Action Photography Confusion

alligruidel7

Hello!
I have been taking pictures of my daughter's cross country team. It's a hit or miss with the pictures of them running (usually directly towards me). I am becoming super frustrated with all the blurry shots. I realize when one part of the picture is sharp (and not necessarily the part I want sharp) the camera is focusing on the wrong thing, but what about when the whole picture is blurry? Is it the wrong ISO, aperture or shutter speed? Would greatly appreciate any and all help!
Thank you!
Allison

Auston

@alligruidel7 - This is a somewhat easy fix. As I think your daughter's meets are mostly in the day light, so that takes out the lighting issue.

First thing is to take the lens off auto mode. In cross country the runners are not moving so fast that you can't keep up, so it stops the camera/lens from trying to refocus on every twig, hand, and or ballcap that might get into the edge of the frame while you are focused on your target.

Next, I like to shoot track & field in AV mode because I try to blur the back ground to make my subject stand out. The F/stop depends on your lens and the zoom range you are in. Try to have the aperture set as big as you can (i.e. 200mm f/5 1/250, daylight, inside 75 yards of subject). Let me know the lens you use and I can help you fine tune this.

Lastly, in bright light you will be able to get faster shutter speeds to help you freeze the action. Or, you can slow it down a bit and get what is called motion blur. This will help add drama to the shot, like the legs and arms blured but the runners body in focus. The General rule of thumb is to have your shutter speed the same or as close to the zoom length being used (i.e. 200mm w/1/200 shutter speed (TV)). That will usually give you a great frozen subject.

This should give you something to work with. I am cutting this one off and I'm going to post again talking about step one a little more.
Contact me at austonbass2@hotmail.com and I will send you some of my shots in JPEG & RAW so you can open them and look at the info on the shot.