issue. Are you using one shot AF? Probably need one of the servo modes.

I forgot to mention that one, but yes, it could be an issue. If you focus w/o a servo mode, you need to take the shot right away. If you wait, the subjects will have moved and will be out of focus. This is particularly important if you have a wide aperture (thus a shallow DOF).

its impossible to give you a exposure setting as every location is differently lit. AF is most likey the area you have to work on, but it will always be a poor exposure range unless you can use flash

My personal method is;
Prefocus on a pew end, set AI Focus, Frame the shot at the pew end and wait for the subject to enter the frame at the focus point then shoot. Then hit the focus button * and track them coming towards me, depending on the church I'll either be still and zooming out or moving backwards at the same pace as the couple. I'll be changing angle and shooting throughout this stage, trying to capture some different expressions. The first will be a keeper and any further sharp / interesting ones are a bonus.

If I can get shutter speeds higher than 1/60 without flash at a reasonable ISO I'll use it, otherwise I'll use the flash to freeze the action.