agilityk9 Loc: Goodyear,AZ

I was at an agility trial this weekend trying to figure out how to take action photos of the dog coming thru the weaves. I tried several settings and put the shutter in continuous burst, but still came out with some blur. What can I do in the future to correct this? These photos have been cropped and PP'd.

Thank you all so much for any advice.

f/16 1/125s ISO 250 18-55@48

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f/18 1/80s ISO 160 18-55@55mm

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f/18 1/80s ISO 160 18-55@55

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Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

You may have to set your camera to Shutter Priority, set the shutter speed to at least 1/250 .sec (or higher), with a possible bump up in ISO. If you want to maintain f/18, then you need to go into full Manual Mode to dial in both the higher shutter speed AND small aperture.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Good advise...
Personally, I'd be shooting no more than f/8, or likely wide open with the focus locked in on the dog's head.

agilityk9 Loc: Goodyear,AZ

Thank you so much for looking and the advise, Bob! I will give it a try at my next trial.

agilityk9 Loc: Goodyear,AZ

Thank you for looking and the added advice,Cdouthitt. I will add it to my notes.

Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

agilityk9,

In K-9 Agility completions, you selected a particularly difficult element to photograph. You have combined camera movement, and subject movement to cause blur in the image. The two causes for this problem are shutter speed in relation to the subject movement. The camera movement was not synchronized with the the dog and the Weaves Poles. More care in panning the dog and holding the camera steady while pressing the shutter can improve this problem. When medium sized dogs go through Agility Trials they move a lot faster than the eye can follow, the tail does not move in sync with the nose. A much faster shutter speed can stop this motion.

You can improve your chances of good captures by changing some settings on your camera, there are good for similar types of events and may need modifications for other photo opportunities.

Increase the ISO = 400 (Make sure Auto ISO is not engaged.)
Decrease the f/stop to f/11 - f/8. (This will insure you have a much faster shutter speed.)
Set Aperture Priority to the desired f/stop.

With ISO manually set, and Aperture Priority set to your desired f/stop the camera will set the shutter speed for the correct exposure. It will be up to you to pan the moment of the dog to stop action of the forward motion.

You can practice improving your technique on future dog trials by selecting different events; High Jumps can provide some very interesting photos, entering and leaving the tubes is another good event, retrieving the toy and returning over the high jump can make a picture worth hanging on the Living Room wall.

While you are developing your technique, remember to take full advantage of your LCD screen to review the exposures you are capturing, and make needed adjustments. The LCD on most cameras allows the user to magnify and select areas of the captured image to review on site.

Good luck,

Michael G

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

Good advice so far. You can see the difference in blur between 1/80th and 1/125th. Now increase the speed more (I'd try 1/500th or even 1000th). With full sun you can increase your ISO without worrying about noise, and you can stop down the aperture 1 or 2 or 3 stops and still have a decent depth of field. As is the dog (fast critter) has motion blur and the posts have panning blur.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Shutter speed freezes motion.

You have two kinds of blur here...camera movement blur and action blur.

1/125 is way to slow to stop a dog from blurring when it's running. (or depending on your lens length to stop lens movement blur)


You need to jack your shutter speed up a LOT if you want to freeze a dog running.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

Just an afterthought. There's gonna be a spray and pray factor involved. Regardless of your camera's max frames per second rate, as you slow your shutter speed, the time required for each shot to completely cycle may decrease the actual frames per second you get. And be sure to turn noise reduction OFF, as this can slow down the camera speed once you fill your buffer.

agilityk9 Loc: Goodyear,AZ

Thank you so much for looking and your in depth advice. I will apply it at my next trial.

I have practiced photographing them over a jump and got some great stills of them coming them over the jump. But with them coming over the jump I am not following them over I just focus in the middle of the jump and try to time the shot. The same with them going in and coming out of the tunnel. I was having a problem with following them thru the weaves.

Again, thank you.

agilityk9 Loc: Goodyear,AZ

Thank you so much for looking and the advice! I will apply it at my next trial.

agilityk9 Loc: Goodyear,AZ

Thank you for looking and the advice.

agilityk9 Loc: Goodyear,AZ

Thank you! :thumbup:

skooters Loc: Flagstaff, Arizona

Just had to comment. I know that dog. It lives behind my house. The owner is a good trainer and has brought this dog a long way.

There is a lot of good advise above.

Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

Monica,

You are very welcome.

Suggestion: Don't try to follow them for focus lock or exposure lock. Preset your camera for the specific event. Example: The high jump. Position yourself to be at the forward side of the boards (to catch the dog clearing the boards with toy in mouth), Preset your focus for the boards facing, Preset your exposure value on the boards. Check the Aperture value for depth of field, and the shutter speed. Make any minor adjustments to the camera to obtain fast shutter speed and good depth of field. Turn on Aperture Priority to lock the f/stop. Make sure Auto ISO is disabled.

Take a few practice shots to verify everything is set for best performance (because you are using digital you can delete all the test shots), now all you have to do is wait for the dog to perform and catch the action. (This simple setup will allow the camera to control the exposure by automatically adjusting the shutter speed as lighting conditions vary, as long as you have good light the shutter speed will be somewhere around 1200/sec.

When the dogs run the Weave, take note of the action of the dogs body to tail. Notice the action of the nose, fore paws, and tail; they all move differently, at different positions, and speed. The tail is used as a counter balance. If you watch closely, as the dogs go through the Weave, you can see the moment when all action seems balanced, the optimum moment to capture a picture.

Michael G