Action photography advice

[scenicroute79]

I'm pretty new to action photography, I have a decent SLR and zoom lens.
Recently shot at motor racing events and flying displays.
On the whole have come away with some pretty good pics but lacking the really high definition and sharpness I'm looking for.
Any advice would be appreciated, whether it's just technique and lack of experience or I'm missing something more obvious.
Just for example I was shooting vintage aircraft yesterday. 1/200 in TV mode (canon) to capture some propeller blur.
Auto focus with continuous focusing.
Weather was perfect blue sky.
I'm panning through as I shoot.
A lot of shots my shots were also really silhouetted.

[Dave.]

Post some samples you're happy with, & some you aren't.

[scenicroute79]

[scenicroute79]

I've posted a few here. Had to reduce them significantly in order for them to fit the forum which doesn't do them any favours in terms of quality. I've also dropped in a couple that are heavily silhouetted to give you an idea, however it's the resolution and sharpness that's my main concern. Sure I can play with the exposure compensation next time to fix the silhouettes.

[eltawater]

Only seeing the one photo which is of the F1 and no idea if you think that's good / bad?

[RobDickinson]

scenicroute79 said:

1/200 in TV mode (canon) to capture some propeller blur.
Auto focus with continuous focusing.
Weather was perfect blue sky.
I'm panning through as I shoot.
A lot of shots my shots were also really silhouetted.

Last thing sounds like your metering, either use manual mode or exposure compensation or a metering mode that puts more priority on the subject/center of the frame.

Panning is hard to keep the subject sharp.

Post an example where you think it should all be better with settings and exactly what gear you used

[scenicroute79]

eltawater said:

Only seeing the one photo which is of the F1 and no idea if you think that's good / bad?

Sorry had a bit of trouble getting them on the forum. There should be more thumbnails once you enlarge the image... I think?
To me the F1 image is just ok, intention was to have the safety car in focus. Images just not sharp enough for my liking. Maybe I'm just asking too much. Hard to describe since I've had to reduce it so heavily to post.
This was taken in shutter priority, around 1/1250.

[Kneedragger95]

Sure, using exposure compensation can help a lot. Getting used to Manual mode can help too, so you can select a wider aperture/higher iso while also selecting the shutter speed you require to capture the amount of motion you would like in your photo.

The thing with modes such as Tv and Av is that while you only need to focus on one setting, you are therefore leaving the camera to figure out the rest of the settings. This is good if you are limited on time, but the camera will try to produce an image to what IT thinks is right, not YOU. This is what can lead to perfectly exposed backgrounds but under exposed subjects, not good for action photography.

You also mentioned blurry subjects. Bear in mind that while a wider aperture produces lovely background blur and a way to increase exposure, it becomes harder to keep a moving subject in focus because of the reduced depth of field.

Better camera bodies can help keep moving subjects in focus with a wide aperture as they have faster autofocus speeds, as can loads of practice.

One last thing is that by shooting your photos as RAW files post processing can help to tinker with exposure, shadows and highlights etc. Of course it is best to get the image as close to perfect out of the camera first though.

[eltawater]

You're quite heavily underexposed on the trio of sea furies. You'd benefit from this point at maybe bumping the ISO level up to maybe ISO400 although you may start to blow out the sky.



Are you performing any post processing on the RAWs or are these straight out of the camera? The picture of Sally B and Nellie would benefit from some exposure and shadows tweaking.



This looks like the BoB show at Duxford yesterday and I've always found it more difficult to shoot there during bright sunny days precisely because the display line takes the planes in front of the sun, so all you see as a spectator is the shadow side of the aircraft. You'll get much harsher shadows which will make your life more difficult in post.

You may find it more helpful to switch from Tv mode to full manual where you can control the ISO and aperture settings to suit your target. What's the aperture value for the sea furies photo?

The Spitfire on the climb looks like it's been quite heavily cropped. What's the focal length on that one? You'll always struggle a bit on those as the display line is a fair distance away at Duxford and the climb just takes it even further out of reach on your lens.

[Tony1963]

The Catalina image is good for the movement in the propellers, but the aircraft itself is soft, indicating it’s either slightly out of focus, or you’ve heavily cropped the image... or it’s a poor quality lens.

Which camera and lens?

[scenicroute79]

Tony1963 said:

The Catalina image is good for the movement in the propellers, but the aircraft itself is soft, indicating it’s either slightly out of focus, or you’ve heavily cropped the image... or it’s a poor quality lens.

Which camera and lens?

Totally agree with the Catalina image, looks ok to the untrained eye but can clearly see it's not quite right. Camera is a Canon 7D mkii, lens is EF 100-400 so should be within its capabilities. Think the problem lies more with the operator!

[RobDickinson]

Do you ave a UV filter on that lens?

[scenicroute79]

RobDickinson said:

Do you ave a UV filter on that lens?

It has a Skylight 1A filter on the lens.

[RobDickinson]

Remove it. That lens hates them.

[scenicroute79]

RobDickinson said:

Remove it. That lens hates them.

Will do! Thanks for the advice.

[scenicroute79]

eltawater said:

You're quite heavily underexposed on the trio of sea furies. You'd benefit from this point at maybe bumping the ISO level up to maybe ISO400 although you may start to blow out the sky.



Are you performing any post processing on the RAWs or are these straight out of the camera? The picture of Sally B and Nellie would benefit from some exposure and shadows tweaking.



This looks like the BoB show at Duxford yesterday and I've always found it more difficult to shoot there during bright sunny days precisely because the display line takes the planes in front of the sun, so all you see as a spectator is the shadow side of the aircraft. You'll get much harsher shadows which will make your life more difficult in post.

You may find it more helpful to switch from Tv mode to full manual where you can control the ISO and aperture settings to suit your target. What's the aperture value for the sea furies photo?

The Spitfire on the climb looks like it's been quite heavily cropped. What's the focal length on that one? You'll always struggle a bit on those as the display line is a fair distance away at Duxford and the climb just takes it even further out of reach on your lens.

Yes Duxford yesterday, sea Fury's and Sally B straight out the camera. I have tweaked them and results are better but posted the originals for the sake of feedback. I have cropped the spit image a fair amount to be fair. Probably lost a bit extra when I reduced it to fit within the 2mb forum limit.

Think I also may be shooting in JPEG rather than Raw. Makes absolute sense with the sun, was aware of it but not much I could do about it, images improved significantly in the afternoon as the sun swung around behind the display line.

Sorry can't find the aperture on the sea furies, looks like I may have cut them from the SD rather than copying them.

Really appreciate the feedback and looking forward to the next outing. Conclusion is clearly to step out of the auto comfort zones.

[RobDickinson]

RAW you can recover shadows a lot more, but it will fill your buffer and card faster so you need to be a touch lighter on the shutter button.

Get out and practice panning with cars at similar shutter speeds and focal lengths, also make sure you are on Mode 2 on the lens IS system

[scenicroute79]

RobDickinson said:

RAW you can recover shadows a lot more, but it will fill your buffer and card faster so you need to be a touch lighter on the shutter button.

Get out and practice panning with cars at similar shutter speeds and focal lengths, also make sure you are on Mode 2 on the lens IS system

Thanks Rob, appreciate the advice.

[_Hoppers]

scenicroute79 said:

I'm pretty new to action photography, I have a decent SLR and zoom lens.
Recently shot at motor racing events and flying displays....................

What aperture are you shooting at? Using small apertures can cause diffraction which won't help when you're wanting a sharp image. If you're wanting to use a slow shutter in bright conditions you might want to consider using a ND filter so you can larger aperture to avoid diffraction.

[scenicroute79]

_Hoppers said:

scenicroute79 said:

I'm pretty new to action photography, I have a decent SLR and zoom lens.
Recently shot at motor racing events and flying displays....................

What aperture are you shooting at? Using small apertures can cause diffraction which won't help when you're wanting a sharp image. If you're wanting to use a slow shutter in bright conditions you might want to consider using a ND filter so you can larger aperture to avoid diffraction.

Thanks hoppers, I was in shutter priority mode. Camera was setting the aperture pretty low if I recall around f/5.6