rocco Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 (edited) I am completely crap at movement photography so please bare with me and my stupidity. I want to get a piece of cheese going down Rocco's throat jumping at the camera looking down on him. I tried in bright light but the shadow was all over his face and I hate blown out sun exposure on his coat. So I moved him around the other side where it is shaded but no shadow on his face. Because I have lost some light I have to open my lens up right?? So I open it up to it's fasted at 1.4 but then I am loosing DOF and the cheese is out OOF and anything past his nose. But they all turned out blurry anyway. I have to use the 50m as I am holding camera awsell as throwing cheese. I need a light lens. So basically could someone explain to me best settings for capturing crisp moment in my situation or what I can try to get this image to work without having to buy the Bega cheese factory. Edited April 23, 2009 by Rocco1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruthless Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 PS. He looks a bit fatty wombats in this, but it's clearly a bad unflattering angle for him, he's cut in real life. Is there a new trend in people worrying about their dog's bum looking big in pictures? What settings were you using, shutter speed and ISO? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocco Posted April 22, 2009 Author Share Posted April 22, 2009 I had my camera on aperture priority. Looking at my crap blurry ones. ISO500 and SS 1/400 I don't like pumping my ISO as I hate noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruthless Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 It probably isn't movement blur at 1/400, just a really shallow DOF. Maybe try using your Speedlite for more light Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocco Posted April 22, 2009 Author Share Posted April 22, 2009 Thanks, I will give that a go tomorrow when the light is better. Good thinking. I forget I have a Speedlite.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubiton Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 Put him in the sun (with it behind you) - strong sun not diffused and needs to be about 10am before or 2pm or after. Set your camera on Manual. Set the ISO on 400, set the aperture on F8 or less but no further than 5.6. Set your speed on 1/1000th (yes you can blur at lower speeds like 1/250 or 1/400 if you move the camera slightly if trying to throw and click at the same time). Set lens to auto focus and try both AI Servo and One shot (or nikon equiv) Take pics see how you go. Check light beforehand and make sure indicator is in the middle in the viewfinder when pointing at dog start at f8 and if its too dark move down one f stop at a time til its in the middle. If its still dark at 5.6 then bump the ISO up to 500. Good luck throwing cheese and taking pics - I dont even attempt both as you tend to move the camera as you are trying to take it while holding with one hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tess32 Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 You might wanna consider putting the camera on a tripod maybe and then using a remote release to trip the shutter so you can throw the cheese without camera shake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rugerfly Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I've tried doing similar things with tennis balls its really hard not to get camera shake and compose properly. A tripod would be a great idea. I'd agree with the faster speed, and if its in the shadows, put the active d lighting on medium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clicking Mad Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 can I try and see what I come up with? atm it is cloudy, I have no speedlight, I have a tripod but no shutter release - it's on order! I have a 50mm, the 1.8 version and refuse to go higher than 400ISO unless absolutely necessary be back with the result tonight I'm on leave with nothing better to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubiton Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 If a photo is correctly exposed it will be fine with ISO up to and including 800. Higher than that you will see some grain on the computer but if only printed as 4x6 inch it is OK. However if under exposed in low light conditions just about any ISO will come up with 'noise' or grain. Tripid and shutter release sound the perfect way around throwing and taking pics at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocco Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share Posted April 23, 2009 Thanks for the advice guys. I cant relly use a tripod as Roc moves around a bit and jumps high. CM please go for your life and have a go. I am sure you will do a far better job then me. I didnt have time today to hit the best light of the day at 10. I tried about 4pm light, balancing on a chair, throwing cheese with a speedlite. This was the best effort but my DOF is out. I will try again another time, I cant keep throwing cheese at him for his health, so I only have a few shots at it at one time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubiton Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 OMG - look at the eyeballs!!!!! How much difference is there from his chin (bottom jaw which is in focus) and his nose? Just wondering if its movement blur from the speed he is moving that top lip to get the cheese!! Even the top jaw whiskers look in focus (and the cheese which Im assuming isnt quite in there yet). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clicking Mad Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 If a photo is correctly exposed it will be fine with ISO up to and including 800. Higher than that you will see some grain on the computer but if only printed as 4x6 inch it is OK.However if under exposed in low light conditions just about any ISO will come up with 'noise' or grain. Tripod and shutter release sound the perfect way around throwing and taking pics at the same time. well that's interesting, I always err on the side of underexposing rather than overexposing, (though I'm trying to change that) and can say I've noticed some grain in my shots. Glad to hear if printed it wouldn't be noticable. I used to have not such a problem with grainy/noisy shots, but after looking over some earlier ones, I have tried to avoid it where possible, and figured it was the over ISO400 that caused my issue, maybe it was more the underexposing? anyway, here's the best shot I got of Chester trying to catch a small dog biscuit (decided to save the cheese ). I went through a handful of biscuits, I found out Chester is a terrible catch, I'm a terrible thrower and his teeth really need a clean I ditched the tripod 'cause I couldn't get the angle right, it's too low and the focus was way off, I couldn't get it high enough, I ended up standing on one of my useful boxes to get the height, after trying to shoot blind with an outstretched arm held high and above his head, still I think I was too close. I shot this one at about my waist height (standing on the box) steadying it against my body, and I took a couple of pre-shots to see if I had the angle right considering I wasn't looking through the viewfinder when shooting before throwing the biscuit. I actually found the timing was the hardest, 'cause even with the continuous shooting you have delays between each shot, so I started at different times, I got heaps of shots in a row of just before I threw the biscuit and just after he missed the catch, but seemed to miss the middle shots, just because of the timing of the continuous shooting, if that makes sense? Because of what you said rubiton, I didn't go below f/5.6 but most of mine came out underexposed. This was close to the end of over 300 shots, I think I was on the 2nd to last biscuit, I was sure I hadn't succeeded, the shutter speed was too slow at 1/320 - but like I said didn't want to go higher ISO than 400 and didn't want to go wider than f/5.6 - I shoot raw these days, not sure if that helped 'cause I upped the exposure in lightroom, I also added some extra brightness to the biscuit, 'cause it was too dark against his tongue? oh, and I cropped it square Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but there is definite room for improvement, namely shutter speed, timing and lighting :D rocco - I literally giggled with that shot! his eyes! I got a few outtakes with Chester's eyes practically crossed lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubiton Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I also use to make sure I underexposed instead of over exposing however have learnt that you can get away with one stop too low/open (after that its too much to fix) with teh digital but you cant push it as far as the old days with film. When it came to grain I was worried about a photo I worked on from the yearling sales. Since I stuffed up the focus (got left on manual not auto and I didnt notice til horse was put away) I used the smart sharpen then unsharp mask then smart sharpen again in CS4. End result on screen was photo that looked very grainy - so I thought this is gonna look awful but at least I tried. How wrong was I - printed out at home it looked OK printed by the lab looked fine. Was only in 4x6 inch size but fine and the other two (yet three horses before I worked it out) I could not pick aside from the fact one of them was up against a wall and nothing else was against the walls this year. Not sure how they would print as big enlargements but doubt anything really big will be needed. A lot of my scanned film images also looked a bit grainy on the computer but have printed up to 8x12 inch without a problem. ONe of them came up fantastically in a book (think the book photo people fixed up the colour a little but came out well in a big glossy paper full colour book - you couldn't pick the quality difference between the film scan and the digital image used elsewhere). However I did start to see the grain/noise in images from 12 months ago that were taken on 1000 ISO but it was in near darkness so I was happy to get a photo that looked close to correctly exposed so could live with it. By the way those dog pics are impressive (could border on scary if the food wasnt there!!!). Even the drool in both is sharp in focus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirislin Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I love your end results girls, I might have to try this as well. I reckon it'd be funny to see the photographers themselves while they're trying to get these shots, balancing on chairs, boxes etc. sounds dangerous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocco Posted April 24, 2009 Author Share Posted April 24, 2009 (edited) CM that is a wonderful effort. It harder then it actually sounds isnt it. Roc is pretty good at catching cheese, but I think that is because he has a little black scavange hanging around on the ground, waiting for scraps. no room for failure (for little legs he can move in on lost cheese FAST). Roc's eyes look weird but it's exactly what I want, just need to it all perfect and I want his head angled up more like Chester. rubiton, I think you are right it's not DOF but movement blur. I had it at f5.6 1/500 ISO640??? Too slow or me with camera shake? Kirislin feel free to give it a go. I will try again in the weekend once he has walked off his cheese. Edited April 24, 2009 by Rocco1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubiton Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 I reckon yes movement blur with 1/500th - especially since everything else looks pin sharp. If it was camera shake the whole photo would be out. If the sun comes out would definately try with 1/1000th (or higher if it was actually a strong sun and the lightmetering said there was enough light) just to see if that froze that part of his mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirislin Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Is there any chance you can teach him to catch from directly above his head, so, rather than tossing it you just maybe stand on a step ladder and drop it straight down. I used to have a whippet who could catch like this. I think there'd be much less head movement. Once they learn it they just open their mouths and it drops in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iltby Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Now I'm going to have to give this a go Awesome idea Rocco, did you have anymore success this weekend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocco Posted May 5, 2009 Author Share Posted May 5, 2009 Funny you should ask..... Not what I was after but I love it how the focus is on his eye and looking at me. I did catch one with the cheses just at the top of his mouth and all sharp, but havent processed it yet. I think it helped having a better camera as these were just a couple throws of cheese. Look forward to seeing your cheese throwing photo's Josie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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