action shot : general critique and ? please

[kristenh]

i took this photo this morning, and my main question is: how do you capture the action and get the focus in the right spot with a moving target like this? my own critique of the photo is 1. definitely time of day b/c it was in harsh sunlight. and 2. the focus really is on one of the ropes, not my son's face. as you see from the exif data, it was plenty bright and my shutter speed was very fast. should i have used a smaller aperture, so then get a greater depth of field and better shot at face in focus? how slow of a shutter speed could i have used in this case? TIA for any advice



nikon d5000
shutter speed 1/1000 sec
f 3.2
iso 200
focal length 35 mm

i shot it in aperture priority mode and actually stopped down from 1.8, which is the max on this lens.

[Niresangwa]

You really didn't need to be shooting at an f-stop that low given you were outside in open sunlight, nor to have an iso of 200, and you kind of answered your own question as far as using a higher f-stop for deeper DoF

As far as selecting your focal point, relying on AF is obviously going to be troublesome if things are moving quickly. Better to perhaps set your focus before hand in MF and wait until the subject falls into that trap...

1/1000 at 3.*, you had a much smaller ap. to work with and still get serviceable shutter speed, especially if you aimed to shoot at the apex of the swinging motion.

[BK553]

I'm not sure where on the rope it focused, but if it was on the same focal plane as the face, you'll get the same results. Shooting a moving subject with shallow DoF is difficult. Using spot AF and servo mode will help, and just keep shooting bursts until you get that perfect one! God job!

[JoanieA]

For being in harsh sunlight, the colors are wonderful. And yes, there is sun on his face causing overexposure and shadows, but still you captured the scene perfectly, with him looking back. I wouldn't use a larger aperture (smaller number). I would choose a focal point and try your best to keep that on the boy's face while he's swinging. Sometimes the shot is off-center that way but you can usually crop it to fix it.

[kristenh]

thank you all for your feedback, especially the compliments

i tried again later in the afternoon and was faced with both a short attention span for swinging and dappled sunlight so i'll head over there next time we have an overcast day.

i've been keeping my iso at 200 mainly b/c i didn't know what the settings lo1 lo2 and so forth meant. now that i've read the manual on that, i'll try 100 outdoors.

these kids are a challenge!