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ok. You know I have been trying to capture some fast moving little horses..and I used the TV setting today, for the first time, because Roy said so. NOW what I wanna know, is how can I improve, would YOU have chosen similar settings...I mess the whole entire thing up when I try and shoot manual, when these babies are running, changing direction, you never know where they are going.. they are swooping in, stopping, and I really don't want to miss any shots...SO.

Can you help me with what I coulda shoulda woulda done better/different or am I right on the money with the TV settings? I would like sharpness and motion at the same time...how do I get there, from here? Thank you so much.

Gracias...

patti

ISO 320
1/125
f/20
focal length160.mm

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canon 7D, Mark iii 5D, ef 70-300 f/4-5.6, ef 28-135mm canon 100-400mm L IS 4.5, and a little 24-70 L f/2.8...

Patty, do you whant the horses to have the "panning" effect to them with certain areas blured like the background and the horses legs for exmapel?

If thats the case you have chose the right settings do this, what you have to do when you press the shutter realease buttom is that you follow your moving object, trying to move as little as possible! that way the object will be relativley sharp.

Now i have tried this only 1 time and it was from a moving bus with cars coming from the opposite direction, and i got one ok shot but the car was relative out of focuse. If its bright outside as i think it should be over there in CA, you dont really need to keep your iso at 320, try to bump it down a bit, what your looking for here are longer shutter speeds..

i cant tell you use this shutter speed but try maybe 1/30 or something along those lines, as long as you can hear that teh shutter opens for a some time your good.

hope that helps

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Try use the predictive AF setting on your 40d. I'm not sure what Canon calls it lol.

When I was taking shots at the F1 Grand Prix, I got the cars at their braking point so their speeds were decreasing as they went past. Basically, I couldn't really compensate for that with my hand movements but the Dynamic AF(Nikon's name) setting kept the cars in focus even if the cars were moving all over the frame.

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Graham
Flickr

Thats kinda neat does the D40x have that?

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Sure! I think all SLRs have it, perhaps under different names.

I don't know how the menus differ on the D40x but I go "Custom Settings menu" -> "AF Area Mode".

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Graham
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Patti,

It's called AI Servo on the 40D which focuses on the target once you half click and will attempt to keep focus whilst you track the subject, also if you have an IS lens like the 70-300 IS USM you can put it in IS mode 2 which aids stabilisation when Panning.

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Hi patti,

Mischief on the hoof, eh. Very cute.

As you know, I'm a hardware freak and rarely comment on other's photographs, knowing only too well my own limitations, but I'm intrigued by your shot settings. 1/125th of a second isn't really fast enough to freeze motion (see this shot for an example at 1/500th of a second which has a nice mix of motion blur of the hooves but a pin sharp mane and tail) but maybe you were looking for extra motion blur? I think f/20 is way too big as it offers more depth of field than you need in the shot and don't forget that at anything significantly over f/8 you can get some image softening due to diffraction. A lower f-number would have allowed a faster shutter speed, if that is what you wanted, or a lower ISO number. Obviously, shooting in Tv mode means that to achieve a lower f-number you have to adjust either the shutter speed or the ISO or both!

Cantering slightly off-topic, I notice that you have enabled incremental ISO numbers on your 40D. I haven't been able to find out if the 40D suffers the same issue with this as the 1Ds Mark III but have a look at this article over at Northlight Images. Not needing such fine ISO control I've left my ISO increments at 1 stop (page 154 of the manual).

I'm looking forward to more shots of her. I love the backlighting around the ears.

Bob.

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Thank you all so much, I printed out all of the good advice, and keep the pages in my notebook, in my camera bag...it seems I learn so much better and faster from you guys, then just reading the manual, as if you were here...When you say it, I can think it, and then remember it...your good help and patience has saved me more then once...

will keep you posted on my progress, am going to try it again, and see how I do.. gracias.

patti

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canon 7D, Mark iii 5D, ef 70-300 f/4-5.6, ef 28-135mm canon 100-400mm L IS 4.5, and a little 24-70 L f/2.8...