Frustrating day at the Cricket.

AnimalRights

Ireland vs. Denmark Rathmines
Tale of 2 halves so to speak, weather while Denmark batted weather was not bad, okish.
I had my 450D set to auto focus points and evaluative light.
Went up for a pint at HT so to speak and met this Female



She was busy picking and sending away her best images for her picture agency etc, we exchanged hi's and I told her I wasn't happy that everytime I shot burst my pics of the batsman/bowler were coming out blurry, so she says use spot metering and manual focusing.

So 2nd half ie Irelands inngings I try this....can't say I noticed much difference but the light was A LOT worse.

Odd thing is when I turned Manual focus on the 70-200 lens as well my al servo settings etc said to turn it off?

Got back to PC and as I thought lots of pics were ****e.

I turned on foucs points and normally when I have auto focus on I see red squares, for manual I noticed all black cept for the one I picked, which was mostly centre and that would be red, but for a lot of pictures they were all black, the centre one even?? did I need to wait longer for manual to focus? If that was the case that surely is very hard for sports?

http://pix.ie/punkrock/album/324185
Best I could salvage.

Oh anyone guess what equipment/lense she was using...

Paulw

She's using a Nikon D3, with a 400mm f/2.8 lens (I think). Looks about right anyway.

Manual focus can be hard, but then again, when you're doing it long enough, you know what you're at. When you turn on manual focus, then your focus modes (One shot, AI and Servo) are all turned off, since you are doing the focusing.

I use centre point focus only for sport. That way the subject at the centre of your image should be sharp and in focus.

Spot metering should help make sure that your subject is properly exposed and everything else doesn't matter.

The conditions today did change a lot. I was covering a football game, but unlike you, I'm very happy with my results.

AnimalRights

D200 her neckstrap said, I don't know anything about Nikons so...Lens was 400 f2.8 though.

Anyways, Guess I can try again at Clontarf on Monday but weathers meant to be poor then.

Ricky91t

The pic of her seems quiet soft and abit shaky.Like the pics on your pixie though.Except for no.8 which is abit shaky.What was your rough shutter for the day.were you using is?and a monopod?and were you using a 1.4 tc
Sorry for the questions.Id just like to know why some of your shots at f/2. came out blurry


As for the points.Normally for me the alservo doesnt light my centre point on af till iv manual focused and the subject is sharp.So until you twist the mf ring and the lpayer is sharp it wont flash





Reduce pix to 800 or less or mods will get angry :pac:

AnimalRights

Hi Ricky, I snatched at the picture of her, so why that one is soft.
I did indeed use the 1.4 extender and used a Monopod for the 1st time, but I thought the Monopod was excellent, not sure now, fairly confused by now
The MF you talked about is interesting.

shutter was changed a lot, but tried for 500 mostly.

Paulw

It would be useful to read the exif on your images to see all the settings.

AI Servo should work well. Once the image is focused, it should track focus. So, pick the subject, half press the shutter, then follow it.

For cricket, where the batsman isn't moving that much, maybe AI Focus would work better for you?

Ricky91t

Best thing to do for mf is what i find anyway if you'd rather manual focus.Auto focus on the subject then flick the switch to mf on the lense keep your hand around the manual focus ring and try following the subject so you get used to which way to twist and how much needed.
I honestly dont see the point in manual focusing in this day and age.Im quiet confused that she did as her equipment was pretty pro stuff.Best thing to do is keep praticing :P

kensutz

And another bit of info that's Caroline Quinn.

AnimalRights

Is that the girl that was photographed at some Horse race meeting b4 Ken? I remember seeing a pic b4 of something similar.

1st time to try Manual and the way you talk about it Paul I did not do anything remotely like it.

DaireQuinlan

yeah cricket is difficult. 90% of the action happens out in the middle of the field where you can't get near it so you definately need a 300/400. I was at our company match last year, took a bunch of shots with my crummy ->300 zoom, f5.6 at the long end. Had portra 800 in so I was able to control the shutter speed. From shots I took I reckon its probably best to be at either end of the green, although of course that might give your camera's AF a run for its money ...



the second match I went to I'd completely forgotten about so had to make do
with a 20->35. Not the best lens to use for cricket :-)




definately a d2/d3. No pop up flash, and the metering mode selection switch up on the prism is a dead giveaway.

kensutz

Haven't a clue tbh. I was meant to be there today but over indulged at a staff night out last night. I might be there for the Scotland game but more than likely will be at the 20/20 qualifiers next weekend.

Ricky91t

AnimalRights wrote: »

Is that the girl that was photographed at some Horse race meeting b4 Ken? I remember seeing a pic b4 of something similar.

1st time to try Manual and the way you talk about it Paul I did not do anything remotely like it.

you did twist the manual focus ring on your lens?Sorry to ask im sure you did but you havnt mentioned it in the posts

AnimalRights

ricky91t wrote: »

you did twist the manual focus ring on your lens?Sorry to ask im sure you did but you havnt mentioned it in the posts

Yeah! I twisted it!!, I don't mind you asking me millions of questions lol, I find learning Photography very interesting.
Having said that off to The Foggy for a few pints, chill the fck out like.

oshead

I had a chance to take a few pics at the 50 x 50 World Cup in Barbados last year.

Manual focus is the way to go I reckon.

Dave OS

One from ground level.


A couple from the stand.

kensutz

Never had a problem using auto focus and no point in using manual if the ball is skied and you want to track a fielder catching:

Borderfox

I was working today and used AISERVO and centre point focus all day on Horses with very few failures.

AnimalRights

Reflecting back now the Denmark shots in the morning session were clearer and less failures, afternoon Irish shots were poor in comparison.
Wouldn't mind trying a diff sport sometime either, just to see how it compares.

Ricky91t

Try gaa plenty of local club games around dublin im assuming

AnimalRights

Todays Cricket which Ireland won at a romp.
Ireland vs. Netherlands.

Composition wise I have some good ones but I needed more reach and by the time I cropped them they were not as sharp.









More here
http://pix.ie/punkrock/album/324265