Tips for Action/Sports Photography

[ttan]

I recently did a shoot for trial bikers at Gasworks park (view it here), and found myself struggling to get just the right exposure. Obviously I can edit the pictures, but I'd like to master my camera more so I don't have to do as much post-production.

For the beginning, I began with Av and ISO 200 at f2.8, but found the camera's decisions for exposure not good enough. (I was also shooting with AI Servo, partial metering, and continuous shooting) I switched over to M and shot at 1/1600 and 1/1200 (depending on where I was in relation to lighting), but still found it difficult to get the lighting just right. Overall, I am satisfied with what I was able to do, given that it was my first time with sports and the lighting wasn't too great.


What are all of your tricks for capturing motion? For sports and fast action in general, what mode and settings have you found to work best? (I'm especially curious as to your thoughts on Av, M, Sports, or anything else)

[Drkranger]

I shoot a lot of sports outdoors and began the same way you did: setting aperture, shutter, and ISO. I found, however, that unless the sun was overhead or it was completely overcast, the direction I was shooting or the change in sunlight really threw off the exposure.

Since I knew I wanted a very shallow depth of field and I wanted to stop the action, I set the manual settings at f/2.8 and a shutter at 1/800 or so. Then, I set the initial ISO to 200, but turned on auto-iso. With the D300 having exceptional noise reduction capabilities, having the ISO go up to 800 or even 1600 created the images I wanted.

I do also use continuous focus and high-speed shooting.

Hope that helps.