[bschriver11]

I recently photographed a high school girls basketball game using a Sigma 70mm macro,i am pretty happy with the focus speed of the lens since 80+ percent of the shots are in focus but where i did miss some was when they were on a fast break down the court straight at me.Obviously by the time i got focus lock and the shutter fired they were slightly in front of the nearest depth of field so i thought next time i might try using a positive focus adjustment so that when i lock focus it is actually slightly in front to account for the slight lag between focus and shutter release.Any thoughts?

[discoinfiltrator]

I recently photographed a high school girls basketball game using a Sigma 70mm macro,i am pretty happy with the focus speed of the lens since 80+ percent of the shots are in focus but where i did miss some was when they were on a fast break down the court straight at me.Obviously by the time i got focus lock and the shutter fired they were slightly in front of the nearest depth of field so i thought next time i might try using a positive focus adjustment so that when i lock focus it is actually slightly in front to account for the slight lag between focus and shutter release.Any thoughts?

you could always try the DIY method; hit the switch for MF, set the focus distance, and time it right; fire the shutter at just the right time. With a bit of practice it can be done.

failing that, narrow your aperture and lose the depth of field, but at least it's in focus.

[elementdtlop]

ya i agree with discoin it seems silly to focus adjust like that bc you cant just do it on the fly like that enough to adjust it just for those situations. you would just have to wait it out to get that shot and it might not even work.

[bschriver11]

Shooting at iso 4000 at F/2.8 doesn't allow me to stop the lens down any,sorry no flash allowed at the games.I try to keep a shutter speed of 1/320 of a second,trial and error shows me this is as slow as i can go and keep the motion blur down.The problem with moving the camera and locking focus in front and then recomposing the shot is that it is all over by that time and with manual focus i'm restricted to shooting only when they are at the correct distance.I'm thinking by front focusing on purpose i can keep my eye in the viewfinder and use the K-30's 5-6 frames per second shooting speed.Wasn't going to do it on the fly,just stay at the basket and wait for the rush.

[elementdtlop]

oh you do not need to shoot at 1/320 you can drop that a little. unless these girls are like race cars even 1/100 would prob be good. and no matter what you do with that narrow a dof youre prob going to miss auto bc its so thin its going to bugger it up. try to get used to manually focusing and adjusting focus as they come towards you and keep snapping off shots. dont just set it there and leave it and wait for them to enter that range. youre going to miss a lot at first but practice it and take a ton of shots and youll get a couple keepers probably and as you practice itll get easier. its like taking video with the dslr youre not going to keep hitting af every second itll look like shit and have constant af noise youre gonna wanna manually track focus. same idea but you r taking stills of the action.

[bschriver11]

I shot at the volleyball games earlier and i could freeze the persons body at slower shutter speeds but hands and arms are often moving much faster than the torso.So you think taking one manually focused photo is better than trying to use the auto focus and getting five photos?So in the course of a game i get 50-60 shots when i could have taken 200-300?I'm surprised because the ones i did miss were only by a fraction and seem easily correctable?

[bschriver11]

At 1/320 i can see motion blur on the ball.Her hands had to move just as fast as the ball didn't they?Can you push a car up to 60 mph with a car that is only going 30 mph?

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Last edited by bschriver11; 09-25-2016 at 06:26 PM.

[bschriver11]

Example.

[discoinfiltrator]

Example.

ah mate, this motion blur is nothing compared to the benefits you'd reap by widening that DoF. These are good pics but a) if you're getting some proportion out of focus, or soft, and want them sharper and b) you're not printing onto billboards, that's a sacrifice you can make.

besides, motion blur of hands, or the ball, is nothing. happens all the time in sports photography. the face of the subject (or whatever relevant defining features) is what matters. Their faces aren't doing 60.

no need for the snarky comment, I know how fast her hands need to travel.

[kp0c]

At 1/320 i can see motion blur on the ball.Her hands had to move just as fast as the ball didn't they?Can you push a car up to 60 mph with a car that is only going 30 mph?

I like how positive and receptive your are to comments made in desire to help you regarding your original question.
Maybe you should just try to adjust the focus of the lens via the camera menu and then tell us how it went (this time, I'm serious, who knows, it might achieve what you want).

[discoinfiltrator]

I shot at the volleyball games earlier and i could freeze the persons body at slower shutter speeds but hands and arms are often moving much faster than the torso.So you think taking one manually focused photo is better than trying to use the auto focus and getting five photos?So in the course of a game i get 50-60 shots when i could have taken 200-300?I'm surprised because the ones i did miss were only by a fraction and seem easily correctable?

re this: you were the one who posted saying, should I front focus in order to get this last 20% of shots useable?

and we were like, no. that's just weird, and it would be much easier if you're after a particular shot (as you said you were, them running towards one end), then go MF.

in the end we can't make any camera get 100% every shot spot on. You just deal with it. I shoot with a second/third hand K10d, K mount lens, manual shutter/aperture/iso, nothing in the way of exposure compensation, next to no noise reduction (nothing above 400 is okay, 800 sometimes), dodgy white balance and autofocus stuck on centre spot only, since it's an old lens.

so I'm shooting as close to full manual as it gets on a digital camera, and it keeps me on my toes. I'll get 30 images in a half an hour debate, 4 will be really good. I get total control over how the images are produced.

In short, you choose. But don't be so scared about MF; I personally have a deep mistrust of any AF anyway.

[Paul the Sunman]

I recently photographed a high school girls basketball game using a Sigma 70mm macro,i am pretty happy with the focus speed of the lens since 80+ percent of the shots are in focus but where i did miss some was when they were on a fast break down the court straight at me.Obviously by the time i got focus lock and the shutter fired they were slightly in front of the nearest depth of field so i thought next time i might try using a positive focus adjustment so that when i lock focus it is actually slightly in front to account for the slight lag between focus and shutter release.Any thoughts?

Sorry if I'm missing the point here, but have you tried catch-in-focus? That's precisely what it's for. Or even continuous focus?

[discoinfiltrator]

Sorry if I'm missing the point here, but have you tried catch-in-focus? That's precisely what it's for. Or even continuous focus?

I should have mentioned this, but owning a camera which couldn't even dream of CIF means I forgot. Besides, MF is still more fun

[elementdtlop]

catch in focus may not work if the OP's camera is focusing and the shot is OOF. center focus might help if the subject is in the middle of frame.

[allexinwonderland]

I don't think the k30 has CIF does it?