Help: Dog in motion

[AndreaKR]

First...hello. I'm new, nice to meet you all! :-) I love taking photographs and want to improve - that's why I'm here.

Second, my "help" question. I love taking photos of my dog and think I do a decent job when she's sitting still. However, I have yet to really capture a good picture of her in motion. I like to blame her coloring and her sheer speed but perhaps there is something more I could be doing. I have a Canon t2i (Rebel series crop sensor), EF-S 18-55, EF-S 55-250 and an EF 50mm f/1.8 lens). Any recommendations for which mode (Av, Tv?), lens to use, focal length, aperture, shutter speed and ISO? I've been playing around with exposure compensation as well (otherwise the camera tries to make her look grey when her face is a really dark brown/black with a lighter brown/black on her body). No distinctive markings (unless you could the slightly darker saddle pattern on her back).



And here's my attempt at dog in motion:



That second image is cropped (and maybe I shouldn't use a Frisbee that's almost the same color as the dog!). Also...any thoughts on using the AI Servo focus mode? Not sure I've ever successfully done it.

Appreciate any tips!

Many thanks,
Andrea

[Shadowman]

Hi Andrea,

The quickest way to freeze the motion of your pup is to use flash. You can moderate the amount of flash (compensation) so you don't have to worry about red eye, artificial look, odd coloring. Also, do a little practicing with the sports mode on your camera.

Your other option is to use a fast enough shutter speed but you also have to worry about the pup's dark coloring blending into or contrasting with the background. You can also look at panning techniques where you track the movement or your pet, moving your body and camera parallel to the pup's position and firing at precise moments; anticipating where the dog will be or when motion is at a near stand still is crucial.

[Manfred M]

Andrea welcome to CiC - There is no "right" answer for what you want to do, as there are so many different types of “motion” shots. I assume you want to freeze the motion when you take these shots. There are some techniques that might help.

1. Wait until the dog has more or less stopped moving. This can happen when it changes direction or if it jumps, at the top of a jump. Here you have to anticipate what the dog will do; so with the Frisbee, it will catch it and run back to you. Catching her just as she is changing direction to come back to you means she has pretty well stopped and that would be the ideal time to press the shutter release. This does take some practice, so expect more than a few blown shots;

2. If the dog is moving parallel to you and the camera; pan as the dog moves. This is what you tried to do in the image that you posted. The distance to you is relatively constant and even the focus (assuming you leave a decent amount of depth of field) won’t change too much. Yes, a black Frisbee doesn’t add to the composition; another thing that will improve the shot is allow “headroom”, i.e. leaving space in front of where the dog is running, looks better compositionally. You’ve done the opposite in the shot you’ve posted; loads of room behind the dog, and nothing at the front.

Panning and shooting takes practice, so again, expect to blow shots as you are practicing this technique.

3. The dog is moving towards you. This is the most difficult of all to do as you have to recompose (move the camera while zooming out) and trying to focus. Continuous servo is potentially your best focusing choice here. This technique is the most difficult of the three, so don’t get discouraged, as this is the one that is hardest to master.

As for camera setup; I think your 55-200mm lens is likely the best one for this type of work, as I would expect your dog to be some distance away. I tend to favour shutter priority (Tv) mode and a high shutter speed; start with 1/1000th to see how that works out.

As you are just starting to shoot this way, I would suggest being a bit generous with your depth of field (DoF) and shoot in the f/8 or f/11 range, which will give you a bit more forgiveness in getting the focus sharp. High shutter speed and small aperture will mean having to shoot at a relatively high ISO. As your skill improves and you become familiar with shooting motion, you can shoot with a wider aperture and cut back on the ISO.

[rpcrowe]

While I am a Canon guy, I have never used your camera or lenses.

When I shoot dogs who are running in one direction, focusing on them is relatively easy outdoors (using a Canon 7D and a 70-200mm f/4L IS lens). I set the camera in Servo AI and most often use the center focus spot. The Servo AI will keep the subject in focus, especially if it is running towards or away from you. I will shoot in burst mode. I shot this image using aperture priority metering which provided an exposure of f/4 @ 1/1,000 second using ISO 400.



Shooting dogs when they are chasing each other is sometimes a bit more difficult since the dogs are turning one way and another. I don't always nail the focus but, my 7D does a better job that did my 30D in this image.



My 7D has a zone focus system which I have set up like this:



The primary focus points usually nail the head or face of the moving subject. One neat thing is that when I switch the camera to the portrait (vertical) position, the primary focus points switch to the top of the frame so I can most always nail the heads or face.

It is very hard, IMO, to shoot a fast moving dog indoors because most homes are not large enough for the dog to run any distance in a straight line and a fast moving dog will be moving erratically.

Using a flash indoors will stop the dog's motion unless there is enough ambient light to cause a double and unsharp image...

I always use flash fill outdoors, unless I am shooting in burst mode when my flash cannot keep up with the shutter...

Photographing black dogs usually needs (as you mentioned) a bit of minus exposure compensation so that the dog will not turn out gray. I always shoot in RAW and that helps...

Terra is the only black dog I have photographed (and she was not totally black but rather a brownish black) and the bounced flash with a Demb Flash Diffuser Pro modifier was some decent lighting.



Huey, Terra's puppy was black with white markings and again, the modified bounced flash did a good job. BTW: Terra had three pups that we named: Huey, Dewey and Louie...



I now have a litter of four rescue Maltese-Pug puppies. One of them is coal black, two are dark brown and one is sort of a buff color. They are only two weeks old and their eyes have just opened. I will be getting a lot of experience shooting black and dark brown dogs as these puppies mature.