Dock diving

Not sure if this is where to ask, but here goes. I have never tried AI Servo and I am going to try to shoot dock diving dogs. I use the * button for focusing, do I just set camera to AI Servo and the five fps option (don't remember the official name) and just let er rip, or am I missing something?

To keep the AI Servo working make sure you keep pressing down on the * button for the duration of the burst. If you pull your thumb off after the first shot, then the focus will remain on what was in focus on the first shot and the rest may not be in focus. Also you don't mention if you are using the center point for function, but if you are, try and keep this on the subject as well. If your backgrounds don't matter too much, use an aperture to maximize DOF, again to try and hit as much focus as possible. If your BGs are cluttered, try and use an aperture of 2.8 or as low as you can to blur BG and keep subject in focus.

Thanks that is exactly what I was looking for. I always use center point and I had not really thought about aperture other than I want to keep the dog in focus. I was going to start with 2.8 on my 70-200, but you gave good advice as far as stopping down. will that increase the chances of the dog staying in focus or does it not matter?

Mike McCusker wrote in post #6157549
Thanks that is exactly what I was looking for. I always use center point and I had not really thought about aperture other than I want to keep the dog in focus. I was going to start with 2.8 on my 70-200, but you gave good advice as far as stopping down. will that increase the chances of the dog staying in focus or does it not matter?

of course it will - smaller aperture will yield a greater depth of field.

Mike McCusker wrote in post #6157549
Thanks that is exactly what I was looking for. I always use center point and I had not really thought about aperture other than I want to keep the dog in focus. I was going to start with 2.8 on my 70-200, but you gave good advice as far as stopping down. will that increase the chances of the dog staying in focus or does it not matter?

Depending on how close you are to the dog, f/2.8 may get only the front/center of the dog in good focus. There may be an interesting effect to experiment with there, but in general I tend to use around f/5.6 for this type of thing -- subject in focus, background soft. Of course, that's assuming that you're shooting in good enough light to guarantee a fast enough shutter speed.

Thanks Tony the forecast is for sunny skies so I should be ok. Thanks again for the 2.8 advice I kind of thought I might get into trouble with that setting.