Tips on keeping moving subject in focus?

[hopeg]

Newbie question- I have two dogs that I've always taken pictures of and now that I have my new camera, I was wondering how to keep a moving image in focus? The following image is a picture I tried taking and I notice, everything around him looks to be in decent focus, but he is really blurry. He was jogging toward me at the time. Advice appreciated

[Manfred M]

Many cameras have a continuous focus mode - the camera locks onto the subject and adjusts focus, just as in the case you are looking at. This might be the easiest approach.

There are other tricks - pre-focusing on a point and waiting for the subject to get there or to shoot at a high aperture to maximumize DoF is another.

[Polar01]

Hope another thing what was your shutter speed it may not have been fast enough to stop him.

Cheers: Allan

[inkista]

If you shoot an older Nikon, another trick you could learn is trap focusing (Nikon apparently changed the AF-ON behavior on the current generation of models so they can't really trap focus any more). But hey, on a Canon, you have to do the Magic Lantern thing to get trap focus.

What camera are you using?

[Geoff F]

As previously mentioned, was the shutter speed fast enough.

The foreground near the dog does look out of focus but the middle distance seems much better.

Which camera auto focusing option were you using? Auto focus usually prefers to lock on to a solid hard edged object instead of something round and soft. False auto focus problems are common with a lot of wildlife shots.

So for me, when shooting a scene like this, would be to select just the centre auto focus point, or a small central cluster of points. Then use the auto focus tracking setting and pan the camera to get the best composition before clicking the shutter.

And for a scene like this I would want to use at least 1/500 shutter speed.

[charzes44]

Hi Hope,

You need to have your camera on AF-C focus mode. This enables you to keep in focus a moving subject such as your doggie. See page 39 (I think) of your manual. If you have more questions, ask away! Your camera is not the same as mine, but similar to mine in this respect.

Currently, there are some wonderful dog photos. albeit not moving, in the People & Pets section, see:

My 3 Monsters
Dogs with Perfect Mask Software
Dog pic

Charles

[hopeg]

I don't think I was using the continuous focus mode, that could be part of the problem also then. Thanks everyone for the input : )

Hope another thing what was your shutter speed it may not have been fast enough to stop him.

Cheers: Allan

My shutter speed was 1/800, is that too slow?

What camera are you using?

I'm using a Nikon D5100

Which camera auto focusing option were you using?

I was using the option where the entire area is focused instead of the single spot focus where I choose the spot to focus on

[Stagecoach]

Hi Hope,

If you look at the grass you will see that it is sharpest behind the dog which suggests your main failing here was incorrect focus. The shutter speed of 1/800s may well have frozen his movement but will not help if he's OOF.

Apart from changing to AF-C (continous focus) it's often a good idea if you can to close down the aperture a bit to give a greater DOF giving an increase in focus latitude for a subject that's moving towards you.

Grahame

[chauncey]

I may be preaching to the choir but...it wasn't that long ago that I was in your position. I needed an education on equipment and technique...technique on sites like this. Equipment was a different beast, requiring a specialized approach like this https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...kon+d5100&sm=1
I do love youtube.

[hopeg]

I do love youtube.

As do I I've found quite a bit of useful information on there. Thanks for the link

[Downrigger]

My totally amateur approach to this is to get my settings for some degree of speed without much depth of field (1/500th or more depending on lens and f8 or less), call the puppy, and shoot "continuous" with focus in continuous mode. This generates a series of images from which you can pick and choose. I find I get images I like best if I shoot from "low down" (kneeling. squatting)

[inkista]

One more thing. You may want to learn how to back-button AF (i.e., move the AF start/stop function from the shutter button and put it on the AE-Lock/AF-Lock button on the back of the camera).

[hopeg]

One more thing. You may want to learn how to back-button AF (i.e., move the AF start/stop function from the shutter button and put it on the AE-Lock/AF-Lock button on the back of the camera).

Have heard of this, but haven't really researched it. Thanks for the link, I will definitely check it out!

[rpcrowe]

Mark wrote, "My totally amateur approach to this is to get my settings for some degree of speed without much depth of field (1/500th or more depending on lens and f8 or less), call the puppy, and shoot "continuous" with focus in continuous mode. This generates a series of images from which you can pick and choose. I find I get images I like best if I shoot from "low down" (kneeling. squatting)."

I don't think that this is an amateur approach at all... I shot this image using a Canon 7D and a 70-200mm f/4L IS lens...



I adjusted the focal length as the dog approached me...

116mm, ISO 400, f/4 @ 1/1,000 second, zone AF, AI Servo and high speed burst mode. This is one out of about ten frames.

I used zone AF because it seems to give me the best chance of getting the head of my subject in focus. You can see by the lacing on the baseball that I nailed the focus on these shots...



When shooting with my Canon 40D, I used single, center point focus which did the job but, for my shooting style the zone focus of my 7D is better. I have the camera set up so that if I shift to vertical shooting, the zone will shift to the top grouping. That way, no matter if I shoot landscape or vertical composition, I will always have the best chance of getting my subject's head in focus...

There are some other images as good but, different; such as this one...



I was sitting on a low stool to get my ancient arthritic body down to the level of the dog. Younger folks have the advantage of being able to squat or kneel. I can squat but, have trouble getting up from the squat...

[Shadowman]

Don't be afraid of the subject approaching you. I had a flock of geese approaching me head on and I kept thinking "I'm going to get bombed".


I flinched, plus my shutter speed was only 1/90s.

[chauncey]

Don't be afraid of the subject approaching you

Pretty broad statement there John ole buddy.

[mknittle]

Don't be afraid of the subject approaching you.

I live by the railroad tracks that gives me an idea

[hopeg]

I live by the railroad tracks that gives me an idea

Hahaha! That made me giggle

[rpcrowe]

Final comment... You can often achieve a sharper image at a slower shutter speed when the subject is approaching you directly (with the exception of goose wings) or going straight away from you, than you can if the subject is moving across your frame...

Also, I tend to bump up my ISO just a bit when shooting fast moving subjects. Most of my shooting is done at ISO 100-160 but, I will often shoot at ISO 320-400 or even higher when capturing fast moving subjects...

[Hero]

I often find the af-speed of my 70-300 lacking when it comes to frontals of running dogs (specially our Galgo (spanish type of greyhound), So I rather prefocus and take a short burst when the dog runs through the focus-plane.
Other things I do are:
- aperture at f8 for DoF
- shutter 1/1000 is about as low as I go (If not for the speed of the dogs, waving fur can wreak havoc on your perception of sharpness)
- keep distance, further away = larger DoF

And as most of my photos go on the net:
- crop
- auto-iso
With the 16Mp coming out of my camera and most pics on the web are a tad shy of 1Mp, I use the surplus to "digitally zoom" and/or obscure high-iso noise.