Can I ask for some action pic advise please

Bolerus · 27 Dec 2006 at 13:07

Hi all

A friend of mine is taking part in a charity soap box derby thing tomorrow, and has invited (well it's open to public spectators so really just suggested we might like to go) us to go watch.

I am planning on taking my camera and tripod (hope I can find room for it )

Can anybody give me a hint to what settings I shoudl be using for Action shots

my camera is an Olympus c-740 ultra zoom, which has fully manual modes (although I havent figured out how to manually focus yet)

We will be setting off aroun 10am tomorrow (thursday) so dont have a lot of time to learn how to do the action shots.

Thank you in advance for any tips / links etc

rpstewart · 27 Dec 2006 at 13:44

Firstly leave the tripod at home, you don't need it and it'll just be a pain to deal with.

There are two types of shot to be looking for in this sort of situation:

Panning Shots
These are the ones with the blurred background and the car/bike/bloke in a box in focus. They take a bit of practice to get right so don't try and use really slow shutter speeds until you're used to the technique. Stick the camera in Tv (shutter priority) mode and start with 1/250s. Pan with the action using the viewfinder or screen to make sure that the subject remains framed (don't try & zoom as well). Follow the subject and smoothly release the shutter as it comes past you. Keep panning after the shot has been taken so that you have a smooth movement from one side to the other.

Motion Stopping Shots
These shots tend to have less impact than panning unless the subject matter is correct. Rather than using a slow shutter speed to give the illusion of speed you use a high shutter speed (1/500s or faster) to freeze the action. If you try this with simple moving subject then chances are the image will look as if the subject is stationary which is not what you want. This type of image really only works with certain subjects - motocross, horses, crashes etc.

Bolerus · 27 Dec 2006 at 14:58

thanks m8, I will give it a go

would i be right in thinking that with the panning one, the slower the shutter speed, the more "motion" blur I will get?

rpstewart · 27 Dec 2006 at 15:14

Yeah, I should have mentioned to start reducing the shutter speed as you get familiar with the technique. You should be able to reliably pan at 1/125s after a short while, if you can get down to 1/60 you're doing well.

Joe T · 27 Dec 2006 at 17:32

^^^ what he said. Enjoy!

Bolerus · 27 Dec 2006 at 23:18

been playing about today with passing traffic, and sort of got the idea lol

should i be set on spot focus or area focus for the best effect?

Joe T · 28 Dec 2006 at 09:37

Bolerus said:
been playing about today with passing traffic, and sort of got the idea lol

should i be set on spot focus or area focus for the best effect?

I would imagine spot focus would be much better.

Nomisf · 28 Dec 2006 at 09:53

The best focus mode i would think would be C-AF if your camera can do it, and do it fairly quickly ( Continuous Auto Focus ). So that the subject doesnt go out of focus as it gets closer to you while going past.

Rgds,
Nomisf

mrgubby · 28 Dec 2006 at 11:45

When I'm doing panning shots I use manual focus. Select aperture/ISO to give you DOF to cover the track , set focus on the middle of the track then all you have to worry about is pointing the camera

(works for me at least)

number41 · 28 Dec 2006 at 12:13

I cant get the hang of motion blur

Each time I press the shutter, because you cant see the subject anymore I always end up blurring the shot!

I think next time I'll just use a really quick shutter speed and cheat by blurring the background in photoshop horizontally

Bolerus · 28 Dec 2006 at 19:06

well I am back from the event

Unfortunatly the pictures arent very good, which was not helped by location, the only place we could get that wasnt too crowded, was far too close to the "track" also I have some exposure problems that I woudl like some assistance on.

Only just got back so I havent reduced the size or popped them onto photobucket yet. I will do that tonight and post a couple of them, hopefully somebody can tell me where I was going wrong.

One thing I know i did wrong, I forgot (untill I was in the car coming home) to change to spot focus

<- idiot

but, that is what learning is all about, if the first time I went out to this kind of things, I got technicaly perfect shots, well where woudl the fun be in that lol