18 replies to this topic

[brrttpaul]

Picking your brains here, I am going to a country show tomorrow armed with a nikon d7100, a sigma 300 2.8 lens and a 2x converter. There will be lurcher racing, terrier racing, various dog handling displays and falconry. It is expected to be sunny and bright. What settings would you be looking at first? A mode shutter speed or fully manual?. I would like to get some nice shots of dogs at full speed and also falcons in flight. (my main goal)

[Eagles1181]

If the lighting is stable I would use manual.  If you are tracking things through various lighting conditions I would go to some form of semi-auto (shutter priority most likely).

 

Eagle

[brrttpaul]

thx , the chances are its a beautiful sunny day. interesting you say shutter and not aperture as most of the bird forums say go for aperture you would think shutter speed as a given. Im still not sure on my focusing even though i use a 2nd button as my focus lock not the shutter release button.

[Merco_61]

I would probably use either shutter priority or manual with auto ISO activated. Centre weighted metering with as hard center weighting as you can set is useful too if you are used to center weighted, otherwise use matrix...

[Eagles1181]

With something fast moving like a bird, I would want to ensure the shutter speeds are fast enough to freeze the motion.  With aperture priority you run the risk of the bird flying though a shadow and the camera drops the shutter speed.

 

Eagle

[Ron]

Excellent advice. I'm a fan of aperture priority exposure but when you need the shutter speed to remain constant, shutter priority is the only way to go. Manual exposure would also work as well as long as lighting is consistent.

 

--Ron

[brrttpaul]

I really dont understand exposure comp it really fuzzles my brain. Lets say im in AP mode on 5.6 my shutter speed is 1/600 sec and its a bit dark, i do +1 ex comp and hey presto. My shutter speed is still the same so is my AP so I,m guessing its raised the iso? why dont I just raise the iso then?. The chances are its going to be bright I was going to start off with a low ISO, about 200 and build around that. I dont want to go to 2.8 prefering to stay around 4 or 5.6 then see what shutter speed I am at, if its to low I was thinking change the iso as i know im ok up to 800 noise wise. I was also thinking centre weighted on continuous with a pretty tight circle the ( 9 dots focus)

[Merco_61]

I think the default of the D7100 is AutoISO = on, you have to turn it off in the menu to get full manual or fully predictable control.

[brrttpaul]

Thx for all the help guys and it will be taken on board, just out of curiosity is it worth trying the 3D mode for focusing?

[TBonz]

I used to think the same way...However, I know several sports photographers who approach it the other way...they want the wide open aperture for bokeh so they go aperture priority and set a high enough ISO to keep their shutter speed fast...

 

If you aren't used to shooting moving subjects, I might error on the side of caution and do at least some shots with a large depth of field...not too large as you'll still want the background blurred but larger to give you a better rate of keepers.  

[Adam]

Thx for all the help guys and it will be taken on board, just out of curiosity is it worth trying the 3D mode for focusing?

If you expect your subject to regularly move toward or away from your camera rather than side-to-side, then yes.

 

I would recommend shooting in shutter priority mode.  In certain cases you might want to opt for a slower shutter speed while panning, which would render a blurred background while keeping the subject sharp.  This technique can really enhance photos of moving objects!

[Kenafein]

Haven't checked the setting in awhile, but can you set the minimum shutter speed to 1/800 and use aperture, if you want?  Normally I'd use shutter is a tracking situation.  

I really dont understand exposure comp it really fuzzles my brain. Lets say im in AP mode on 5.6 my shutter speed is 1/600 sec and its a bit dark, i do +1 ex comp and hey presto. My shutter speed is still the same so is my AP so I,m guessing its raised the iso? why dont I just raise the iso then?. The chances are its going to be bright I was going to start off with a low ISO, about 200 and build around that. I dont want to go to 2.8 prefering to stay around 4 or 5.6 then see what shutter speed I am at, if its to low I was thinking change the iso as i know im ok up to 800 noise wise. I was also thinking centre weighted on continuous with a pretty tight circle the ( 9 dots focus)

When you use compensation you're simply telling the camera to adjust the EV higher or lower than what it would have picked on its own, based on metering mode.  It does this by adjusting one of the 3 settings ISO, Shutter or Aperture.  Compensation is meaningless in manual, because you control all those settings, so it only works for the other modes.  

[brrttpaul]

k guys the time has come wish me luck

[nbanjogal]

Good luck! I hope you'll post some of the results here in the forum.

[brrttpaul]

[Merco_61]

Nice captures!

When the light is as good as it looks like it was, aperture priority to control the DOF is definitely the right way to go. Had the light been more marginal, the first one could easily have got a too long shutter speed and blurred. Congratulations on work well done.

[brrttpaul]

It was hard work TBH, the one bird was virtually pure white against a bright sky and the other was very dark flying about 6ft from the floor.  Missed quite a lot due to kids deciding to come in the end ( I say kids ones 21 next week the others 19 lol)

[Kenafein]

 

Great work.

[brrttpaul]

Thx very much, I enjoyed it but if I am honest I much prefer the wildlife rather than the staged events too many people jostling for places and too much going on at the same time for my liking.