Critique these please

[sportsman]

I know it is a lot of photos. I didn't want to upload only the ones I thought were best, so I did the whole album. I do know I either need a new lens or more work on the focus end of things. These were shot in TV mode on my T3i using the 75-300 kit lens.

Ready set go!

https://www.flickr.com/gp/134890943@N05/79H2ZJ

[billinkb]

The pictures are overall pretty dang good.

There are a couple of auto focus modes on your canon.

The AL Servo mode will track the subject your shooting. Or maybe it's the other one. I don't have the camera with me and I can't remember.

The TV mode is great for keeping the shutter speed you want.

Does the lens you're shooting with have IS (Image Stabilization)?

I have a T1i and a 60d. The T1i takes just as good of pictures as the 60d, with some of my better lenses. So, yes a different lens may help as well.

[sportsman]

The pictures are overall pretty dang good.

There are a couple of auto focus modes on your canon.

The AL Servo mode will track the subject your shooting. Or maybe it's the other one. I don't have the camera with me and I can't remember.

The TV mode is great for keeping the shutter speed you want.

Does the lens you're shooting with have IS (Image Stabilization)?

I have a T1i and a 60d. The T1i takes just as good of pictures as the 60d, with some of my better lenses. So, yes a different lens may help as well.

I will have to look again when I get home from work. If memory servs me correctly, it does. It has 2 switches one of which is AF/MF. I don't ever pay attention to the other one.

[billinkb]

The Al Servo Mode is a Camera setting. Not the llens. You can youtube it.

[sportsman]

The Al Servo Mode is a Camera setting. Not the llens. You can youtube it.

Correct. You asked if my lens was IS, so that's what I was referring to.

[sportsman]

I just got home, the 18-55mm does have IS, the 75-300 does not

[billinkb]

A lens with IS will help a lot.

[Shane]

Your link doesn't work, but I found your flickr page with some Colorado pics. Several of them are soft (a little blurry). Looking at the EXIF information on the pics, it looks like they were shot in manual mode and all the ones I looked at were shot at f/8 and had shutter speeds that were pretty slow. Slow shutter speed will result in camera shake blur if you are not using a tripod or a monopod, especially if your lens doesn't have IS.

A good rule of thumb is to use a shutter speed number that is twice as big as your focal length. So if you are shooting at 250mm, for example, you should use a shutter of 1/500 or faster. In order to get a good exposure at a faster shutter speed, you need to go to a larger aperture (lower f/stop setting) and/or a higher ISO setting. The kit lens doesn't go down to f/2.8 or some other "fast" aperture setting that gathers a lot more light, so you'll likely end up bumping your ISO more to get the faster shutter speeds you need. The downside to higher ISOs is more noise in the image, so you lose a little sharpness there too.

Get a monopod and/or a tripod and use that, especially with that longer lens.

Once you get all the technical stuff worked out, then you can start working on composition.

[sportsman]

Your link doesn't work, but I found your flickr page with some Colorado pics. Several of them are soft (a little blurry). Looking at the EXIF information on the pics, it looks like they were shot in manual mode and all the ones I looked at were shot at f/8 and had shutter speeds that were pretty slow. Slow shutter speed will result in camera shake blur if you are not using a tripod or a monopod, especially if your lens doesn't have IS.

A good rule of thumb is to use a shutter speed number that is twice as big as your focal length. So if you are shooting at 250mm, for example, you should use a shutter of 1/500 or faster. In order to get a good exposure at a faster shutter speed, you need to go to a larger aperture (lower f/stop setting) and/or a higher ISO setting. The kit lens doesn't go down to f/2.8 or some other "fast" aperture setting that gathers a lot more light, so you'll likely end up bumping your ISO more to get the faster shutter speeds you need. The downside to higher ISOs is more noise in the image, so you lose a little sharpness there too.

Get a monopod and/or a tripod and use that, especially with that longer lens.

Once you get all the technical stuff worked out, then you can start working on composition.

Thanks Shane, Good info. I am not sure why the link doesn't work. I just tried it again from work and it opens right up. The link I posted is from Saturdays football game.

[Shane]

For sports or any other time you're shooting subjects that are moving, set your autofocus mode to AI Servo. Also read up on back button focus. You can assign one of the buttons on the back of your camera near your right thumb to be used to turn on the auto-focus. I use that for sports, and it helps a lot. In AI Servo, that allows me to hold focus on a running player and then hit the shutter button whenever I want to. MUCH easier than trying to hold the shutter button halfway down to focus before firing.

Oh, and get a monopod. I serves the same purpose as IS in a lens, but it costs $30 instead of several hundred.

[sportsman]

I just went thru several of the game photos in the link, most were in the f/5.0-5.6 range, shutter at 1/2000, and ISO at 400. All those pics were shot with MF. Ill read up on the AI Servo.

[Shane]

Read this....

http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2011/backbutton_af_article.shtml

[Shane]

I tried your link on my phone, and it worked. It didn't work on my computer, for some reason. There are lots of things that make it hard to get a shot focused on the player you want in a football game, even if you have a fast shutter and are on a monopod or using IS or whatever. It can drive you crazy, but I haven't found anything that will work 100% of the time yet.

The problem is centered around the focus points that you have turned on. On the T3i, I think you only have 2 options: turn on all of the focus points, or just turn on one of them. The center focus point on the T3i is the only one that is a cross type (more accurate type). My 7D has 19 points, and they're all cross type, and I have several options in deciding which ones to turn on or off. But that doesn't mean that I don't still get pics where the lens focused on something other than the guy I was trying to focus on.

If you are shooting still or slow-moving subjects, then using just the one center point gives you great control on where the lens will focus. But when you're trying to keep up with fast-moving subjects, it's hard to keep that one little red dot one a player sometimes. If the dot gets off onto something else, the lens will focus on whatever the dot is on. If it focuses on something much closer or much farther away than your intended subject is, your subject will be out of focus.

If you turn on all of your focus points, you never know which focus point(s) the camera will decide to use. It might use the one that hits your subject, or it might lock focus onto something else. Referee jerseys are the DEVIL. Your camera's autofocus used contrast to focus, so those black and white stripes are easy targets for the camera to grab and focus on. If your ball carrier isn't the same distance from your camera as the dang referee, he'll be out of focus while the ref is clear as a bell sometimes. Other things that the camera will grab focus on are fences, bleachers, buildings, lights (against a dark sky) etc... Anything that is high contrast with brights and darks together.

The best thing I've found to combat that is to zoom in as tight as possible on the action. I set my 7D to have the 9 focus points in the center of the frame active. That's easier to keep on the action than one dot, but it also deactivates the focus points around the edges that are more prone to find a ref or something else. I still end up with a few shots focused on a ref or the bleachers or something, but it helps.

When I shot with a Rebel, I typically turned on all the focus points and just zoomed as tight as I could on the action. I try to keep a full body in the frame though. I try not to cut off the feet or any other part of a player usually.

[Shane]

Day games are WAY better for fast shutter speeds, of course, because of the sunlight versus the dim stadium lights in night games. But bright sunlight causes a lot more high contrast highlights and shadows everywhere that can mess with autofocus. Sports photography isn't as easy as it seems.

[sportsman]

What do you think Shane? These were with the Canon 70-200 f4 L USM I rented for Saturdays game. I am now on the lookout for this lens. I still need to read up on the AI Servo and program a button on my camera for the focus.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/134890943@N05/albums/72157657367492104