Rope Swing Fun

[Stagecoach]

I went out today to have a look at a nature reserve that has some streams and waterfalls with the intention of doing some rocks and running water. The gatekeeper advised that it was not the safest place to be and not a good time to be wandering around on my own as there was no security during the week.

After paying him my $1 for entry and giving the 4WD some practice for a kilometre or so, parked up and made my way towards where I hoped one of the falls was. No chance of serious photography at that destination but had some great practice with a bunch of lads that were letting off steam after ending their school exams this week.

All these images taken with shutter priority 1/200/250s, f4.8 to 6.3, ISO 640 to 1600 with 18-200mm
No 1


No 2


No 3


No 4


No 5


I had many failures of equal and better action shots simply because I had not considered my settings and started off in aperture priority without limiting lowest speed in auto ISO. Yes. I should have known better but fortunately realised before it was too late.

Lighting condition were awful but when there's nothing you can do about it you can not give up an opportunity for practice. The gatekeeper has advised that early morning is the best time for areas by the fall so it's on my list for next week.

Lessons learnt for these type of shots, Shutter speed 1/250 min, Aperture 4.5 to 5.6 (no DoF concerns at the distance) and let that ISO go up to 1600.

Comments and suggestions welcome as always.

Grahame

[RustBeltRaw]

Number three is really, really good. Sure, there are technical issues, but you nailed the framing and timing! 5 has the beginnings of really nice motion blur. Pity his feet are cut off, or that might be my favorite.

I would recommend opening the aperture even further if you can. As you said, your subjects are far enough from the lens to ensure sufficient depth of field even if you're really wide. f2.5 to f4 is probably a good target range. I'd also try shooting above 1/250th. Break out the 105mm f2.8G and the 50mm f1.4 next time. Those are fast enough to bump your shutter speed quite a bit. A lot of pro action shooters like 1/1000sec and above. That strikes me as a little higher than strictly necessary, but if you can get that high, I think you'll be amazed at the sharpness.

You found a killer subject. If you can show these gents your results, you can probably shoot with them again.

[Stagecoach]

Lex,

Thank you for your comments.

This is one of the occasions where a faster zoom would be an advantage from the 18-200mm and something I have considered, but I very rarely shoot action such as this. I will look carefully through the full selection of focal lengths used and I'm suspecting the 50mm is going to be the answer especially as I have a habit of zooming in too close when wider would have given the option to crop in post.

The lighting difficulty at this spot is that it is very shaded with gaps in the trees with shafts of strong light coming through but the metering handled things well enough.

The lads were interested in the images and played to the camera and viewed many as they returned from the jumps. They asked if I was going to put them in the paper assuming I was a photographer, but I explained my position. As I have managed to get a few letters and images put in our local daily paper I have told them I will have a go with one of these with a short article on our youths just having fun.

Grahame

[Brownbear]

Wonderful idea. I like 3 and 5. 5 being my favourite for the close proximity to the action. It also looks good with the bottom half cropped off (to me)

[Downrigger]

Great idea and fun to look at. I think I see a panning effect in #3, and wonder if, in addition to following Lex's helpful suggestions, it might be fun to pan at slower exposures attempting to get motion blur behind (and on portions of the subjects too, sometimes). Such an approach seems invited by the smooth and predictable motion conferred by swinging on a rope.

[Shadowman]

Very nice series. Timing is important also, knowing where your subject will be, and you've achieved that in a few of these.

[geoz]

3, 4, 5 are my favorites. I don't mind a little blur in the hands and feet since it implies motion. I see the beginnings of a new Olympic sport. Great shots in difficult conditions.

[speedneeder]

Good photos! I agree on the faster shutter speeds - for action stuff that I do I try to stay at 1/400 or faster, unless I am looking for some blurring in the photo, OR the light is just really low. What camera are you using? My Canon 60D does well through ISO 1600, still OK at ISO 3200, but struggles a bit with ISO 6400.

[Stagecoach]

Mark,

I think panning could be successful but mainly on the part of the jump where they are going through the vertical drop. On the next attempt I will try some, these examples were my first attempt and no real thought had been put into it.

Grahame

[Stagecoach]

John,

For the timing I basically followed with the camera from the launch and made the mistakes of zooming in too close (losing parts) and then progressing to taking bursts but in RAW. Fortunately I realised the burst error and changed to jpeg only but still did not go wide enough.

Grahame

[Stagecoach]

George,

I agree that some motion blur of the bodies that was generally with the feet and hands is good, otherwise they look too frozen. The speed of 1/250 to 1/320 I believe will be ideal for these.

When you actually see how close these guys were swinging to the rocks I suspect it may be considered a bit unsafe for an olympic sport

Grahame

[Stagecoach]

Hi Brian,

I'm using the Nikon D300 which does not have the best reputation for high ISO performance but with good exposure, and these were generally clipped in places due to the lighting, 1600 is acceptable.

No 5 is at ISO1600 with no noise reduction in post that I remember. Whilst I normally try and keep ISO as low as possible with these shots and conditions I had no other choice with the lens I had with me and I'm very pleased with the noise result.

I have some better examples I'll post once tiny pics is back up and running.

Grahame

[Shadowman]

John,

For the timing I basically followed with the camera from the launch and made the mistakes of zooming in too close (losing parts) and then progressing to taking bursts but in RAW. Fortunately I realised the burst error and changed to jpeg only but still did not go wide enough.

Grahame

I think you hit the mark in 3 and 4, 5 was close but still a good capture.

[speedneeder]

Hi Brian,

I'm using the Nikon D300 which does not have the best reputation for high ISO performance but with good exposure, and these were generally clipped in places due to the lighting, 1600 is acceptable.

No 5 is at ISO1600 with no noise reduction in post that I remember. Whilst I normally try and keep ISO as low as possible with these shots and conditions I had no other choice with the lens I had with me and I'm very pleased with the noise result.

I have some better examples I'll post once tiny pics is back up and running.

Grahame

I forgot to mention, Typically I use aperture priority or manual when making low light action photos, and I try to overexpose 1/3-2/3 stops at ISO 3200/6400. I'm not sure this is any better than just picking an odd ISO, but I do know that increasing the exposure in post makes the chroma noise much more noticeable to me. Best case scenario is I have decrease the exposure slightly in post which makes the chroma noise less noticeable to me.
Keep shooting!

[Stagecoach]

Brian,

I have been putting some thought into the best setup for these specific shots as I will have another go. Checking through all the good ones I got they were all taken on Shutter priority with auto ISO. The ones I took first on aperture priority were rubbish basically because I forgot to set the minimum speed for the auto ISO.

All good images were shot Shutter Speed priority at 1/250s, between ISO 800 to 1600 (I had my auto max ISO set to 1600) and apertures were the max allowable at the focal length I was zoomed. So in other words with that shutter speed the max aperture was always chosen as the auto ISO had come in for correct (near enough) exposure.

The dilemma now seems to be which is actually the best mode for this situation, noting that there is a large lighting difference between the top and bottom position of the shots hence auto ISO.

a) If Aperture priority is used I can set it 1 stop under max which in theory is going to give better results from the lens but at the cost of increased ISO. Speed can be controlled by setting the minimum (I reckon 1/320) in the auto ISO.

b) If Shutter speed priority is used max aperture will always be chosen.

I'm starting to think using the 50mm 1.4 is the answer as Lex suggested so I can open up to around 2.8. Looking at the majority of good shots they were between 65 to 90mm.

I'm also thinking about the best focus mode, I was using AF-C dynamic 9 point but wondering if I should push up to 21 or 51 point.

Grahame

[speedneeder]

Brian,

I have been putting some thought into the best setup for these specific shots as I will have another go. Checking through all the good ones I got they were all taken on Shutter priority with auto ISO. The ones I took first on aperture priority were rubbish basically because I forgot to set the minimum speed for the auto ISO.

All good images were shot Shutter Speed priority at 1/250s, between ISO 800 to 1600 (I had my auto max ISO set to 1600) and apertures were the max allowable at the focal length I was zoomed. So in other words with that shutter speed the max aperture was always chosen as the auto ISO had come in for correct (near enough) exposure.

The dilemma now seems to be which is actually the best mode for this situation, noting that there is a large lighting difference between the top and bottom position of the shots hence auto ISO.

a) If Aperture priority is used I can set it 1 stop under max which in theory is going to give better results from the lens but at the cost of increased ISO. Speed can be controlled by setting the minimum (I reckon 1/320) in the auto ISO.

b) If Shutter speed priority is used max aperture will always be chosen.

I'm starting to think using the 50mm 1.4 is the answer as Lex suggested so I can open up to around 2.8. Looking at the majority of good shots they were between 65 to 90mm.

I'm also thinking about the best focus mode, I was using AF-C dynamic 9 point but wondering if I should push up to 21 or 51 point.

Grahame

Sounds like your approach is good. Definitely try some with the 50mm.
Keep shooting and have fun