Photographing Skateboarding question.

[Kaeman]

So I have a Canon Rebel XSi and I want to photography Skateboarding. I have never done this before so I was wondering what the best settings are to capture them doing tricks. and other tips to take better photo of him.

[zona5101]

Good on you for taking up a challenge. My advice would be to take a lot of pictures.
So there’s a lot going on in photographing skateboarders (or anything that’s moving around on you). If you want to freeze the motion, you need a ‘fast’ shutter speed. There will be a couple of factors that will affect what that ‘fast’ shutter speed will be 1) the speed of the subject 2) the direction of motion relative to the camera 3) the focal length of the lens. Offsetting the shutter speed is the aperture setting on the lens. To allow more light in and get a faster shutter speed, you open the lens more and that decreases the depth of field. The depth of field can be thought of as the amount of area in front of and in back of what you have in focus that is also in focus. As the aperture on the lens gets smaller (larger number i.e.f8 to f22), the depth of field increases. For any given amount of light there is one exposure that will properly capture the scene. It is based on the combination of the ISO sensitivity of the film/ccd, the shutter speed and the aperture. The shutter speed will control the action stopping (or blurring if desired) the aperture will control what in addition to your focus point is also in focus (depth of field). Experiment with those two controls. Observe your results and go at it again! Have fun!

[zona5101]

So another thought kaeman,
shoot your ton-o-pics, then come back here and post a few. Describe what you envisioned the shot to look like versus the results you got. Folks here can help you understand the gap between your vision and your image. ...or maybe they will all be just perfect!!! good luck- have fun.

[evil_diesel]

Originally Posted by Kaeman

So I have a Canon Rebel XSi and I want to photography Skateboarding. I have never done this before so I was wondering what the best settings are to capture them doing tricks. and other tips to take better photo of him.

i shoot Sequence shots... i usually wait till hes 2 meters from hitting the set. THE XSI has the better setting to use.. Fstop can be really helpful, however i havnt really messed with it yet and i have amazing shots. i put my ISO on Auto-200 i like the iso on auto put your setting on P. i forget what exact drive modes it has, but i have Sony Aplha 100 DSLR. so my options kinda suck due to i have (Single-frame adv. and Continuous adv.) for this i use Continuous adv drive mode. ANGLE wise depends on the set! i usually shoot form the side so you can see the distance.. that the subject is jumping.like this image i've taken. i like the front angle however you couldnt see the distane and height that well.

more light the better, but you dont want over exposure. ngiht shots i've noticed is alot harder for sequence shots.