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Question from Darren: “Trying to shoot fast moving subjects…Could somebody tell me the best settings to use most of time either get front sharp and rear slightly blurry or vice versa. I have NIKON D80 Thanks”
Christina: i have a d90 and had to buy a new lens and change my focus settings. The rest of the settings all depended on where I was shooting.
Tommy: Like you want the whole photo in focus and not just the subject? Cause front sharp back blurry is normal unless your aperture is super small and if you’re doing fast movement you’re going to want a large aperture. f/2.8 is the ideal aperture for fast movements. I know not everyone has the budget for a pro lens but a 70-200 f/2.8 will be a godsend
Amanda: A 50mm 1.8 is a great buy at $130. Its been my lifesaver–and perfect for wide aperture/fast shutter, which is what you need
Mariah: I have a NIKON D80, i have mine set to where if you hold done the shoot button it takes more than one. So i set mine to the sport setting then hold my button and get a couple pictures. Then when i upload them on my computer ill look and see which turned out the best. Hope this helps ya!
Mariah: Also every picture i take i go to my meau and my pictures are set to be taken as fine.
Brian: Well first and foremost if you are shooting a fast moving object you will need to worry about stop motion. Stopping motion is controlled by speeding up your shutter.. When you speed up your shutter, then you let less light in; you will either need to open up your aperature or boost your iso so that your shutter can move as fast it needs to stop the motion.
With that being said you also have another problem, because the object is moving; you will also need a fast focusing lens. If you have a slow focus’ing lens or you want to eliminate the time it takes for your lens to focus you can try prefocusing.. What I mean by prefocus is to focus a head of time on where you subject will be. Switch your camera to manual focus and don’t touch your focus ring.. Then when your subject comes all you have to do is click.
Cara: Settings really depend so much on the lighting, so it’s tough to tell someone settings without context. I like to have my shutter speed over 250 for fast moving subjects – possibly even faster for things like bikes or jumping on beds to really freeze action. I always shoot in manual mode, so I can control everything.
Melissa: you need to adjust your shutter speed to accomadate the speed of your subject.
Christina: I’m currently shooting in not so favorable lighting situations and use a 70-200mm 2.8 at no less than 250 to freeze action. By nights end I have my ISO up so high that the whole thing is sort of pointless “fancy” lens or not. What I would think about is keeping your shutter speed up and keeping your ISO as low as the situation allows. Shoot as wide open as you can for the look you are trying to capture.
Brian is sooo right on about prefocusing. If you are shooting sports, know the sport so you can anticipate the next move or area of play. With performances of any type (plays, dances, etc.), see if you can sit in on a rehersal or two.
Haley: If you are talking about shooting something like a car and you want to be able to tell it is going fast and moving but want the car in focus I would recommend panning rather than motion blur or stop motion. I case you don’t know panning would be using a more open aperture and you would move the camera along with the subject. There for keeping it focus but the back ground would create the effect of speed. It takes a lot of work and trial and error with the shutter speeds but it isn’t too hard. Hope that is more of what you are talking about!
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