I need some tips on sports photography

[bernie west]

Hi all.  I've just started to get into surf photography, but I'm finding I'm missing focus a bit.  I have to track the surfers as they move across the wave, so I've set focus as AF-C (i.e. continuous focus).  Reading my camera manual it suggested setting 9 central focus points, but I think this is causing it to focus on the ocean behind the surfer a lot of the time.  Towards the end of todays session I changed over to a single point, and that seemed to be a bit better, but it's hard to keep the surfer under the centre point at all times.

Any tips on what focus settings I should use to be able to nail focus more often?  I am shooting with a Nikon D810.

[spidermike]

it's hard to keep the surfer under the centre point at all times.

That is where practice comes in....hours and hours of practice.
I am not suprised that 9-point AF is not working as hoped - the algorithm will pick up either the closest object or the highest contrast and this will often be the rolling surf.

One technique I recently started experimenting with is 'bump focus' where you focus, start tracking and then take your finger off the button and track even though the subject becomes OOF and blurred. Keep tracking and only press the shutter when you know it is on target. The thinking is that if you keep your finger on the shutter it will at some point lose focus and it if locks onto the background it is harder to get it back on focus to the subject (if you google 'bump focus' you will find more about it).

Have you tried the '3-D' tracking - I have not seen it in action but apparently it uses colour info of the original subject to move AF points.

[dwswager]

Hi all.  I've just started to get into surf photography, but I'm finding I'm missing focus a bit.  I have to track the surfers as they move across the wave, so I've set focus as AF-C (i.e. continuous focus).  Reading my camera manual it suggested setting 9 central focus points, but I think this is causing it to focus on the ocean behind the surfer a lot of the time.  Towards the end of todays session I changed over to a single point, and that seemed to be a bit better, but it's hard to keep the surfer under the centre point at all times.

Any tips on what focus settings I should use to be able to nail focus more often?  I am shooting with a Nikon D810.

It takes practice!  I shoot Nikon and the dynamic focus modes require that you lock onto the subject using a single main point and then it will keep focus (theoretically) within a pattern of 9, 21 or 51 focus points.  But you have to get it locked on.  The newer Nikons have a group AF mode for small and erratic moving objects like birds.  It is a 5 point cross and instead of having a single selected main point, it will focus on the closest thing among those 5 points.

Without knowing the angle of movement to your shooting location it is hard to give specific guidance. 

Oh, one thing I have noticed on Nikons is that if you pauses a second with the focus activiated and give it a chance to focus., you get better lock and more good images.  If however, you give a full press and start shooting images before it gets locked onto what you want, it will keep shooting out of focus.

[bernie west]

Thanks for the replies.  Surf is big today, but raining, so no practice for me..

The D810 has the 3D mode, so that might be worth trying out.

Regarding the 9 dynamic focus points... I might have to look into that more. The manual is a bit scant on the details of how this option works.  But maybe if I concentrate hard on only half depressing for focus when the centre point is over the surfer, it might work better.  Is that definitely how the dynamic focus mode works?

Instead of shooting today, due to the rain, I decided to look into a few other lens options.  I'm a little short at 200mm (300mm in DX crop mode).  And as I'm often shooting towards the end of the day, speed can become an issue (even though it's an f2.8 lens).  I'm wondering if it is worth paying a few more dollars and sourcing a VR - optical stabilisation - lens.  But I'm unsure how the VR/etc will work while panning.  Does anyone know if image stabilisation works in a panning situation (i'm usually on a monopod), or does it just mess up?

edit:  I also notice that some of the sigma lenses have two OS settings.  What's that about?  From memory of my previous canon gear, I think one of my lenses had two stabilisation settings.  One of them might have been for panning/tripod??

[bernie west]

Without knowing the angle of movement to your shooting location it is hard to give specific guidance. 

Oh yeah.  I'm usually perpendicular to the wave and the surfer(s) is more or less straight in front of me (sometimes up to 50m to the left or right).  Then the surfer moves across the wave left or right, and of course, slightly towards me as the wave brings them towards the shore.  But in general, there's not a huge range of the distance from lens.  They might be about 60m away and there might be only 6m or a little more of change in distance to the camera.  With the angles involved, the ocean behind the surfers is probably something like 5-10m behind them, and is often highly contrasty.  It's probably no surprise that the autofocus picks up the background ocean at times.

[spidermike]

What sort of ISO are you using? Wide aperture lenses give two options: open the aperture for shallow DOF or open the aperture to get faster shutter speed. With a camera like the D810 the sensor oise is so low you have a couple of options. First is using high ISO but which I mean into the 6,000-10,000 range and from what I have seen you will still get good quality images. Second is deliberately underexpose buy up to 4 stops to give you faster shutter speed and you can recover the image in post processing with little to no colour shifts and little noise. It is worth expermenting with both of these options.

Regards VR, this page should help
http://www.bythom.com/nikon-vr.htm

[Deardorff]

Hard to understand how you can be having trouble focusing on surfers. Are you on the beach or in the water?

Used to photograph a lot of surfing with Nikon F2 and F3's, 600 f/4 manual focus lens and had no trouble keeping them in focus. Much of it shot at f/4-5.6 with Kodachrome 25.  Same with football and rugby. Why AutoFocus would be a problem for you doesn't make much sense.

Those who advise practice are right. It should not be difficult.

[bernie west]

Why shouldn't it be difficult??  At 200mm the surfer is fairly small in the viewfinder (particularly compared to 600mm) and the water directly behind the surfer in the line of sight is more contrasty than the surfer themselves.  

[dwswager]

Why shouldn't it be difficult??  At 200mm the surfer is fairly small in the viewfinder (particularly compared to 600mm) and the water directly behind the surfer in the line of sight is more contrasty than the surfer themselves.  

That is exactly the benefit of the new Group AF mode on newer Nikons.

Does your camera offer a crop mode and a viewfinder magnifier.  I have the 1.2X viewfinder magnifier on my D810 and when shooting sports, I'm usually shooting the 1.2x crop mode (25MP).  This gives me a better chance to get the focusing point onto my target.

[tom b]

Interesting surfing photography video, Dave Black's Surfing Shoot.

Cheers,

[bernie west]

That is exactly the benefit of the new Group AF mode on newer Nikons.

Does your camera offer a crop mode and a viewfinder magnifier.  I have the 1.2X viewfinder magnifier on my D810 and when shooting sports, I'm usually shooting the 1.2x crop mode (25MP).  This gives me a better chance to get the focusing point onto my target.

What's this "viewfinder magnifier" of which you speak?  I have frame-lines in my viewfinder when I select DX mode.  I also just discovered tonight, buried in the thousands of customisation, that I can grey-out the part outside the DX crop.  Is there another setting in amongst the thousands that can magnify the viewfinder?  That would be really handy.

I'm still struggling a bit.  Managed to get out there a bit earlier today at about 3pm, so there was still good light and I could shoot fast shutter speed slightly stopped down (f4) and could easily see the surfer in the viewfinder.  I tried out the single point AF-C as I was confident that with concentration I could keep the point on the surfer (or at the very least on the wave just to the left of right of him/her).  Was still hit and miss (more miss than hit, unfortunately).  I'll try and get out again early another day and concentrate on using the 9-point focus.  Then might try out the 3-D another time.

Regarding the group focus mode, given I'm attempting to keep the subject in the centre of the frame, I image the 9-point dynamic mode is probably the same if not better than selecting a group at the centre of the frame.

[Otto Phocus]

As you found out, auto focus does a great job automatically focusing on something.  The problem, as you identified, is that what that something may not be what you, the photographer want.

To compound the problem, the focus point you see in the viewfinder may not line up exactly to the actual focus point your camera is using.

This means that not only to you need to understand the movement of the subject, but understand your specific camera.

Sports photography is tough and the latest gizmo may make things easier, at the end of the day, it is still the experience of the photographer in putting the right focus point on the right target at the right time (actually just before the right time).  Sadly, previous posters have reveled the solution... practice.

Good luck with it.  You will only get better at it!!