Crash Course in Photography

[Englebert]

Awesome!

 

[Leeshez]

Nice advice

 

[Pauldredge]

cheers for all this, helped me take some wicked pictures with my camera

 

[Ad]

very helpful, will be using this when learning my new 350D

 

[GR7]

Thanks for this topic... I've only just noticed it and I'm often asking photography questions!

What I would like to know is HOW DO YOU TAKE A PHOTO OF A RACING CAR OR MOTORBIKE? I often take pics but I usually keep my camera on Auto but I don't know why (probably because I'm no good at it) so what is the best way for me to get a good bike or car that is moving at 140mph or whatever.

I usually stand at hairpin to get bikes/cars at a slower speed and very often the background is in focus and the car/bike is blurry!! I could do with panning tips please!!!

 

[b3nje]

I could do that on my camera but i couldn't tell you how to do it lol.

Aperture and all these things confuse me, simple i know.

I know what to do on my camera but still don't know what's what!

 

[Rich]

I usually stand at hairpin to get bikes/cars at a slower speed and very often the background is in focus and the car/bike is blurry!! I could do with panning tips please!!!

You need to look what settings you camera has with regards to its focus.

On a Canon there should be something labelled AI Servo, which will allows the AF (Autofocus) points on the camera to pick up the bike or car and track and focus on it sharply. By half pressing the shutter and panning with the vehicle it should allow the camera to track the vehicle and get a sharp in focus shot rather than a blurry moving object with a sharp in focus background. Most cameras take a second or two with the shutter half pressed to allow the focus to be obtained.

With panning, be smooth, and follow through with the camera after releasing the shutter, do just abbruptly stop.

You will have trouble taking shots of things at 140 mph though!

 

[ukaskew]

Thanks for this topic... I've only just noticed it and I'm often asking photography questions!

What I would like to know is HOW DO YOU TAKE A PHOTO OF A RACING CAR OR MOTORBIKE? I often take pics but I usually keep my camera on Auto but I don't know why (probably because I'm no good at it) so what is the best way for me to get a good bike or car that is moving at 140mph or whatever.

The second post in my topic goes through panning, that should get you started...

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showpost.php?p=2315526&postcount=2

As Rich said, 140mph is a little on the tough side, especially if you are just starting out. Try to get them coming out of a corner at around 60-100mph, much easier initially.

The AI Servo bit Rich refers to is AF-C on a Nikon, probably has a similar name to one of those two on your Fuji.

 

[lanky]

I have seen it mentioned on other sites and you mentioned it within the guide, when regarding the pictures what does noise mean?

 

[ukaskew]

I have seen it mentioned on other sites and you mentioned it within the guide, when regarding the pictures what does noise mean?

Here goes...

Instead of the background being silky smooth you can see lots of speckles and mudiness, that essentially is what noise is when regarding an image. It's not to be confused with pixelation, which looks like blockiness when you enlarge a picture too much.

 

[lanky]

Oh excelent cheers.
Got my Panasonic DMC-FZ7 today so I can try some of these out.

 

[GR7]

I have seen it mentioned on other sites and you mentioned it within the guide, when regarding the pictures what does noise mean?

You might find something about noise here Lanky!

http://www.neatimage.com/overview.html

 

[Spiezels]

brilliant mate, so useful.

To do the shot of fireworks for example would a tripod be needded.

 

[UncleGrumpy]

For fireworks, use a tripod and set your camera to B (bulb) and use a shutter release if you can, set your exposure to 3 or 4 seconds and your aperture to f/11, start your exposure when it first bursts and stop when the trails disappear, that should do the trick.

A good book for stuff like that is the Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby - subtitled The step-by-step secrets for how to make your photos look like the pros! Its packed with usefull stuff and it covers Canon and Nikon gear, I bought it for the missus when she bought her Nikon but to be honest i've read it more than she has - its like gold dust for anyone new (ish) to photography.

I.S.B.N. 0-321-47404-X Amazon sell it here and its worth every penny!

 

[Spiezels]

Found a nice place for it, set my camera up as you said and got my missus to try the moving shots.

Worked ok but i forgot to tell her to pretty much fill the screen with car, so i had to zoom in on the PC (so quality isnt as good) but looks pretty good to me lol well for our first go aye.

View attachment 18069

View attachment 18070

gonna give it another go with a mates car soon. yey


oh and i was only going 40-45

 

[jonnyjogpants]

great thread chris, as you know i am just starting out in the world of DSLR's

thanks for the Info

 

[///AMG]

The Tutorials on this site can be downloaded to your ipod... Stick your ipod on get out with your camera its like having a pro teacher with you..

http://www.ashotapart.com/tutorials.html

I found them really usefull when I started shooting a few weeks ago

Some pics I've taken on my site... Still a beginner!!

Nikon D40x
18-200 VR
10-20 Sigma

http://www.daveshawphoto.co.uk

 

[darren_rallye]

EXCELLENT advice here - thanks a lot

 

[Moby]

This is a great guide chris - thanks for spending the time putting it together.

 

[Just Bob]

Nice guide ukaskew.
I have recently bought a Fuji s6500FD and your guide was more valuable than all the stuff in the manual. They seem to think that when you buy a camera, you know how to use it! I don't!

Thanks again.

 

[Marky_]

Can't believe i never noticed this thread before. Very useful guide. I've often wondered about the panning shots and exactly how they're taken.

 

[theduck]

Nice tutorial. These might help people aswell:

http://stumac1985.deviantart.com/art/ISO-Tutorial-57795621 - ISO tutorial

http://stumac1985.deviantart.com/art/Apertures-52414887 - Apertures Tutorial

 

[JJ!]

Was just about to ask some questions about AV/TV and here it all is, grand guide! Just had a play around with a few settings and its great!! Never really had the camera to get the in focus blurry background pics but now I have and the guide works well!! CHEERS!!

 

[ukaskew]

I will rewrite this next week and add new pics, feels a bit of out date now and there is so many more techniques/ideas worth adding.

 

[Ali]

Brillaint Chris, top write up.

 

[Bloooor]

This is excellent, Thanks mate!

Just trying some of it out now on my Mums Canon 350D

Can't wait till you add some new stuff up.

 

[ukaskew]

Can't wait till you add some new stuff up.

Cheers, I did the Motorsport guide instead of updating this one, will try and get around to doing this one at some point.

 

[steven.m]

Quick question, you say that in 'P' mode the camera controls the shutter speed and aperture? But on my Canon 400D, in 'P' mode I can scroll the main scrolly thing (after pressing the shutter button half way) and adjust both aperture and shutter speed at the same time ie they both move up a value together and vice versa. Do you mean 'P' as in full auto or am I getting the wrong end of the stick? I know 'P' allows me to be more creative but it goes against what you said in the first post. Full auto lets me point and shoot and everything is set by the camera, in which case both aperture and shutter speed are controlled by the camera.



I would look at my manual but I'm at work and havent got it with me.

However, awesome guide!!

Edit: Think I've realised what I was doing wrong now, put it on 'M' and now I can control both aperture and shutter speed seperatly

 

[McBunny]

p lets you have a bit of say in the exposure but it limits the range of change

 

[Tigger]

When taking scenery shots at night, I am getting a lot of blur & movement - even with a tripod :S

On auto mode the camera uses a slow shutter speed and recomends te flash. When you put the flash on, the foreground is mostly black leaving only a few of the distant lights in the shot.

I´m using a Nikon D40 & Sigma 10-20mm and a Tamron 18-250mm
Both lenses have UV & skylight filters

 

[McBunny]

right dont use flash for a start

use mirror lockup if you can on the nikon and a remote release and hang something heavy from your tripod if you can to try to minimize wabble from wind and road vibrations etc

and use manual not auto

 

[Rhino172]

If you don't have remote release set a short timer...

the shake could just be from your pressing the shutter button

 

[Tigger]

Cheers, what is mirror lockup on the Nikon?

 

[JJ!]

Tigger.... get one of these.... cheap as chips really!!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00007EDZG/?tag=cliospnet01-21

Cheaper if you shop around too!!

If you want to pay via paypal:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-Nikon-ML-...hash=item220258475235&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318

 

[Tigger]

Have one ordered for it JJ!

Since I don´t have the remote I was using the timer for a more stable shot anyway, just cant get the settings right

And today at an aquarium I couldn´t get a decent shot without ugly reflections in the glass :dead:

 

[Tigger]

Cheers, what is mirror lockup on the Nikon?

^

 

[McBunny]

i dunno if it has it
its were you have to press the shutter twice first click it locks the mirror up to stop it moving when you take the photo to stop the camera vibrating as much

the mirror is what allows you to see through teh view finder

 

[Tigger]

Ah right, is that what the AF-L button is for (to the right of the viewfinder?

 

[ianeire]

Panning

There are various methods of panning, but here are some basics to get you started, you will probably find you then adapt this to suit your own style….

Setup

1. Set the shutter speed to 1/320 as an absolute maximum, any faster and you won’t get the blurred effect.
2. Change the focus mode to “AF-C” if possible, this will force the camera to continually refocus, important when a car is about to pass at 80mph.
3. As a dry run track a car as it passes, find a good level of zoom so it fills the viewfinder nicely when in front of you.

Superb guide dude and far, far more useful to noobs written in layman terms and practical demonstration than a technical guide. I got my first DSLR yesterday, a Canon 1000D and already I'm playing around with the manual settings having read this.

With regards to panning, "AF-C", can anyone tell me what this is on a Canon? My three options are "one shot", "AI Focus AF" and "AI Servo AF"?

Ian

 

[Paul_G]

With regards to panning, "AF-C", can anyone tell me what this is on a Canon? My three options are "one shot", "AI Focus AF" and "AI Servo AF"?

Ian

It's the AI Servo AF.

AI Focus is a hybrid (supposed) intelligent mode, which will change focus mode automatically, i.e. if it detects movement it will change from one shot mode to servo mode and vice versa.

I typically use either One shot or Servo, depending upon the subject matter I am taking photos of.