Shooting Rowers?

[Guitarman0]

I am going to a regatta this weekend (which I would be competing in had I not injured my back ) but I thought I might as well use the opportunity to take a few photos of my mates competing with my new 550D. I currently only have the 18-55mm kit lens which I realise is far from ideal, especially for sports photography but I have a few questions

1) Do you recommend shooting in aperture priority, shutter priority or manual?

2) What sort of a shutter speed should I look to use if I want the boat and the rower to be in focus but want the rowing blades to be blurred?

3) What sort of shutter speed should I look to use if I want everything to be sharp including the blades?

Just as a reference in case some of you aren't sure what sort of speed the rowers are moving, here is a video (skip to 4:48, I am the guy at the back of the boat )

Thanks!

 

[Nexus]

If the look you want is a blurred background with a pan, you probably want shutter speed priority. They may be going quickly, but they aren't going that fast. I'd say it's akin to being slower than a cyclist, so you could use a pretty low shutter speed. With no IS though, you probably should use a tripod or monopod.

You are only going to achieve this style at the point which they pass directly by you. So if you need to take other pictures of them before they get to you, you will need to be able to change your settings on the fly... or have another camera ready.

There is then the fact that your lens probably won't be long enough, given that you are stood on the shore. Even though you could probably frame the whole boat, I'd imagine that wouldn't make such a good panned photo.

I've never shot any rowing, but I think the ideal shot would be to use a telephoto and focus on the eyes of one or two of the rowers. That way you show the effort and the detail of what is happening. I believe this is true though of most sports photography where you are trying to achieve this effect and make an interesting photo.

 

[Rojin]

1) Do you recommend shooting in aperture priority, shutter priority or manual?

Use whatever you are comfortable with, you can always move on to manual later. Using shutter priority to set a low shutter speed for panning is useful.

2) What sort of a shutter speed should I look to use if I want the boat and the rower to be in focus but want the rowing blades to be blurred?

Try 1/60 for starters and see how that looks. You need to follow the speed of the boat exactly for sharp results on the point of focus. I like panning shots with the subject coming towards or moving away from you. You can get some interesting shots this way. A side on pan is easier to achieve, just keep your motion smooth, it just take practice! (you will get shots that are blurred, don;t worry about it and keep trying).

3) What sort of shutter speed should I look to use if I want everything to be sharp including the blades?

I'd imagine the end of the blades are probably moving quite quickly, try 1/500 as a starting point, you can probably go much higher if it's a nice sunny day so 1/2000 for example would be ideal.

As already said the main problem you will have is you lens, you're not going to get to close to the action with that. Although you may get some nice side on shots of the whole boat from the river bank. A good budget lens to compliment your kit lens is the Canon 55-250, this can be had second hand for around £120.

 

[Guitarman0]

Thanks to you both, this is just what I needed.

Regarding the lens, I am looking to pick up that Canon 55-250 lens but I need to let my bank account recover for a month or two before I can even consider it haha

Cheers