Swinging subjects

[gez]

A question for Laurie or (please) anyone else who feels qualified to answer. I shoot a Canon 5D and often use my 70-200, 2.8, IS lens to capture children on swings. I've taken a LOT of shots in many different modes and settings and have had a few successes. My question is what would be the proper settings for the lens and camera (not exposure, I understand that) should I be using? I'd like a better keeper rate.

There are a few examples in my gallery.

[lexcell]

George,
It depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you want to stop the action, you need a fast shutter speed. I would set the camera to aperture priority and open the lens wide open. If that does not stop the action, you might need to bump the ISO.

The point where they pause just at the peak of height on both the back and forward swing there is a little pause where you have a better chance of stopping the action.

Another technique would be to shoot at a slower shutter speed and blur them giving a sense of motion.
Using a flash will stop them at one point with some blurred action thrown in. You will want to set the camera at slow, rear curtain sync to do this. There will be fewer keepers but the good ones will be really fun.

[Not4wood]

I just looked at your Gallery and especially your "Children On Swings" pictures. They are great!! Children at play, especially using anything in a Park creates motion. You want to capture the movement/motion and show how the kids are having fun. You captured all of this.

You are asking for advice to obviously capture something in your mind that isn't in the shots you are showing. What do you want to try to do? If you give a clue maybe someone here can help with an answer. You say your one shot is blurry. If you darken it slightly it will cover up a slight blur and also try and fix it in PE5 or what ever program you have with the Sharp or Unsharp.

[gez]

Laurie and Mark

Thanks for your replies. I'm happy with the shots as far as motion and emotion they do portray what I had in mind. I, feel I, have a decent grasp of creative exposures. I'm a big Bryan Peterson fan (student).

I should have been more specific with my question. I'm looking for settings as far as focus is concerned. How should I set the camera in that regard to increase my keeper rate? Also, is handheld or tripod use prefered in this instance?

I guess I could trial and error this stuff but thought you could fast track me with insider tips.

[RobertSchuldenfrei]

Originally Posted by gez

Laurie and Mark

Thanks for your replies. I'm happy with the shots as far as motion and emotion they do portray what I had in mind. I, feel I, have a decent grasp of creative exposures. I'm a big Bryan Peterson fan (student).

I should have been more specific with my question. I'm looking for settings as far as focus is concerned. How should I set the camera in that regard to increase my keeper rate? Also, is handheld or tripod use prefered in this instance?

I guess I could trial and error this stuff but thought you could fast track me with insider tips.

Hi Gez,

It turns out that we are neighbors! I love your website. Your portraits are top shelf! Just to add to what Laurie said, I would turn your camera on manual, stand just off center to the arc of the swing, focus on the end point of the arc manually, use the flash with rear curtain sync, and burn "film!" The beauty of digital photography is the "film" is free. Years ago, a National Geographic photographer, Jim Amos, told me that the difference between a pro and a serious amateur was quantity. He often shot a "brick" (a package of 35mm boxes of film) to get a single shot. I don't know how many rolls of film are in a brick, but it was a lot.

Cheers,

Bob

[gez]

Bob, I noticed that we're neighbors too. I just didn't think about manual focus, great idea. I had been thinking AI Servo. I'm going to try it out this afternoon. Connor's going swinging in the park this afternoon when he gets up from his nap.

Thanks for jumping in. I was about to order a 1 series body for its faster focus. You just saved/cost me thousands of American Express Points. :-)

ps- thanks for the comments on my work.

[ljameso1]

AI servo would be a big help in this situation as it will help keep focus on a moving object. If your kids are still too fast, try pre-focusing in manual focus mode(turn off auto focus) on a specific spot in the swingers arc(like the peak Laurie mentioned.)

[lexcell]

We all have our own methods of photographing and when you are learning it is good to try many different methods to see which one works best for you.

I always shoot in Continuous focus (servo) and continuous advance when photographing action. There may be some images that come out out of focus by I get far more keepers setting my camera this way.

They key is to focus on the eyes...whether it's people or animals. Follow the subject with the shutter depressed halfway until you get in focus and then fire the shutter through the entire sequence of action. This will help you to capture the peak of action and you can delete the rest.

While the masters of yore were able to capture that decisive moement with one click, that was all they had and if they missed it, they did not get another chance at that particular moment.

Utililizing the technology in today's cameras allows us to get more of those keeper images. That, and, practice, pracice, practice!!!

[Not4wood]

I'm going to add a little bit on to what Laurie recommended and then said in her last post.

A little History for those of you who don't know or remember.

--
There was this very strange wonderful old time press Photographer who had a Press Pass in his hat, smoked Stogies and was one of the weirdest photographers ever. He lived out of his Station Wagon, had his darkroom in the back of the car and always kept his police scanner on.

His name was Weegee! Always got the shots that nobody else had. He showed the drama, the heartache of the average, every day people in there struggle to survive hardship. His photographs weren't always in focus. Weren't always exposed to the best of his abilities, but his pictures got published. Why you may ask since his quality wasn't always the best? He had timing, and was usually the first on the scene or the only one on the scene and had his scoop. I don't know how many pictures he did take or shot but obviously not enough. LOL

As for the Pros getting quality by quantity???? I've never heard of that, as I've always heard (it could be a rumor LOL) for a Pro I've always felt the Pros were able to shoot less and get a higher percentage of quality usuable shots in the situation then the amateur. We always shot more to the best of our abilities and tried to get that one shot that we were able to either publish or sell from what we did shoot. Remember, in those days film was expensive. The time it took to develop the film and then go to the darkroom and print what we had was the thrill of the actual whole experience.

In today's technology, we can shoot as much as our memory cards or sticks allow and don't worry about how many we shoot. We just go thru them all and pick and choose what we want. In this mind set, I would say overshoot as much as you want because that one moment you see may never happen again and to try and recreate it almost never happens. That one expression, or that one rare moment of something happening gets caught by the camera is "Priceless". Don't be afraid to shoot, shoot and shoot. If your on a site, or vacation and you have to worry about tomorrows shooting session then just spend a little bit of time deleting some of the vary bad shots to make room for the next day.

[RonH]

Don't forget burst mode for those little people who move to fast and are unpredictable. Even I get a good one once and a while that is unexpected.