How to catch running greyhounds? What settings to use?

For some time I am trying to shoot some pictures of my greyhounds running. But these dogs just seem to be to fast for my 5D and Beercan. Maybe I do something wrong. All suggestions to improve would be greatly appreciated. I have attached some pictures to demonstrate what is going wrong.

Peter







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Better try to live your dream than to dream your life

The principal mistake you are making is aperture. You are using f4 which leaves no stopdown margin for focus . You should use f8 or f11. Auto focus should be just about OK when the subject is crossing the frame but the beercan may hunt a llittle, in which case you need to change to manual focus.

With manual focus you can focus on a point or just follow the subject. Note that shutter speed is not too critical, there is often a better sense of movement if shutter speed is lower. You could go down to 1/100 th sec if light is low.

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dhaslam
http://www.pbase.com/dhaslam/galleries

Thanks David. I will give it a try. I was thinking that I needed to get shutter speed as fast as possible hence the F4.
If results are good I will post some better pictures.

Peter
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Better try to live your dream than to dream your life

like one would shoot birds in flight.

F/8, 1/800th or the fastest shutter speed you can get at F/8, ISO400 to ISO800, AF-C, spot or wide area focus. If you can nail it with your beercan, it'll save you some money. Those other lenses you were thinking about are not real cheap, and I know the beercan should be able to do this in good light. If it is always Grey and overcast where you are, then you may have to get another lens that focuses faster in low light. Don't forget that DSLR has a really shallow DOF, and getting both dogs in the frame perfectly focused could be a big challenge.

You can always lower the shutter speeds and ISO value as you master a technique that works for you. Good luck.

Al Dugan wrote:

I agree with David Haslam. You want a slower shutter speed and then track the subject. It will give you a motion blur in the background and in the fast moving legs. Take a look through magazines for examples of this. They are very dynamic shots and are a challenge to get. I think the best bicycle racing shots that I remember utilized the panning technique. It involves skill and a bit of luck. Take lots of shots. When you succeed the subject will be put in context and really come to the foreground.

Al

It is hard to shoot a fast moving animal even with Minolta 80-200mm f2.8 HS G APO, so I agree it is more about technique than an issue with lens. Trying to shoot at F4 gives very little dof and it is VERY hard to set focus right on a moving animal.

Peter,

I shoot indoor football with the beercan and it is a tough deal. I have to shoot most at 3200iso and f4 to keep shutter speed up. I also set camera to continuous focus and turn off anti shake (to speed up focus?). I found it interesting the recommendation to use f8 to increase depth of field, and will try it out this week end. Here is one picture as an example.
I loose some sharpness filtering out noise.



P.S. Those sure are happy looking dogs, enjoying their romp.
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Ken from CO. http://www.pbase.com/kenron

KM Five-Dee, fifty1.7,twentyeight-300 Tamron XRDILDIF 3.5,Tamron 28-75 f2.8, BeerCan, KM 17-35mm f/2.8-4 (D) AF

.. a little more in lign with the horizontal movement of the dogs, and the result wil be still better !

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Regards, Mario.
http://www.mdl.photosite.com