Help with action shots, DOF issues?

I am just starting to learn how to shoot people and kids and it's tougher than I thought! I've been leaning on aperture priority but am still not getting what I want.

So what should I have done here? I realize my shutter speed is too low but I was afraid if I opened up my aperture anymore I'd lose depth of field and end up with some of them blurry. Is this purely a depth of field issue? I struggle with DOF. I saw a link someone posted regarding a calculator but I don't see that as feasible when actually out and about.

Thanks for the feedback. I'd really like to figure this out.

1/45 at f/8
focal length 85mm (new 85mm f/1.8 lens)
iso 800 (set on auto ISO)

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1/45 is too slow a shutter speed to freeze your subjects. You've got motion blur from them walking as much as anything else.

Your subjects are in a line parallel to the lens. DOF isn't a problem. If you shot them one in front of the other, then you'd have to be a bit more concerned.

Opening up to f/2.8 would have given you plenty of shutter speed.

Thank you both for your input...you've definitely made my wheels turn. I went out today and played some more and figured some things out (like to get my son to be in focus when he's running around takes 1/250). I was blaming large aperture for fuzziness issues I had with other pictures I had taken but I think it must have been the AF point I had selected...so with that...

It all led me to my next question which is when you're doing these high speed shots do you just rely on the auto-selection for the autofocus mode? You have to right?

Absolutely Not...

You're smarter than your camera and you need to tell it where you want focus to be.

I think you're interchanging focus and blur. Focus is all about the lens being adjusted for the distance you are from the subject. That's a separate subject.

Blur can be several things including subject motion and camera shake. I think you have both of those in the first shot. 1/45 is very slow for most people to hand-hold, especially if it's an 'action shot' with the subject moving. When I look around that image I can't see any area that seems really crisp. So what I'm saying is I bet you have camera shake going on.

You also have some motion blur but I think it's not as bad. Walking is a fairly slow thing to do so feet and fingers are the place where you will see most of it. Probably 1/60 would improve it and 1/100 would really make a difference.

IS will help the camera shake and a faster shutter will help both. You might try using the the 70-300 (to get IS) since you're not taking advantage of the aperture on the 85.

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #11328690
Absolutely Not...

You're smarter than your camera and you need to tell it where you want focus to be.

Absolutely. I don't always use center point focus, especially wide open. I know what I want to focus on, the camera doesn't.

Here's one at 1/250th at f/2.8. He was actually running. As you can see, there is minimal motion blur in his arms to give the sense of motion, but his face is in focus and not blurry.

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