Focussing on a moving subject

[carp unit]

Any advice from those of you who are into your photography would be gratefully recieved.

Right, i've been struggling to get a sharp focus on my dog when he's legging it around in the woods. He doesnt stand still for a second for me to get him into focus manually which results in virtually every shot being slightly out of focus and its getting really annoying. I've taken hundreds of shots and have literally a handful of useable images. I have tried everything within my limited knowledge of photography such as setting the F number as low as possible, changing the ISO in differing light situations etc and still cant seem to get it to take a quick enough shot to freeze the action, its either blurry or just plain out of focus. I usually try to set the camara to take multiple shots and i also have the AI servo switched on so it will keep re-focussing all the time as the subject moves. The equipment i'm using is a Canon 400D with a Canon EF70-300 IS 1:4-5.6 USM lens. Do you think this lens is fast enough to capture the movement of my dog running around or am i just an idiot who's doing something wrong? I know a few of you take some cracking shots of racing cars and aeroplanes and such like, have you got any tips for me? I guess your using a far better lens for that kind of shot but surely mine should be good enough to take some half decent snaps of my dog? Before anyone mentions panning smoothly to get a sharp focus or manually focussing, i cant really do it because the dog runs all over the place and doesnt hold still for a second.

Thanks in advance.

[blackditch]

Go into the AF menu and select AI Servo. This should do the trick. As long as you have good light the lens should be fine.

OOPS! Just re-read your post. Can't understand why the AI isn't sorting the problem? It is possible that the IS and AI are interfering with each other. Try with the IS switched off or switched to 'pan' mode.

[Benny_the_bream]

I think the only option is to pan with him try being further away should be easier to follow also turn the image stabilisation off as when you pan the IS will try to compensate and give you blurry shots.
You will not get keepers every shot when im photographing things like flying birds etc I would expect maybe 1 in 70 to be a keeper with a similar lens to yours.
Just pan with him and machine-gun it
If you can get F8 with 200th second you should be able to get sharp images the faster the better for shutter speed but if you can stop it down aswell your image will be sharper with more depth of field so the whole dog is in focus.
Good luck

[carp unit]

Cheers lads, i think the IS could be causing me problems now you've mentioned it. I'll try it with it switched off next time and see how it goes.

Any more advice anyone else?

[Tuttifrutti]

Yup, i'd go along with what Benny has said. I'd also maybe even try to get the shutter speed higher, maybe 500 or more in the right light at least. Another thing maybe you can do is if the dog is coming very close to a certain object all the time you could try focussing directly at that object and then when the dog passes it, go rapid fire and see what you get. As Benny said, it's not an exact science. Unless you are going to spend a grand+ on the top of the range lenses, you'll never really get constant great shots...

Good luck Stu ;)

[Hippy]

Is it a foccussing issue, or movement blur?
To try and get something acceptable, I'd suggest the easiest option is to
1 Turn the ISO up as high as it will go, which should allow the highest possible shutter speed, plus a decent aperature (and resulting depth of field)
2 Use the shortest lens you can, and get close, rather than using the zoom to avoid exagerating camera shake.
3 Take as many shots as you can in the hope one comes good (god bless digi cameras!)

[upperoilcan]

Is it a foccussing issue, or movement blur?
To try and get something acceptable, I'd suggest the easiest option is to
1 Turn the ISO up as high as it will go, which should allow the highest possible shutter speed, plus a decent aperature (and resulting depth of field)

Be careful when doing this tho as you may well induce a lot of noise on your image,starting point would be to use a faster shutter speed,try shutter priority mode on your camera and try different shutter speeds,

most togs who shoot race cars use between 1/250-1/500 depending on distance from the subject,like as already been mentioned take the IS off and try panning.......

[Hippy]

You do get a lower quality, but it's a reasonable starting point to at least get something useable...

[upperoilcan]

Fair enough mate,but if it were me,id start with a faster shutter speed before anything else.

[carp unit]

Cheers chaps. Not sure if its a focussing issue or movement blur really. To be honest i think i'm suffering a bit of both at different times. I'll try and get a few pictures up that show the problems i'm having.

[carp unit]

Here are a couple of shots that show the fairly typical problems i'm having

http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w341/barbelstu/_MG_0059small.jpg

http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w341/barbelstu/_MG_0060small.jpg

[Benny_the_bream]

got any exif data please shouldnt be too hard if he is coming straight on I would say that you need a faster shutter speed.
Sorry if im teaching you to suck eggs but for a 300mm lens you should be using roughly 300's of a second to overcome camera shake possibly faster for moving subjects while your panning.
Do you have a tripod that would help alot.

[carp unit]

When i look at the exif details it wont let me copy and paste them? Oh well, It says:
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/100 sec
F-stop f/5.00
Focal length 100mm

I'm using AV mode by the way.


I have got a very good tripod but its not really suitable for an off the cuff walk with the dog unfortunately. The problem is, he just runs arouns like a mad man and i cant predict where he is gooing to be so i cant pre focus in any position like you could a car on the road for instance. He will be under my feet one second then 50 yards away and running at me at 100mph the next.;)

[apples]

Its motion blur.. the legs are gone but the eyes are almost there..... simply up your shutter speed... and not by a lot by the looks of it...


And select single (centre) point focus to make it easier on your lens when tracking with a background full of distractions.......

[carp unit]

Thanks for the tips, i'll try to up the shutter speed and set it to centre weighted focus.

Here's another.

http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w341/barbelstu/_MG_0032small.jpg

[Tiny]

yep... up the shutter speed... you may need to drop the fstop down a step or two but if you just shoot on shutter priority and let the camera do it for you as a starting point...

try a few shots at different shutter speeds to get the image you want... really high shutter speeds may freeze all the action *(background included) but you may want to freeze the object in shot and blur the background

i am by no means any good at this but by playing with the shutter speeds and and panning i have managed to take a few decent shots

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/steven__morrison/F1%20Silverstone/CopyofDSC_0244.jpg

[MartinJ]

Looks like camera shake to me because everything is blurred including the leaves, some of which would be sharp at the point of focus. A steadier hand (or tripod) and faster exposure would help.

In the photo below his back end looks more in focus than the front so he has run through the point of focus or the autofocus has fixed on his tail.

http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w341/barbelstu/_MG_0032small.jpg

What you are trying to do is never easy, take loads of fast exposure shots and some will come up trumps.

Panning side on shots are easier because the whole of the dog should be in focus.



Is it a foccussing issue, or movement blur?
To try and get something acceptable, I'd suggest the easiest option is to
1 Turn the ISO up as high as it will go, which should allow the highest possible shutter speed, plus a decent aperature (and resulting depth of field)
2 Use the shortest lens you can, and get close, rather than using the zoom to avoid exagerating camera shake.
3 Take as many shots as you can in the hope one comes good (god bless digi cameras!)

[apples]

Martin..

What hes got in the first 2 shots are along the lines of this..


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2184/2438194003_38df802fae_o.jpg




Its the result of panning on a subject thats moving both towards/ away from.. and across you with a slow shutter speed.
Because there are effectively 2 planes of travel (up/ down for away/ towards and left/ right) there will be a pivot/ rotation point and.. however small.. unless you are aware of and compensate for.. it will cause motion blur even if you have tracked a subject perfectly for what it would be on a single plane.. (left/right)
A dog charging about will further complicate matters as it itself is going up and down as it runs...

Last picture.. a bit of the above and slow/ fooled Auto Focus...



CU.. if most of your shots turn out like the first 2.. Tv mode.. dial in 1/ 160th and bump the ISO up if the numbers are flashing in the view finder.. and the closer you are to the dog the faster you will have to pan to keep up with it... which means a higher relative shutter speed.

[carp unit]

Thanks very much for your input chaps very helpful, i have a few things to work with there. I'll post up some shots next time i get out with the dog:thumbs:

[Les_Paul]

Some good advice given here, just one thing can your AF be set up to auto track? This means you select an initial point then the cameras AF tracks the target across the other points once it achieves lock. With this method if available it makes the panning less forgiving than if you have selected one focus point and locked it in.

If a dog is coming at you , you need to get focus on the eyes. It will never really look right if the eyes are not sharp.

One other problem might be if the lens is back or front focussing, and unless your camera has a fine tune option to compensate then the lens would need recalibrating.

[MartinJ]

Some good advice given here, just one thing can your AF be set up to auto track? This means you select an initial point then the cameras AF tracks the target across the other points once it achieves lock. With this method if available it makes the panning less forgiving than if you have selected one focus point and locked it in.

If a dog is coming at you , you need to get focus on the eyes. It will never really look right if the eyes are not sharp.

One other problem might be if the lens is back or front focussing, and unless your camera has a fine tune option to compensate then the lens would need recalibrating.


The "sport" setting on my Nikon does this (Auto track,) you may have something similar on your camera?