Sports/Action shots

[HappyFotographer]

Attempted to photograph the boys at little A's on Friday night. Can't say I am too happy with the results. I had the tamron lense on (70-300) and it seemed to have trouble quickly searching for focusing.

What I did with the shots below was prefocus on a spot (the hurdle for example) and waited for my son to fly over it

http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php?album=121&pos=2

Where here he had gone past me and I attempted to get a shot of him, the camera searched long and hard before it came up with this image

http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php?album=121&pos=4

These images are completely untouched, except for resizing, so you are seeing them in all their shabbiness.

Am I expecting too much from this lense? Are my skills completely lousy? I find soccer easier than the boys at little A's

And these two are just for Jake's expressions......
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php?album=121&pos=0

http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php?album=121&pos=1

Cheers
Deb

[xerubus]

those expressions are great!!!! ... don't worry if people say they aren't good composition, or the light's wrong, or the focus is sloppy, etc etc ... they are awesome memories and should be cherished....... back them up, and backup the backups....

regarding the other shots... have you thought about manual focus with using this lens? if the AF doesn't help, maybe you try the MF... ?

[mudder]

G'day,
These are great shots... You caught the expressions at just the right moment... I really enjoyed the expressions on the kids faces

Cheers,
Mudder

[sirhc55]

Deb - there’s no need to complain about your shots - you got the action just right. The pics of Jake, IMO need a bit of contrast but other than that you have caught some great expressions.

Chris

[HappyFotographer]

Chris, I was unhappy with how long it sometimes took the camera to AF. So if I wanted to get the boys running up to and past me, there was a lot of hunting for focus......and often the action was over by the time it got it right....

......so I guess I am asking if there is a better way. Do most people just set up the shot, focused on a particular spot where you know the action will eventually occur and shoot, or is there another way to set up the camera to catch the ongoing action?

To me the images look a little soft, and maybe with some work that would be fixed......but I am beginning to think I need to get the eyes checked once again.....new prescription needed me thinks.

Cheers
Deb

[Killakoala]

When i am using the 70-300 Nikon lens, which is comaprable to your telephoto's capabilities, i will often manually focus to make sure i get 'that' shot right. My lens also hunts, so as soon as it does i know it's time to flick that M/AF switch and DIY focussing.

To improve the sharpness/softness of the shots, apply a bit of Unsharp Mask (USM) and they will look heaps more satisfying.

[Photodude]

HappyFotographer,

I also have the Tamron and am very happy with it
I often take pics of seagulls in flight
I find the best approach is to switch to Auto focus continous and track the subject as it approaches rather then prefocus on a certain area in anticipation
Try this method - guaranteed to work

John

[Matt. K]

HappyFotographer
You are doing most things right. But you need to get much closer to your subject! When you do that a number of things will occur
1. The background will be more blurred...and that's good
2. Your images will have more detail, be sharper and the composition will have more power.
That is the secret to great photography.
You should try a couple of exercises where you feel you are too close and examine the images. You will be very suprised with what you see.

[HappyFotographer]

Some good advice guys, thanks.

I will take the camera again this week and put some of the tips into action.

The time of day is unfortunately not the best, there are long shadows and I am faced with the choice in most instances of shooting into the sun or into shadows.......but as I am not out to win awards with these photos I am not too concerned.

John, I will give the continuous focus a go, I had an attempt to shoot seagulls in flight the other day with the tamron and they were tricky buggers...so if you are getting them successfully then there must be something right going on.

Matt, I tried to stay away from the kids cause I didn't want to put them off. I will give it a go though, see what happens. I was also getting some very weird looks from the parents, although that didn't stop most of them from standing directly in front of me....grrrrrr

Off to do some PP on some of them and send them to the grandparents, they will love them anyway!

Cheers
Deb

[redline]

Some good advice guys, thanks.

I will take the camera again this week and put some of the tips into action.

The time of day is unfortunately not the best, there are long shadows and I am faced with the choice in most instances of shooting into the sun or into shadows.......but as I am not out to win awards with these photos I am not too concerned.

John, I will give the continuous focus a go, I had an attempt to shoot seagulls in flight the other day with the tamron and they were tricky buggers...so if you are getting them successfully then there must be something right going on.


Matt, I tried to stay away from the kids cause I didn't want to put them off. I will give it a go though, see what happens. I was also getting some very weird looks from the parents, although that didn't stop most of them from standing directly in front of me....grrrrrr

Off to do some PP on some of them and send them to the grandparents, they will love them anyway!

Cheers
Deb

hi happy,
were these taken late afternoon? they seem ok to me. but
next time if your faced with ppl in your way just kindly ask them to move away and thank them. most ppl don't even realise that you blockin your shot.

[lukeo]

Please don't take this the wrong way, you have to be aware that the lens you are using is a budget lens. What does this mean when you come to shooting sports with it? Well there is a reason that mega bucks $10000 dollar nikon f2.8 zooms exist. It's not the D70 you arn't happy with, it's the lens you have attached to it.

Some suggestion's you could try continuous focus as suggested (look in manual just means you half hold the shutter down and the cameras AF never disengages.) Use a manual setting not the auto program mode, use higher F numbers for shallower depth of fields this means you can use faster shutter speeds, compensate if your subject is in shadow with some exposure compensation, give the continous 3fps shooting mode a trial as well, or alternatively try some bracketed shots (use the camera's function to take three shots one above and one below the metered exposure).

Good luck, i know you can get some nice sharp, well exposed, contrasty pics from that lens with practice. I think the ones you have are great by the way.

regards
luke

[robw25]

deb
i take photo's for the local paper and i have had some parents quickly walk up to me ( after i have taken a photo of their child ) as im asking the child for their name thank god the shirt i have on has the papers logo on it and they back off when they see it, this is an example pic which i will leave on my pixspot for 24hrs then remove



cheers rob