Kirislin Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 (edited) I want to try to get some shots with the whippets running, them clear and the background blurred. Hoping someone can suggest settings before I go. I have a canon 400d with the kit lenses. I'm thinking I'd probably need the 18-35 rather than the long lens? Is that right? It's a dull day here so a higher ISO? maybe 400 is that right? I want to get out of auto so I know I need that continuous shooting mode. Umm what else? fast shutter speed? OK I'm reading the manual, I'm thinking if I just put it on AIservo and continuous shooting. I'll post the results if I get any and they're any good. Edited October 30, 2008 by Kirislin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 (edited) Depends what sort of look you are going for. If the background is not picturesque, I would use the 75-300 lense. Put it on Aperture priority, set the aperture at F8, and adjust your ISO untill you get a shutter speed of at least 800. On a dull day you may have to go quite a bit higher than ISO 400. Position yourself sitting on the ground and have the light behind you. Make sense? If the background is nice & you don't want it blurred, you could use the kit lense, but the dogs will presumably not be running right in front of you, so it would be more of a distance shot, like a landscape with dogs in it. Edited October 30, 2008 by Vickie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 (edited) I'm not an expert but I'm pretty sure you'll need the telephoto, set it to a high shutter speed. What are the conditions outside like, light wise? I've taken some action shots using 1/1000 as a shutter speed to really freeze the action, others at 1/500. If taking action shots, I'll set my camera to TV mode. Other people may use other settings. Sometimes I'll use AV mode with a wide aperture (lower f stop number) if the conditions outside are bright enough, as that gives me a fast shutter speed, I'll take a few shots and check the info to see the shutter speed. I'll have my ISO on 400, no higher than that for action shots to keep noise down, even though the Canons are pretty good, noise wise compared to other DSLRs. I also set it to AI servo for action shots or AI focus if they are still first and then start running (I find my lens is really good for keeping focus on the subject) and sometimes burst mode so I can take a lot of shots at once. Hope that's not confusing for you. Edited October 30, 2008 by Ripley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Here are 2 shots, you can see the difference between the 2 lenses telephoto 70-300, F8 kit 18-70, F6.3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirislin Posted October 30, 2008 Author Share Posted October 30, 2008 (edited) Depends what sort of look you are going for.If the background is not picturesque, I would use the 75-300 lense. Put it on Aperture priority, set the aperture at F8, and adjust your ISO untill you get a shutter speed of at least 800. On a dull day you may have to go quite a bit higher than ISO 400. Position yourself sitting on the ground and have the light behind you. Make sense? If the background is nice & you don't want it blurred, you could use the kit lense, but the dogs will presumably not be running right in front of you, so it would be more of a distance shot, like a landscape with dogs in it. Vickie those shots are amazing, as always but I want to try to get my whippets in focus and the background blurry, panning shots, I think they're called. You'd laugh if you saw what I'm doing. I am writing down what you've both said to take with me. Hope I get some worthwhile pics. thanks! Edited October 30, 2008 by Kirislin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Just keep in mind that the amount of blur you will get in the background will largely be dependent on what the background is. A busy background with either of those 2 lenses is going to be very hard to get a good shot & lots of blur. The background is blurred on something like this...because there is nothing in the background. In the beach shot I showed above, it is not very blurred...beacuse there is such a big contract between sand, water & sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke W Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Do you want a blurred background because of DOF or a blurred background because of motion blur? If you want it because of DOF, you want to shoot wide open (problem f/5.6 at 300mm). If you want to because of motion blur (ie. panning), you will have to experiment with shutter speed. You're looking for a balance between a somewhat sharp dog and a blurred background. You are also going to have to fire off a lot of shots to get the dog in the optimum position (minimal horizontal movement, minimal leg movement, minimal head movement, but still with lots of speed in the verticle plane.) For panning and a whippet running flat out, I'd be starting with a shutter speed around 1/125 and adjust from there. This is a greyhound running flatout at 1/30, so obvisouly, your shutter speed is going to have to be faster than this (unless you want this sort of efffect). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 (edited) I tried panning when I got my new lens. I used a DOLer friend and her lovely Dobe to try it out. With panning, you use a slow shutter speed and only move your upper torso, that's how I do it anyway, here's a couple of shots: ETA: would have been better if the fence line wasn't in the background, but we were at a dog show, in the car park area so no ideal background in sight. Edited October 30, 2008 by Ripley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Do you want a blurred background because of DOF or a blurred background because of motion blur?If you want it because of DOF, you want to shoot wide open (problem f/5.6 at 300mm). Hi Luke, a question. I find that at full 300 zoom, anything bigger than F8 & the subject loses sharpness...I think b/c of the shake at full zoom. Is this what you mean above? I am going to get a monopod, I noticed you had one at the Nationals. Will this help with the above problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke W Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 (edited) Do you want a blurred background because of DOF or a blurred background because of motion blur?If you want it because of DOF, you want to shoot wide open (problem f/5.6 at 300mm). Hi Luke, a question. I find that at full 300 zoom, anything bigger than F8 & the subject loses sharpness...I think b/c of the shake at full zoom. Is this what you mean above? I am going to get a monopod, I noticed you had one at the Nationals. Will this help with the above problem? Many lenses simply don't perform well wide open at the extremes of their zoom range. You need to stop down 1 or 2 stops to get decent sharpness. It's just a problem with the quality of the lens. Not camera shake or anything. A monopod won't help. It often depends on the particular lens (and often on the particular COPY of the lens). Some lens are OK wide open, others not so good. Lenses have a 'sweet spot', an aperture where they perform best. For most lenses, this is one of two stops from wide open. Most lenses are at their worst wide open. They also tend to perform best in the middle zoom ranges. So your 70-300 is probably at it's best at around 200mm and at f/8. My 70-200 f/2.8 is probably at it's best around 130mm and f/4. To get telephoto lenses that perform really well wide open, you've usually got to start spending big biccies. Edited October 30, 2008 by Luke W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polomum Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Vickie, Ripley n others.......how did you learn all this 'stuff'???......Did you read heaps or do an actual course to work out the technicalities.......my D80 arrives today and I'm wondering if my 'blonde brain' is going to be able to handle it.......Trying to order 2 books from USA - Bryan Peterson and Scott Kelby are the authors..... How long have you been using digital SLRs.....???? Vickie your shots are awesome.......Do you shoot in RAW/jpeg or other?? Don't quite understand all the terminology yet......and then there's the post processing......what do you use for that......my daughter tells me we have CS3 here......some say that's really hard to learn.....we have Mac computers so want to get hold of something relatively easy to use with Mac...... My brains going 'nuts'!!!!!! Krislin good luck with your pics 2day......fantastic that you clever ones on DOL are happy to assist us 'not so clever' ones!!!!!! Thanks heaps!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rugerfly Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 (edited) Im not an expert and Im finding this an interesting question also. I can see what Vickie is saying about full zoomies. Is it totally different when the subject is running towards you? I cant remember the exif on this one, but the background is blurred, dont know how it happened the D3 made me do it I think i was trying that tracking focus thingy setting. Do you mean side on shots Kirsilin? Found exif. not very fast coming towards but 1/800 F7.1 focal 250mm Think it was 80-400 lens Edited October 30, 2008 by rugerfly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke W Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 BTW - The shots posted by Ripley were shot at 1/15s - they moving more slowly than a whippet running flat out .... Polomum I read heaps. Been shooting on a dSLR for around...hmmmm...since 2004. I started with a film SLR and scanning negs in 2000. Editing - Photoshop. CS3 is fantastic but can be daunting to learn. Kelby is really good. So is Bruce Fraser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chloes Dad Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Depends what sort of look you are going for.If the background is not picturesque, I would use the 75-300 lense. Put it on Aperture priority, set the aperture at F8, and adjust your ISO untill you get a shutter speed of at least 800. On a dull day you may have to go quite a bit higher than ISO 400. Lucky ducky if i go over ISO 400 on the D80 the noise is totally unacceptable. so to increase shutter speed I tend to open the aperture. I have read that the sweet spot on the 70-300VR is ISO 200 and f/11..... so for action i am usually way off that. oh how i long for fast glass.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 polomum, it only came together for me less than a year ago. I read Understanding Exposure and then it all clicked together in my head. I also subscribe to 2 UK photo mags. One is Outdoor Photography for its stunning landscape images, but they only focus on landscapes, travel and wildlife which is what I'm more into, so it doesn't focus on dogs or animals in captivity and they also use images taken with film as well as digital. The other photo mag I get is Digital Camera which has some great articles in it. This month's version is on taking photos at night - light trails, painting with light - it's all in there (but I have the latest UK edition which won't be in stores here yet). You can find these mags at the local newsagents, I find them better than the Australian ones. I subscribe as it works out cheaper and I get the latest edition mailed to me. The panning technique was in the Digital Camera mag, I read it and thought I'd give it a go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chezzyr Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 I was self taught, I don't like getting bogged down with books and too much information. I read very few mags (I find alot of local mags are more about in depth photoshop techniques - runs away screaming). Some training in design/layout helped me get more out of my photography (post processing, preparing for publication etc) but really I just like getting out and taking pictures and not worrying about the rules or fads. The latest greatest programs are wasted on me simply because they are overkill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke W Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 rugerfly...with dogs running toeward you, you need to use the 'tracking focus'...on a Canon it's called AI Servo. The background in your shot is blurred because it's a wide aperture. You camera selected a wide aperture so you ended up with a small depth of field. There's no EXIF with the shot (did you use "Save For web" ?) so I can't tell what aperture you used. Note... Do you sharpen your shots after resizing. You really should. This shot could be little sharper. I hope you don't mind: This was a quick sharpen. I could have got better results with a little more care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripley Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 What is the best way to sharpen a photo with a dog or bird in them? I find if I use USM it sharpens the background too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chloes Dad Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 What is the best way to sharpen a photo with a dog or bird in them? I find if I use USM it sharpens the background too. you could etch the bird onto its own layer ad then sharpen it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke W Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 What is the best way to sharpen a photo with a dog or bird in them? I find if I use USM it sharpens the background too. Lots of ways. - Duplicate the layer, sharpen it, then use a layer mask to mask the background. - Sharpen it, then use the hisory brush to 'unsharpen' the background. My recommendation would be to learn to use layers and layer masks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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