Shooting Action

I like to share some of the current results I achieve with the readers. When you dial in the right settings, you can capture any shot you want with professional quality.

Here I used AI Servo focus while shooting in Av mode. I used an aperture of 2.8, the camera selected 1/1000th, I used ISO 400 to get the shutter speed at or above 1/1000th, I used continuous shooting to get many great photos.

1/1000, F 2.8, ISO 400, 200mm using 70-200 2.8 USM

Sports/Action Photography Shooting Guide

Photo Contest Ending….

Just a reminder that the photo contest will be ending soon. We wanted landscape shots submitted in the forum contest area.

The winner will receive a Canon photo printer brand new.

Happy Holidays

Just wanted to wish everyone a very joyous and safe holiday season.
Thank you for checking out our site, and take lots of photos!

50D ISO Test

The 50D ISO test is now online here
50D ISO Test

we have updated our XSi/450D ISO test to have a similar scene and lens used.

Canon XSi ISO Test

Canon 5D II and 50D White Paper now online

Canon has released their updated whitepaper guides on their latest models

Available Here in PDF

Start Shooting Sports Now!

Capturing a diving catch

You have a Digital SLR, now all you need is to dial in a few settings and have the right equipment and you will get professional sports photography results.

Remember:
1) To capture action you must use a shutter speed of 1/500th or faster, preferably 1/1000th or higher.

2) Wide apertures allow for faster shutter speeds and better background blur (bokeh) which gives a more professional appearance.

Catching the ball while being tackled

3) It doesn’t matter if you are shooting athletes, your children, or the family dog running around. A fast high quality lens will make all the difference. If you do not have the EF 70-200 2.8 L BUY IT today you will never regret it. This was the first lens I acquired and it changed my photography forever!

4) Keep shutter speeds up, do not change exposures, under exposed photos will cause digital noise. Better to use a higher ISO then have an under exposed photo.

5) Use a vertical/portrait orientation and a monopod to frame your shots and prevent camera shake.

6) Ensure custom function for high iso noise reduction is disabled on the XSi and minized on the 50D.

From 2008-08-08 dog park august 08

How to Shoot Sport Photos

Miniaturize your landscape photos

a standard photo made to look like a Tilt Shift

Incredible, painstakingly perfect model? No, just a miniaturized landscape photo that you can achieve. This style of image is actually just a real photo that was generated with either a tilt shift lens or post processing in photoshop.

You can easily recreate this same effect by following the steps on this new guide to make your photos look like miniature photos.

50D vs Xsi/450D

The Canon XSi is an amazing camera, the 50D expands on that by adding a few great features that I’m really enjoying.

Out of the box the 50D is a bit heavier than the XSi, that weight tradeoff comes with a larger body, larger and more textured grip, and a higher quality chasis. The 50D weighs 25.7 ounces (730 g) and the XSi weighs 16.8 ounces (475 g). To me its not much difference, I prefer the larger grip and find it easier to hold than the XSi.

So what does the 50D really do that I prefer? So far the 6.3 FPS is great, I think that the larger buffer in combination with the faster FPS has amazing potential for sports shooting. However, when it comes to taking family photos etc.. the higher FPS really doesn’t help, it just fills your card faster.

I have always used 4gb cards with my XSi, now with the 50D my raw images are approximately 21mb each – so a 2gb card gets roughly 100 photos. I think an 8gb CF card is a minimum requirement for the 50D.

The 920,000 pixel VGA screen is brilliant, the extra clarity and detail level you can now see really blows the XSi VGA away. Functionally most of the settings are similar to the XSi, performance seems similar as well. The 50D is fast, its mirror has a lower tone which sounds quieter when taking photos, the ISO is more adjustable being able to select 100 , 125 etc… all the way up to 12,800. Anything over 3,200 ISO is really just for fun. The noise levels are too extreme at 6,400 or 12,800 to really use them for printable photos.

In terms of autofocus, the 50D has a brighter view finder for sure, I find that the autofocus works faster and in general is more accurate than the XSi. The XSi is great but the focus points seem to work with more efficiency in the 50D. The metering also seems to be a bit better, I find my landscape shots are getting relatively accurate exposures and dynamic ranges.

I enjoy using the rear dial wheel to quickly navigate settings, and having the top LCD is also a nice way to quickly see what settings I have dialed in.

All in all, I love having the 50D and the XSi to work together. Now I can keep two important lenses on my camera bodies at the same time and easily switch between the two. I highly recommend the 50D if you are looking to move up to more professional shooting.

50D Guide Going Online

Not much content yet, but the 50D guide is slowly going online.

First 50D content:

Right out of the box the 50D has a few features disabled and other settings that can use some adjustments.

I recommend adjusting the following 50D Customizations:

1) Enable ISO expansion; Custom Function 1-3; set option 1; expands ISO to 6,400 (H1) and 12,800 (H2)

2) Enable Live view: Under menu select Live View Function settings; Enable.

3) Shutter Button option: Custom Function IV-1 ; set option #3 AE LOCK/Metering + AF Start (allows you to lock metering, while focusing else where) – moves focus to back AF On button

4) Custom Function IV-2; set option 1; Swithches focus from AF on and *, * is larger and not as hard to reach as the AF On button for focusing purposes.

5) Custom Function IV-3; set option 3; when you press SET button in the dial wheel, Menu comes up.

ISO lesson updated

The ISO page has been updated with image comparisons.

http://www.learnslr.com/?page_id=262

Additionally, I have added a few images to the Speedlite and Sports shooting lesson.

Next Page »