Fairground Photography

[Dadorian]

Not a great shot really (although my son on the left thinks it's great) but I would love to know how to set up for a shot like this next time.
Camera Nikon D7000 with Tamron AF28-80 F/3.5-5.6

[zona5101]

so what don't you like about it?

[Dadorian]

I shot this just hoping for the best and as the ride was going really fast had no clue as to how I should set it up. I used the sports mode on the camera. Continuous shooting. There seems to be a lot of shaded parts and I wondered whether if I had spent time on the set up before hand would the result have been better?. What would a more experienced person have done in setting up, what sort of lens would have given a better result, that sort of stuff?

[zona5101]

This is a touch shot to capture well because the ride is moving and there is such a high contrast in lighting. Even if you spot metered for the people or used your exposure compensation, people in the sun and people in the shadows could not both be properly exposed. I would try and find an area along the ride when the lighting was more even and preferrably where it was not direct sun. The second issue of the moving ride...that can be especially tough if your camera has a delay between the time you push the button and when the camera takes the shot only over come by anticipating the lag. If the camera doesn't have a lot of lag then it's just us to you to get your timing right.
The lens you used looks like it had all the capabilities to get this shot had you not had the tough lighting and better timing on the shutter.

[JFSanders]

Go wide and with a f/stop of 8. Use machine gun shutter mode. Preset your focus by focusing on the support columns or on the subjects as they reach the top. The d7000 has a continuous focus mode and tracking as well. Set it up like that and mash the button just as they release hold on and follow them down by keeping both eyes open. You will get a bunch of crap and one or two keepers. Unless you get good at panning down and then your keeper rate will climb.

Jim

[spookie]

Originally Posted by JFSanders

Go wide and with a f/stop of 8. Use machine gun shutter mode. Preset your focus by focusing on the support columns or on the subjects as they reach the top. The d7000 has a continuous focus mode and tracking as well. Set it up like that and mash the button just as they release hold on and follow them down by keeping both eyes open. You will get a bunch of crap and one or two keepers. Unless you get good at panning down and then your keeper rate will climb.

Jim

I so agree. I was thinking about this last night. The action and movement is so fast, go to continuous, non bracketed. In the 35 mm days called "film burner" mode lol.
Two ways I would do this
Try to "track" the coaster (a little tricky by hand) single spot focus may help or
go tad faster on Iso and try to "freeze" the coaster as it passes thru, multi point focus mode?

Tough shot to get, I think you did pretty well.

[Dadorian]

Thanks for the input Guys, all taken on board and genuinely appreciate your time and comments.

Ian