focus conundrum .. how would you shoot & focus this?

fast action - (usually) moving foreground interference - (usually) harsh light (all day)

Just about every exposure/noise/action/​contrast/focus challange a photographer could face.

Up close - I don't think these are good enough. They were shot on manual w/ 30D / ISO 500 / 1/800 / F9 / Canon 55-200 @95mm. AF was AI servio. (and out of frustration, I switched to AI .. but it didn't make any difference... the shots w/o the foreground interference (the cow or turn back rider) seemed to focus on the back of the saddle area). (in the image below, the red X is dead center.. ) (hmm.. actually.. maybe I'm just getting a lot of motion blur?.. )

How would you shoot this? (85 riders @ 2.5 mins ea all day) .. oh.. and yes, I do use the motordrive (depending on how the horse is working .. if it's a real animated run, I shoot more) .. with that many shots, you're not going to want to shoot RAW, are you?

Aw crumb.. I can't seem to get the images to come up, darn it. well, until I get it figured out.. look at the links (if they come up as links)

I've tried to edit three times and can't get them to come up... so I guess (if you want to see cutting pix), you'll have to copy and paste. ... sorry.

http://render-2.snapfish.com …CRup6ePe%7C/of=​50,494,443

http://render-2.snapfish.com …CRup6aQQ%7C/of=​50,342,442

u need to relink your images. They're not showing up

well, there's many a thread here on shooting sports and they all tend to have a common theme in terms of basics. here's the reader's digest version of how I'd have shot this.

First, make sure you are on center point and manual. with the bright lighting and highly contrasting subjects, anything else will just not end well. I'd also be careful how you metered to get your settings. A gray card or incident meter would be key in such brightly lit conditions to get it right. AI Servo was the correct mode so leave it there. I do think I would have shot it wide open at f4.5 (I think that's right for the 55-200) though then used a much higher shutter speed to capture the movement and reduce light. You would have added stops of shutter speed and been much better off imo. I really can't understand the use of 500ISO AND f9 at the same time.

Other than that, the only other thing I'd have done would be to switch to single shot rather than bursts and really work on timing and keeping your focus point right on your subject. It definitely won't work to use bursts to compensate for a poorly placed focus pt. (I'm not saying you did this, just pointing it out.) Single shot often forces you to be a little more vigilant about this, hence my suggestion.

Thanks Scott. I've been reading, looking, studying the sports posts for weeks but hadn't come across any foreground interference issues.

I didn't centerweight my focus because so many times, the center is empty if you want to get the cow in the shot... and the riders want the cow in the shot. (horse is on one side of the frame.. cow on the other side = center is empty) .. but it does make sense what you said. .. I've been shooting for the entire scene... but I think at the next show, I'll be more dilligent about centering the horse's head. I do some single shots... but use the drive, like I said, when a horse is really animated. (also.. don't forget.. that an animal can move faster than a person can process a thought.. which is why you see the rider watching the cow. .. it gives them a split second head start to know how their horse will probably react) (I use to show cutting horses... one of the first things you learn is if you don't keep your eye on the cow, odds are pretty good you'll end up on your horse's neck or on the ground.. they move/react *that* fast) (just mentioning this to provide a little more info .. the subject positions are much less predictable than jumpers or many other sports)

It looks like maybe I compromised too much. For this show, I was trying to set the iso as low as possible (because of noise).. but still get a 'fast enough' shutter speed to stop the action .. and because of the focus problems I've been having, as deep a dof as I could get considering the other settings. .. as it turns out, you're probably right.. a faster shutter speed would probably have been a good idea. I've got about 12 or 14 more shows to shoot.. so I'll get an opportunity to try other things to improve. Thanks.

(btw.. my photos showed up in the preview... but didn't show up when I hit the post button .... so I just changed them to links)

Hey Scott... I just looked at your site. I see that you **know** all about that foreground interference! (looking at the hockey pix) LOL... I'll definately give your recommendations a try.. thanks again)

To make links show up here I do the following. Paste the link into the message then post it, I then go back and edit the post and change the [URL] tags to [IMG]. There might be a better way but this works for me.

Dave

Thanks Dave. .. lemme give that a try. (ok.. I'm on my fifth try.. maybe it just doesn't like snapfish)

HTTP response: 403

I just changed from snapfish to photobucket.. to see if that makes a difference:

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

Dale has some great backlit shots.. I tried some.. but again, the focus was giving me grief: (hey, I'm starting to hang my head in shame here... but it's got to get better, right?)

Playm wrote in post #5355592
Hey Scott... I just looked at your site. I see that you **know** all about that foreground interference! (looking at the hockey pix) LOL... I'll definately give your recommendations a try.. thanks again)

yeah, and hoops can be even worse. shooting baseline, you wind up with the backside of the referees as often as peak action some games. Between us here, I think they conspire against us sometimes .

If you want to get the cow and rider but have dead open space, consider framing as you want it to look but simply changing from ctr. pt. to a peripheral point on your subject. Still single pt. but located correctly, you should be good to go.

Don't give up in frustration. As mentioned above, the combination of ISO/F was a bit weird. you certainly need to opent he lens up some more and get some higher shutter speeds. That will certainly help. Also take heed to the center focus only. I shoot MK2's and while Canon gives me 45 awesome focus points, for most situations that's exactly 44 too many!

I think in some ways you are probably also starting to see some of the limitations of a consumer-level camera. (pro-sumer?) I thinkthat the servo focus on this camera is probably being taxed by the fast moving subjects, but with technique you could work with it. A pro body also allows you to set how fast the system reacts to a focus change. You can set it so it essentially ignores a passing item. I don't know if that feature is avaialble on your 30d. It would be in the custom functions.

You might also try custom function #4, and set focus to the back-button. It will take you a couple hours to get used to it, but you might never go back. This essentially allow you to control when the focus is active. Like having the ability to instantly switch back and forth between manual and automatic focus. In this situation it might not hel pas the rider is far from static, but it might help control when or if the focus shifts.

In the end, keep practicing. The more you practice the better you'll get this nailed down.

Thanks Road2Show. .. Yeah.. I'll need to upgrade (after I recover from the IRS) ugh. .. and that other info is interesting. .. I only recently switched over to dslr for a project (book) that I'm working on. ... shooting the cuttings wasn't an issue at the time.. but *alas* I'm sorry I didn't originally get better equipment. *smack myself in the forehead*

I'm going to post a link to a little video that my shooting buddy shot. (it was raining/misting that day) .. I'll post it so the viewers can pretend that *You are the photographer* at this event. .. anyway, some of you might get a kick out of the video: http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=9CR0ixcdKmc