Greetings,I am the owner of a 30D and I'm trying to learn how to use it well. I've used the Canon A40, Canon Rebel 2000 35mm, and a Kodak Z740. I tend to point, shoot, and pray.I went to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo at Will Rodgers Coliseumand was sitting in the upper rows. The link below are respresentative of the pictures I took (mostly all motion shots, all of them blurry) what did I do wrong and how can I improve?I appreciate any assistance and advice offered.Thanks in advance

and was sitting in the upper rows. The link below are respresentative of the pictures I took (mostly all motion shots, all of them blurry) what did I do wrong and how can I improve?It looks like you were only getting 1/30-1/60, and you have already found out that it is too slow to freeze any kind of motion.First, you can get out of the basic zone, and increase ISO. I think the sports mode only goes up to ISO 400. By using ISO 1600 or 3200, you will get 2-3 stop of additional speed.Two, use a faster lens and keep the lens open. You can gain another 2-3 stops this way. Unfortunately, fast lenses are generally expensive.Three, you might want to consider using a flash. An external flash with high ISO can be effective even if the subject is quite far away. Here is a shot with a 500mm lens. The subject was more than 100 ft away.

And when he says use a faster lens, that means one with a larger aperture (smaller f/ number).Read Understanding Exposure - that seems to be a good place to start.

When shooting in Tv mode, go for the faster shutter speed (higher number as long as your not in the 30" to 0.3" region).If the Aperture number blinks, that means your lens is too slow. So get a faster one, or get closer and use flash.

Well at least I did anyway, and with film then it was even more annoying / expensive!Unfortunately the EXIF datya seems to be nissing from the photos. That tells people what the camera setting where for the shot and are automatically saved by the camera and embedded in the iumage. Somewhere between processing the image and uploading that's been lost. Would be worthwhile finding out what's hapening as for future shots it will be easier for people to help.First the good points. You seem to have taken the shots at the right time, just as the action is occuring and if you keep that then you'll get some great action shots. You also are getting sharp shots of the background, so there's no camera shake which means you're ok on the way you hold the camera.As mentioned though, there are 2 things that are leading to your disapointment in the shots, the motion blur of the main subject, and the slight under exposure (darkness) of the shots. Sadly of course the solution to the motion blur is to have the shutter open for a shorter time, and that of course means a darker shot. But that's what you've got to do, so start there and use other ways to make the shot 'brighter'. Aim for say 1/200 or even faster (ie 1/250 etc...) as the aperature. Probably best to use TV mode for this as this lets you set the shutter speed and the camera automatically adjsuts the aperature of the lens for you. Look at the exposure meter on the bottom of the viewfinder (little arrrow that moves left to right) and use the big wheel on the back to get that in the middle. Now in an ideal world then that will all work fine, but there is a good chance that sadly even with the lens wide open (ie the lowest 'f' number of your lens) that that won't be good enough. So in that case we need to make the sensor more sensible to light. Press the ISO button and change that to a higher number. 100 is very unresponsive to light and great for creating deliberate blur, eg nigh time shots of car headlights, etc. 200 and 400 are 'normal' and a bit faster. 800 and 1600 are 'fast', and 3200 very fast. However, as with all things in photography there's a balance, as as the ISO number gets higher then you get more 'noise', random pixels that make the photo 'grainy'.So these are the variables you have: Slow > Fast Aperature 1.4 > 22 Shutter 1/1000 s > 30 seconds+ ISO 100 > 3200Spend a bit of time at home taking pictures of the sofa cushion. Work through the ISO settings (100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 & 3200) and for each one take 3 shots, one with a really fast shutter, one with a mid shutter speed and one long one and see where the Aperature goes for each one.Regarding the flash, not sure about using a flash around animals, but of course that increases the amount of light in the shot, and so reduces the amount of time the sensor needs to be exposed to record the image.Happy snapping.

Aperture should be set to wide open (Av-mode), this ensures that the fastest possible shutterspeed will be used. Up the ISO to get faster shutterspeeds. I would guess you need at least 1/500 for this kind of photography. And last but not least, pan your main subject. If you want the bull sharp, follow it in a smooth motion with the lens.Using one-shot or AI servo AF mode depends on how the subject moves. If it´s in a general direction I would use servo which tracks the motion of the subject and calculates the speed to predict focus for the next frame. This means you should use burst mode and preferably only the center AFsensor. It also means that the firs frame will not necessarily be sharp, so keep pushing that button! This type of photography is not easy and requires a lot of practice. It might not even be possible to get good results with the lighting conditions you had. In that case only faster lenses will help (or a better body with great high ISO capabilities).Test, test, test, and chimp every once in a while to check the results.Good luck,Mats

You chose a difficult subject there - fast action combined with poor lighting is a challenge for even the most experienced photographer.You've had all the basic answers already. It's true that you should be using a higher ISO speed, but simply whacking it up to maximum and continuing with the 'point and pray' technique is just papering over the cracks. The best advice you've had is to get a good book or trawl the internet for learning resources. That way you'll learn the difference between choosing a higher ISO speed (costs nothing) and using a faster lens (much $). And much, much more besides.

If you decide to use ISO 1600 or 3200 (which is probably what you need to get short enough shutter speed) you can get good photos in poor lighting situarions. The noise might be disturbing, but download e.g. Noiseware Community Edition (free software) which reduces noise very good.Good luck./ Lars

I am a novice as well.Obviously, spending time learning everything you need to know about available light action photography would be the best advice, but…As a STARTING POINT for available light action photography:If you have a spare few hundred bucks pick up a Canon 100mm f\2 or a Canon 85mm f\1.8. Either way, whatever lens you use, use it wide open.Turn the camera past on to the little line so you can use the wheelTurn the camera to AV mode – open the lens wide open.Push the AF-WB button. Set a custom white balance or set to AWB using the big wheel in the back. In this case AWB would probably be best. Use the small wheel to set the camera to AI-SERVO.Push the DRIVE-ISO button. Turn the big wheel until you hit 1600. Turn the small wheel until you hit the icon that looks like multiple pages.Look through the viewfinder and focus around at the various areas, gates, clowns, etc. and check where the shutter is locking. If it is giving you a solid 400+ you have enough light to capture the action.If you are considerably below 400, you need to increase your ISO to 3200. If that capability is not already set go into custom functions and set ISO expansion. On my 20D I believe it is cf8This would be a set of initial settings and good place to start. I expect it would give you considerably better results than you achieved with the auto features.

...outside the envelope of the selected gear here.Any lens slower than 2.8 is not appropriate for most of these venues. When I shoot some of my youngest roller-skate games, sometimes even f1.8 at 800 ISO is not enough. There is just not enough light.Also, remember, IS will take care of camera shake, not subject motion. The subject will always come out blurred if the shutter speed is not the appropriate one to freeze the motion (...if that is the intention, of course...)To add insult to injury, the low light levels will also interfere with the AF. It will make it "Hunt" for longer times and even lock on intended parts of the scene.So, there you have it: Motion blur + inaccurate AF, the cocktail that prompted those shots.PK -- “Loose praise may feed my ego but constructive criticism advances my skills” ************************************************************ ------------------------------------------------- http://www.pbase.com/photokhan (Pbase Supporter)

Go to the library or do an online search and learn the very basics about how a camera works.Essentially, this entails Shutter speed, aperture, and ISO or film speed.What happened in your photo;s is the shutter was too slow. In other words, the amount of time that the shutter was open, allowing the light form your subjects to reach the cameras sensor, was too long and did not stop the subjects movement, hence they are blurry.Their are many ways you could have increased that shutter speed. However, if you do not have a basic understanding of photographic techniques, you will be back here asking why this or that. For every adjustment to one of the Holy Three (ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture) there is an equal and opposing adjustment to the other two.Think of it as a three way Teeter-Tooter, As one goes up, so to must one of the others down. What is nice about a three way teeter-tooter is you get to choice which of the other two you would want to change. Each has its own characteristics in how it affects a photograph.

Hi,I see that you used the "action" Program mode with hopes of getting the maximum possible shutter speed for your pictures, but still (at the selected ISO 400) the camera ended up using shutter speeds from 1/10 to 1/20, way too slow for the 100mm (give or take) reach of the lens you were using. In fact, those speeds are quite challenging for handheld shots with most any lens, let alone a telephoto.You are probably aware of the "1/focal length" rule of thumb. This states that the lowest shutter speed you should use for hand-held pictures is the reciprocal of your lens current focal length, i.e, if shooting at 100mm, the shutter should be at least 1/100s. In cameras with a crop-factor sensor (like the 30D, which uses 1.6X), you should also multiply that by the crop factor, so the minimum shutter speed for a 100mm lens on a 30D would be 1/160s. Note that this is not universally true, YMMV according to how steady your hands are and your shutter-pressing technique. Some people can go "slower" than the rule.With that said, the above would mitigate camera shake but not the action blur. In action/sports shots you will need to go way faster than the 1/FL rule, lest you get a crisp background with a blurred F-1 car, footbal player or raging bull (the panning technique mentioned by another poster would also help with this).As others have said, I'd loose the P mode altogether and either choose the widest available apperture (in Av mode) or fastest shutter speed (in Tv mode) available for that particular exposure. Of course, as already noted, I'd up that ISO as far as needed, too, to give you a more confortable margin with those settings. A wider (or "faster") lens, with a lower minimum F-number, would also help.Don't forget that you can use a tripod and use the lower shutter speeds if needed (panning would be required for the fast-moving subject).Good luck!

Mats Isakssonwrote:Using one-shot or AI servo AF mode depends on how the subject moves. If it´s in a general direction I would use servo which tracks the motion of the subject and calculates the speed to predict focus for the next frame. This means you should use burst mode and preferably only the center AFsensor.Actually, that depends. I find in shooting swimming, when using servo AF, if the swimmer is coming towards me (i.e. breast stroke and butterfly stroke from the head or tail of the pool mainly), I get more consistent results with the lower AF point.