Tips needed for a motion shot of my daughter

[yulchick]

I am trying to get a shot of my my daughter when her dad throws her up in the air, but I want a little bit of motion blur in the shot as she falls down (into his hands ofcourse ).

I tried a few shots a couple days ago but they didnt turn out..The sky was blownout and looks like the exposure was way off even tho the meter told me it was a good exposure. I also had trouble getting the camera to focus on my daughter, as she was flying through the frame, the camera just couldnt focus on her quick enough.. Is there a specifit metering or focus mode I should be in?

are there any other tricks that would get me on the right track?

thanks in advance

[zona5101]

So take your meter reading when he is not airborne , get a nice tight frame of her face, CHose shutter priority, select a shutter of 1/15 of a second (and you may have to adjust this later but starting here and you;ll get some motion blur) and note the metered aperture then set you camera in manual to those 2 settings. Depending on how bright the day, you made need to lower you iso as low as you can to get a useable fstop.
Set your focus mode to continuous.
Focus on your daughter pressing the shutter 1/2 way down, tracker as she goes up and down- at some point press the shutter and continue to track her motion (even though you won't see her 'casue the mirror is up).
So thats your starting point. You may have to adjust your shutter/apreture to get the blur you want.

[yulchick]

Originally Posted by zona5101

So take your meter reading when he is not airborne , get a nice tight frame of her face, CHose shutter priority, select a shutter of 1/15 of a second (and you may have to adjust this later but starting here and you;ll get some motion blur) and note the metered aperture then set you camera in manual to those 2 settings. Depending on how bright the day, you made need to lower you iso as low as you can to get a useable fstop.
Set your focus mode to continuous.
Focus on your daughter pressing the shutter 1/2 way down, tracker as she goes up and down- at some point press the shutter and continue to track her motion (even though you won't see her 'casue the mirror is up).
So thats your starting point. You may have to adjust your shutter/apreture to get the blur you want.

Thank you, I will try it again today

[BigFuzzy]

Bruce gives good advice that I think will work. What I'm saying is simply an alternative focusing method that MAY be easier depending on what you're comfortable with of course.

And I say this because I've done it lately.

After finding good exposure settings (which will vary of course), have your hubby hold something in the air that's close to the peak height at which the child will be thrown. Focus on that. And if you're using AF, switch it to MF after getting the focus.
Put your camera in multiple frames per shutter squeeze and just before she reaches the apex, start firing so that you get a couple of her on the way up, the apex and then on the way down.

This was my result.. mind you it was shot on a plastic camera and my frames were overlapping.. but it worked.


Or this one without the hands:



Good luck, and post some results!

[yulchick]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

Bruce gives good advice that I think will work. What I'm saying is simply an alternative focusing method that MAY be easier depending on what you're comfortable with of course.

And I say this because I've done it lately.

After finding good exposure settings (which will vary of course), have your hubby hold something in the air that's close to the peak height at which the child will be thrown. Focus on that. And if you're using AF, switch it to MF after getting the focus.
Put your camera in multiple frames per shutter squeeze and just before she reaches the apex, start firing so that you get a couple of her on the way up, the apex and then on the way down.

This was my result.. mind you it was shot on a plastic camera and my frames were overlapping.. but it worked.


Or this one without the hands:



Good luck, and post some results!

thanks for some more tips! Im out in about half an hour to try get some desent shots, hope they turn out at least a lil bit