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Can you help as ive not been taking sports photos for long,cameras used are canon 1v & d60 lenses are 100-400L4.5-5.6usm /28-70L.Taking pics on 1v with long lens camera lens had to be set manual as low light,set at 60/th at f11 400asa film as wanted movement but problem was focusing as very slightly out of focus or deth of field was shollow,any tips. many thanks frank williams.
I have a shoot coming up which is exactly the situation you describe Frank.Iam thinking of using the canon eos lenses70-200f2.8 zoom and 400f2.8.what I find helpful are the articles in Ephoto on sports, car and wildlife photography.from what you describe you probably got movement on the subject and maybe camera shake too.have another look at the material because sometimes interesting things happen.maybe you can find a punchy shot where the background is sharp and the subject a blur of movement?editing is important too.
Frank, do you use autofocus ? Some of the modes on the EOS cameras have predictive autofocus, which means they refocus as the subject moves. This works reasonably well on my 300 so on the 1v I would think it should be superb. To get faster shutter speeds, use a bigger aperture than F11 - if the subject is sharp that's what matters most.
I don't suffer from this problem Frank 'cos, for the type of work you mention, I use a manual camera. I usually set the shutter speed at something reasonable (depending on lighting conditions) then, as long as you are panning with the subject you should get a sharpish shot with plenty of background blur.
Panning, as I'm sure you know, is like a golf swing in that you swing through the shot and press the shutter at the right moment and keep swinging through.
If the weather is kack, you have a few alternatives. 1. Higher rated film but leading to more grain. 2. Slower shutter speeds leading to possible blur or camera shake. Or 3. Less depth of field meaning the focusing has to be much more acurate.
You pays yer money . . . . . . .
The only way to get good action shots is to take lots of pictures. You have little control over the subject matter so most of them will probably be rubbish. Practice following the action, focussing (unless the camera does it for you) and squeezing the button at the key moment. For lenses of 200-400mm you need the fastest shutter speed you can manage to avoid camera shake, so,even in good light you will not have much depth of field.
Use a tripod.
Its the single best thing you could possibly use for action shots. And also, pre-focus on an area, like the goalmouth, for example. If possible, using a slave on the side of the pitch might throw a good amount of light on the subject, and also create some original contrasts and shadows.
A tripod is great for long-focus lenses but does stop you moving to follow the action. Also, if you go to football matches, it has been known for the ball to come your way! For goalmouth incidents I used to stand on the edge of the penalty area, as near to the bye-line as I dare, prefocus on the penalty spot, and hope that I could follow the action with half a turn of the focussing either way. Modern footballs are not too hard when they hit you, just turn and cringe so that they don't hit the camera.
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