settings to avoid "static" dirkbiking pics

I tried shooting some friends dirkbiking today for the 1st time. While a lot

of the shots were fine as far as focus, most of my shots look 'static'. I

tried lowering the ISO to 100, which got me shutter speeds of about 250. <br>

<br>

I was shooting wide open using aperature priority because I wanted a shallow

depth of field. Maybe I should use shutter priority instead? I'm not sure how

slow my shutter speed needs to be to achieve a sense of motion. Any pointers?

Thanks - Terri

While "static" is not bad in sports photography as you want to freeze that action, there are times when you want to have a strong effect of movement.

 

You probably need to go slower, or try to follow the subject with the camera as you shoot to create movement around the subject, and perhaps use a flash to freeze the subject which is close to you and not the background which will show the motion.

 

While you can experiment with this, I'm pointing you to sports photographs of other people on Photo.net that listed the technical details of their photographs in the "Details" section under the photo. I believe this is the type of photography you want to acheive and they will give you examples.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/4518366

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/4481864

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/4485294

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/4484481

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/4491544

I often seem to think afterwards that I should have shot with manual exposure settings especially when shooting RAW. While open aperture lifts your target to the center of attention I personally try to avoid it when shooting sport. My widest is usually f/3.2-4 because f/2.8 requires so much more spot on focus. Most sports shots are documentary so the emphasis is elsewhere as, say, in portraitry. Therefore my initial settings are for optimum optics, say f/5.6-8. For motion my thumbrule is that you start panning with an exp. time of 1/focal length, take the secured shots, and then go slower and let your ambition ruin part of the shots. The slower you go the less will succeed, but the greater the satisfaction when you get one right. After a certain threshold exp. time it really is all about luck.<p>

My best ever is <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/2953431&size=lg">here</a>.

Very nice shot, Juha.

Thanks very much for the replies and examples. Those shots are exactly the type I have in mind. Now I know where to start next time around - just wish I hadn't "wasted" so many shots yesterday!

Terri, here are a couple of Damir Sencar's panning shots which I think illustrate a sense of motion very well:

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/3904632

Terri, here is the other one. I cant work out how to copy two at once.

http://www.photo.net/photo/3902456

 

Regards, Neil

Those are awesome, and the shutter speed is quite a bit slower than I originally thought would be needed. I hope to have something that good one day! Thanks for posting those

Finding the right balance between motion blur and sharpness in the subject is difficult to achieve. Sounds like you have a digital camera which makes experimenting extremely easy. Having been doing sports photography for years with film I never invested the money in experimenting with different techniques. I found my comfort zone for shots and stuck with them for the most part. I now have digital and I am looking forward to getting out to the track this summer to experiment much more. The immediate feedback from a DSLR and virtually no additional cost per shot makes experimenting great!

 

 

All you can do is try different things. I know sometimes it is hard to tell from the screen on the camera. I would love to have a laptop handy to view the images at full size as the day goes by.

 

 

Don't worry about always shooting wide open when experimenting with shutter speeds. Just do what you have to do and judge the results after. A larger depth of field will not be as noticeable with increased background motion blur. As for all photography you want to be careful of the foreground and background especially when panning.

 

 

Good luck.

Thx for the reply, John. A laptop or something would definately help. Sometimes I think from the image on the tiny lcd that a pic looks great, only to be disappointed when I get to the computer. At least I have a better idea of what to do now, & I'll just experiment and fill up both cards next time!