I practiced my panning yesterday at the track meet. Some were better than others. The long jump pictures were taken looking into the sun because if I were on the other side, the "rakers" would have been in the way. And these are all SOOC .
those are great!!! I saw on the exif info on one of them that you were on 1/40th of a second....is there a reason why for that? I would think you'd need a faster shutter speed to make sure the entire subject is in focus. Wondering how that would effect the movement in the background though...(this is me answering without researching panning first...)
You've got the camera settings nailed perfectly, great job with that! The one thing that will help you tremendously is a monopod. You can grab one for as little as $15, and it will help stabilize the vertical motion and give you better side-to-side panning action.
Now that you've got the technical side down, you just need to work on the framing. You've got the right idea, just gotta hone it down.
The first and second photos are nothing. Either you are standing too far away, or not zoomed in far enough. The third photo is better: you are close enough that his entire body almost fills the frame from top to bottom.
The thing with shooting sports photography is that without a face, you have nothing. I have shoot NCAA sports before and I have had some absolutely stunning slam dunk photos, soccer goal shots, and an amazing broken bat double during a baseball game. However, in all those photos, you couldn't see the player's face. So, those shots were worthless.
The only photo where you can see the person's face is the last one, which is why that is the best you shot. Nobody cares about an arm, a leg, or the back of someone's head. But you got a good side profile with a blurry background in the last photo.
The only thing you could have done better in the last photo was framed closer to the ground. You've got a lot of head room that you don't actually need. I'm thinking it's pretty difficult to stand on a field and pan the camera handheld, which is where a monopod would have come in handy. Also, don't use a tripod because they are too cumbersome.
Try the last shot again, only this time try to capture everything from his head to his toes without any wasted space. I remember you asking about this about a week ago and you've done great so far, now just gotta capture the moment.
I actually really love the panning effect and the colours in the last couple of shots are great... the fencing makes a cool background, like Go-Faster stripes almost. But like Jason (last comment) has pointed out, I'm missing seeing both of the subjects feet... afterall he IS running. Great attempt - keep trying, I'm sure your son will LOVE a great shot of him in action!
I'm really unexperienced and my advice probably isn't worth very much, but I really like seeing the shadow on the ground in the first shot, even though you're not zoomed in enough. I also like the slight motion blur in the moving parts of his body in all the images, and I think the backgrounds look great. Although I had never considered it, what @jason said about seeing faces being important proves very true with me, I do like the ones where you can see at least a bit of profile much more than the ones with no face! @jasonbarnette You have a lot more knowledge (and skill) than most of us about the technical aspects of photography, and I really appreciate you giving such valuable input and opinions on these threads! Your comments are always interesting to read and informative. Thank you =)
@amyhughes in my researching of panning, you do need a slow shutter speed for panning. If it's too fast it freezes everything and you don't get the blurred background. @jasonbarnette Thank you so much for your advice! I will be looking for a monopod for next week's meet. @jennlouise Thank you. The down side of track events (except for the mile and two mile..lol) is you don't have a whole lot of chances to get many pictures.
@beelzeboss Thanks. I hadn't noticed the shadow...it is kind of cool. @jasonbarnette and ditto to what Ines said about your willingness to take the time to comment and so thoroughly.
@beelzeboss@lbaker Well, I joined the 365 Project for two reasons: the first was to see which of my photos really grabbed the "wow" affect, and the second was to help everyone else.
I am always happy to spread my knowledge. Now, I may not give you my best tips and tricks because I don't want to put myself out of business! But I'll give you nudges here and there :D
@lbaker Now THAT is better. Fewer distractions, just focused on the long jumper. Now, try to capture the photo at that exact framing instead of cropping. When you crop, you lose pixels, and lost pixels means not as sharp.
@jasonbarnette --- Yep, I agree with you on everything. Cropping helped us to see this jumpers face and expression. This adds interest and really brings everything about him into focus more. Also, the tip on using the monopod makes good sense.
you have dust on your sensor FYI.... i can see the same spot in 3 of 4 photos... and in the fourth I think it is just in a dark pixel... right side middle top...
one thing I would like to point out is with the longer exposure times you are blowing out your highlights and the sky....
it looks sunny out... so sunny 16 gives you iso 100 1/100 f16
top photo:
FL 53mm
ss 1/30 +1.3 stops
ISO 100 +0 stops
f/25 -0.66 stop
leaves you .5ish stops over exposed
my eye tells me it is more like 1 stop at least over exposed.... I would consider a ND filter for something like this... saves the lose of detail from lens at > f/16
@icywarm I know it is over exposed. But the f-stop wouldn't go anymore and I didn't want to increase the shutter speed much more...and I don't know how to compensate for that... and.... I'm not sure what all that means that you posted. I see that you have my exif info...
what I posted was me guessing how far over exposed it was and why... look into a ND filter or a set of them... they are grey, so don't add a colour... (but sometimes need a like post to make them pop again) they will lower your exposure so you can have longer shutter speeds... think about having an f-stop of more like 8(likely best for your lens) and still having a 1/4 sec shutter speed.
If you have twpolarizingng filters one being CPL you can actual turn it to adjust how much light you want blocked out from the shot. (back to high-school physics light passing through twperpidicularrpolarizeded lenses)
You could also try a circular grad filter... but reversed so centrenter is brighter... this will mean you subject could be brighter without burning out your sky...
sorry my computer is doing something very strange adding random letters and stuff... hope you understand it...
@jasonbarnette I bought a monopod, but I didn't use it here. I tried it for some long jump pictures but just felt like I didn't have as much control over my camera angle. Perhaps because of them running and then jumping up? I suppose it may just take some getting use to it. I almost got all of him in this picture. But more of him is in focus. @icywarm I bought an ND filter, but it was clouding up so I took it off. But, the sun came back out while I was waiting across the field- camera bag was with my husband in the stand.
Working with a monopod takes practice because, as you've already discovered, you are somewhat limited with horizontal movement only. Try sitting down. That will give you a better angle when he does a slight jump during the long jump competition.
That is why I don't like bags... if you don't carry the stuff on you... you will not use it...
as to sharpness... it would be 'luck' at this point to get a sharp image as you pan he would have to be careful not to bob up and down well running...(hence why pan is easy with bikers and cars) but there is nothing saying a photo HAS to be tack sharp....
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Now that you've got the technical side down, you just need to work on the framing. You've got the right idea, just gotta hone it down.
The first and second photos are nothing. Either you are standing too far away, or not zoomed in far enough. The third photo is better: you are close enough that his entire body almost fills the frame from top to bottom.
The thing with shooting sports photography is that without a face, you have nothing. I have shoot NCAA sports before and I have had some absolutely stunning slam dunk photos, soccer goal shots, and an amazing broken bat double during a baseball game. However, in all those photos, you couldn't see the player's face. So, those shots were worthless.
The only photo where you can see the person's face is the last one, which is why that is the best you shot. Nobody cares about an arm, a leg, or the back of someone's head. But you got a good side profile with a blurry background in the last photo.
The only thing you could have done better in the last photo was framed closer to the ground. You've got a lot of head room that you don't actually need. I'm thinking it's pretty difficult to stand on a field and pan the camera handheld, which is where a monopod would have come in handy. Also, don't use a tripod because they are too cumbersome.
Try the last shot again, only this time try to capture everything from his head to his toes without any wasted space. I remember you asking about this about a week ago and you've done great so far, now just gotta capture the moment.
@jasonbarnette You have a lot more knowledge (and skill) than most of us about the technical aspects of photography, and I really appreciate you giving such valuable input and opinions on these threads! Your comments are always interesting to read and informative. Thank you =)
@jasonbarnette Thank you so much for your advice! I will be looking for a monopod for next week's meet.
@jennlouise Thank you. The down side of track events (except for the mile and two mile..lol) is you don't have a whole lot of chances to get many pictures.
@jasonbarnette and ditto to what Ines said about your willingness to take the time to comment and so thoroughly.
I am always happy to spread my knowledge. Now, I may not give you my best tips and tricks because I don't want to put myself out of business! But I'll give you nudges here and there :D
it looks sunny out... so sunny 16 gives you iso 100 1/100 f16
top photo:
FL 53mm
ss 1/30 +1.3 stops
ISO 100 +0 stops
f/25 -0.66 stop
leaves you .5ish stops over exposed
my eye tells me it is more like 1 stop at least over exposed.... I would consider a ND filter for something like this... saves the lose of detail from lens at > f/16
If you have twpolarizingng filters one being CPL you can actual turn it to adjust how much light you want blocked out from the shot. (back to high-school physics light passing through twperpidicularrpolarizeded lenses)
You could also try a circular grad filter... but reversed so centrenter is brighter... this will mean you subject could be brighter without burning out your sky...
sorry my computer is doing something very strange adding random letters and stuff... hope you understand it...
@icywarm I bought an ND filter, but it was clouding up so I took it off. But, the sun came back out while I was waiting across the field- camera bag was with my husband in the stand.
Working with a monopod takes practice because, as you've already discovered, you are somewhat limited with horizontal movement only. Try sitting down. That will give you a better angle when he does a slight jump during the long jump competition.
This is much better, really great job!
as to sharpness... it would be 'luck' at this point to get a sharp image as you pan he would have to be careful not to bob up and down well running...(hence why pan is easy with bikers and cars) but there is nothing saying a photo HAS to be tack sharp....