I was about to post a wedding, but I am in the mood for something different.

I get emails from students/sport photographers asking for settings and the cameras I am using.  Settings don’t mean much. They always depend on your camera,lenses,lighting,distance to the subjects and effect you want to achieve. There’s no magic setting that works for every condition!

The best way to do it is to take that camera out of your  bag and go out and shoot. Come home,evaluate your images and then go out again and re shoot, until you get what you want.  These days cameras are pretty advanced and can give you a good number or keepers.  Back when I was with 10D/20D, 30% was the maximum numbers I could keep(I love sharp photos!).  I wasn’t playing it safe though and always pushing myself to try something new every day.  Your basic setting would be to shoot in Servo mode as you would be dealing with moving subjects. If your camera can do 5-10 frames per second then set it in that range. Learn smooth panning.  Get a monopod or a tripod if you have/need to.  If you are new to the sport you will be shooting, it’s always a good idea to learn as much as you can. Learn to anticipate before anything happens as at 100-260km/h things do happen pretty fast.

Here’s 100% crop of a Canon 20D 8mp file ::  f4,  1/500, ISO200, taken while being about 12 feet away.   1/500 helped to put some motion into the wheels.

Anything over 1/1000(as in the example bellow) would probably freeze any motion. While it “may” result in fewer number of blurry images, motorcycle(motard) in this case appears to be standing still.  f2.8, 1/1000, 180mm,ISO100

Some more images:

And it can only help you if you have some interest in the sport you are shooting.  Although I wasn’t that good at it, I loved!!!

Dmitri

Dmitri

dmitri