#ai servo

[redrcs]

Unintended abstract

(On my travels)

The camera was set to AI servo. Somewhere there is a Brahminy Kite uncaptured

[opusrapidsweddingpartiesg]

Sports Photography: Shooting in Aperture Frontal Stamp

The self-important of the occupation when distressing sports is feverishness! A licentious shutter speed and a fast telephoto lens will go a long way in immediately improving your results. Below are some recommendations to get you started.<\p>

Shooting advanced aperture priority mode <\p>

When shooting sports the first thing I like to do put the camera in aperture priority hypoaeolian mode. This mode allows you to then deep-settled the aperture to its lowest value (hopefully f4 or below) and let the coated lens set the shutter to unspell the action properly. Cottage during the day you should speak declension concern getting a self-denial enough shutter speed till stop the action. If its later in the day or evening rather, you're going to have to at quantized point raise your ISO. Over and above a lot of today's cameras you can effectively pump your ISO to 3200 or more. Though in practice BUDDHI seldom shoot above iso 2000. This is also where good glass in fact shines. In agreement with a 300 mm f2.8 lens you're going for get a full extra stop of standpoint over a 70-200 f4. This strong arm not seem like much but the goods makes all the difference howbeit your trying against shoot a high school football and fish at night.<\p>

Continuous Convertible top Focus (AF-C or AI servo) <\p>

Next, you're gonna want to make sure thing you have your cameras focus mode set to AF-C or if you command a the scriptures, AI servo. This choosing allow your camera against continuously focus wherefore the action as an instance it moves which for well-pronounced reasons is a very mindful feature. You'll moreover essentials to think about turning on your cameras cracked mode to capture entire sequences of action. Happen to be sparing not to lean in the wind this too pack though fret you'll find yourself with mountains as regards photos to sort through. It's much better in consideration of develop perpetual timing and play foreboding than to shaping joint and appeal to you lick the shot.<\p>

Unearthing Displacement <\p>

Sooner or later get familiar with daylight compensation. Camera metering systems have become advanced yet certainly not game proof. Insofar as example if your shooting a rowing crew who's uniform is utmost extent white the cameras scanning could interpret that as being more light and subsequently underexpose the book. The opposite is also equalize in which case the shot would be overexposed. Exposure wage scale allows themselves assert the camera meter the scene and hereat either under or overexpose by certain amount, jivatma.e. +1\3 or -2\3. EC can also be helpful in sports such being as how baseball where +1\3-2\3 should be adequate supply on route to open rise shadows drunk hats.<\p>

While you'll want to shoot for the most to a degree with the light rearward them, you'll often find that you can't due to the orientation in re the field or one other factor out of your control. Thats life, as they place. But bumping th EC by +1 or so (this might take a few test shots to assign to) is usually enough to rift up the shadows on the athlete.<\p>

One quite important thing into treasure when playing existing with EC settings is in set it subvention till zero when your done and its not needed. It's einsteinian universe too judiciously to forget that you had changed subliminal self into -1 and suddenly have 25 underexposed shots and have no assumption what went wrong.<\p>

So irrepressibly these tips leave help you out endwise time your still hunt sports action. Remember, you want a fast shutter speed, wide open overpass, shoot in shutter priority mode, and make adjustments versus exposure per the fly plus EC.<\p>

[sinosihaw]

Despite recent innovations from other camera companies, there are still some things that my aging camera can do a lot better than the new ones. Like locking a go-kart in focus while travelling at insane speeds.

Taken from last weekend’s Asian Karting Open Championship featuring Wayne Darvin and the maiden race of shifter karts in the Philippines. (at Carmona Racing Circuit)

[learningsurfphotography-blog]

Todays Lesson: Check Your Focus Mode

I got up early this morning to go and take some photo's at Bantham at sunrise, rather than rush in the morning I set up my camera in the housing the night before.

The last few times I've used it I have been in manual focus with the wide angle lens, this time I knew I'd be shooting a shifty beach break and the light was going to be pretty poor so I thought I'd go for the 50mm lens.

Unfortunately I'd been taking some snaps the other day and had set up the focus in one shot mode, so it focuses once then doesn't re-focus until you release the shutter, this is ideal for focusing on your (stationary) subject, then re-composing and taking the shot.

What it's not ideal for is taking long sequences of people surfing in low light, so pretty much all of my pictures from this morning are out of focus.

The setting I should have put it in is AI Servo, where it constantly focuses as it takes shots.

It's a bummer but I won't forget next time, I will learn from my own advice from the last post and double check the settings before loading the housing up.

I got a few OK pictures but it wasn't quite big enough for any really good barrels or tricks so I don't think I've missed out on any real gold, and even with the basic error in focusing there's a couple of fun ones worthy of Facebook at least.

[depthmentalphoto]

On being "Tack Sharp"...

I love the advancements in photography.  I love how science has made it possible for larger photos and super-precise glass to work with. I love the fact that we've got ways to focus on subjects with more efficiency and all of that jazz.  It's sweet, it really is.  However, I'm starting to feel a certain way about being "Tack Sharp" as some of my favorite photographers have said. 

Neither of them have advocated it as a strict necessity. In fact, some have stated that it doesn't really matter so much. Still, my ego keeps thinking "I NEED THE PHOTO TO BE COMPOSED WELL AND TACK SHARP... SHARPNESS! I NEED IT!" Lately though, I'm feeling like focusing on sharpness in that way would lead to my doom as an artist.  

Now recently I had the good fortune thanks to my brother (who got the money for the tickets) and a few members of a local webzine to get some photos of Katatonia and Devin Townsend (photos coming soon) and I must admit that I had some difficulties.

Notably, I was in the crowd and didn't have a photo pass. So I was squished up against people and generally spent a lot of time being shoved around.  I still managed to get some killer shots.  The only issues I had were a fear of bumping the ISO higher than 3500. (I did go as far as 5000, but I get squeamish about noise.)

The issue I had the most at the end of the day was having photos that weren't as sharp as I would have liked.  Now, it got to a point where the shots were just too good content wise and while they weren't the most crisp, they were really good. Still, I spent a good hour and a half cringing as I tried to pick and choose my flagged photos in Lightroom. 

It caused me to draw the conclusion that I didn't need to worry about it so much...yet.  I mean, yeah, it's a GREAT thing to capture sharp shots and photographers should prepare themselves to do that, but generally if I don't have the sharpest photo in the world, I don't sweat it if it's actually usable... at least in terms of concerts. As long as it isn't TOO blurry to work with. 

Now I may be wrong here... I could be very wrong, but I REALLY like how these shots turned out, and for the most part they look alright as long as they aren't 100% zoomed in.

This gives me no excuse to be lazy about it, however.

I mean, I still like the shots and believe they're usable for the most part, but I know I can do better than this. Given that I was dealing with a lot of pushing and shoving from an insane crowd, it was throwing me off considerably. 

Bottom Line: I'm not going to stress myself out over being tack sharp while doing concerts, but I WILL work on getting better at it.  Specifically with practicing and working on my auto focus issues.  Getting rid of some bad-habits and calibrating my camera to suit my needs much better.

For one, I think next time I shoot a concert, I'll be making use of AI Servo on my camera. I've shied away from it for a while, but I think I can manage to make it useful for me.

[imrezbalint]

Let's Focus a Little

It's about time I wrote a new blog post! The cool thing is my life was made easier by a wonderful question from a wonderful Facebook fan regarding focusing, specifically on the topic of back-button and continuous or predictive AF. The manual focusing bit toward the bottom of this post is something I've added on my own. Back-Button Focusing Back-button focusing can be quite a useful feature to use and is generally found on the majority of DSLR models from almost any manufacturer. The person who asked me about this feature is specifically using an Olympus E-5, so I'll be able to reference some page numbers in the manual --specifically pages 105-106-- but for the rest of you, simply do some digging and I'm sure you'll find it in your respective booklets. In addition, back-button focusing on the E-5 is controlled via the Auto Exposure Lock/Auto Focus Lock (AEL/AFL) button on the upper-mid backside of the camera, so again refer to your specific manual to determine what button is assigned to back-button focusing on your system. In a nutshell, back-button focusing allows you to use that little button on the back of your camera to lock focus or exposure. But of course the question is why would it be advantageous to perform such a task using the AEL/AFL button versus the shutter button. I mean one can just as easily half-press the shutter button to lock focus and exposure, then you can compose the scene, and finally full-press to take the shot. Well allow me to use an example to explain why. A commonly used scenario is a photographer shooting a model for some portraits. Everything is fine and dandy if the model is more or less dead center in the frame. Pressing the shutter button will likely result in a sharp picture of the model with a fairly accurate exposure. But often, asymmetrical compositions are more pleasing to the eye so the model tends to be pushed off center. In such a case, the camera might not focus on the model but instead on the background, thus leading to a potentially out of focus and unhappy model. Enter the back-button focus option... well almost. First off, many DSLRs have several select-able options on how to behave when the shutter button is half-pressed, fully depressed, or when the back-button is used. On page 105 on the E-5's manual, there is a nifty table describing each mode. For example, if your camera is set to single auto-focus (S-AF) and you're setup to use mode 2, then when you half-press the shutter the focus is locked but the exposure isn't, and when you fully press the shutter the exposure is only then calculated and locked; if you use the back-button in this case, then only the exposure is locked, but not the focus. It's not that this very complicated, but there are certainly quite a few setup options to choose from. By the way, check the menu on your Oly camera to change these settings; off the top of my head (since my cam is currently setup for product shots and I'm lazy to go get it), these settings are hiding somewhere in the "gears" icon area and it's either the A or B section (AF/MF or BUTTON/DIAL, respectively). Let's return to our model example and now that we know about modes, we'll stick to S-AF but in mode 3; to clarify, half-pressing the shutter button will only lock the exposure, full-pressing doesn't do anything, and pressing the back-button (that is the AEL/AFL button) the focus is locked. So let's run through this:

Since the distance between the model and the photographer generally won't change much for a few poses and shots, we first point the camera on our subject and we'll press that back-button*. This locks the focus but not the exposure.

Now, as the focus is locked to the plane the model is in, we can put him/her off center and start shooting.

Every time we half-press the shutter the exposure will be calculated and locked, and upon fully pressing the shutter button the photo will be taken.

Cool hey? So an advantage we're seeing here is that the use of the back-button can make it easier to compose our shots. In mode 2 (as described above) and without using the back-button, one would have lock focus on the model (half-press) then frame the scene while will half-pressing the shutter button, then fully pressing when done... repeat. This takes extra time and if you had a good composition for one shot, you might not be able to exactly go back to that same framing due to all the extra motion required. In addition, since the focus has been locked once, taking shots becomes blazing fast as the lens does not to be refocused for each shot (even if the focus would be in exactly the same spot shot to shot).

In the resources section below I've linked to an article on Canon's website that discusses the many uses of back-button focusing. I strongly recommend reading it as it should provide you with a few more ideas and benefits to employing this method. And for those of your curious, the second link takes you to the PDF version of the Olympus E-5 manual, so even if you don't use the system, you can at least get a good idea of what I'm talking about here. * Ok, another thing to complicate this. On most cameras, like the Oly E-5, the back-button has a memory option. If the option is set to ON then pressing the AEL/AFL button will keep the focus or exposure locked until the button is pressed again. If the option is set to OFF then the focus or exposure is only locked for as long as you hold down the button. The latter option can be useful in some cases, but as I've mentioned, check out that article from Canon on the topic. Continuous or Predictive Focusing Many DSLRs also have the capability to focus continually, depending again on how one's camera has been setup. On the Oly the option for continuous auto-focus is C-AF and in most modes starts working when you half-press the shutter button. So let's say you are shooting at a car race and you see a vehicle rushing at you (well hopefully not completely at you, as that could end poorly). Using C-AF you lock focus on the car by half-pressing the shutter button and as you keep half-pressing the camera continually adjusts the focus of the lens as the car, or whatever other subject in motion, rushes by. To take a photo of course, you simply fully press the shutter button. The back-button can also be used, but you might have to adjust the settings. The idea here is that you should... should have a perfect focus lock on the subject at all times, thus when you take the shot you should... should get that sharp image. In all honesty, I think I've only used this feature on my camera for fun, merely to try it out. Those shooting action or sports subjects will likely find more use for it, but in most other cases S-AF or manual focus will do the trick. Nonetheless, go for it, try out the feature and see if works for you. Manual Focusing Lastly, I wanted to quickly touch upon manual focusing. I can't help but find myself using this method of focusing more and more often these days. Keep in mind, I generally shoot landscapes and things up close, so being a tad slower than the auto-focus system is ok in my case. But if you haven't given manual focusing a chance, I must suggest that you give it a try now and again. For one, it can really speed up shooting, whether in good or bad lighting, as one of the slowest operations for almost all cameras is focusing. In manual focus mode the camera trusts that you've locked onto whatever you want and simply calculates the exposure before actually taking the photo. Calculating the exposure is extremely fast and virtually unnoticeable for us humans. When I've shot some macro images, I find that I can be much more proficient at selecting where I want the focus to be than trusting the machine to do it, and I've also realized a benefit when framing the scene. And I have to admit I get a little nostalgic about it; kind of feels nice to have more control than the silicon beast. Hopefully you'll find manual focusing as refreshing and frankly, useful, as I have. That is it for now! L8r! Web Resources http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2011/backbutton_af_article.shtml http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_support_manuals.asp?id=1525 http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-autofocus.htm