Tennis help please.

[Duane Pipe]

Tennis is the only sport that I follow Although not as religiously as I used to during the Pete Sampras and Steffi Graff days.
For the last couple of years I have had the pleasure of photographing some of the young up and coming talent at my local tennis centre which hosts this..
http://www.latrobe.vic.gov.au/Whats_On/Events/Events_Calendar/Events_Calendar/AGL_Loy_Yang_ITF_Junior_Tennis_Tournament_2014

Last year I had the pleasure of photographing Ashleigh Barty who won the doubles finals at Wimbledon. I was going to post a few images from the Tournament but I have lost sadly lost them...
http://www.tennis.com.au/player-profiles/ashleigh-barty

This year I want to focus mainly on Sara Tomic, Bernard Tomics sister who seems to be climbing the ranks as well as other ozzy players.
I am ok with shutter speed and focus, I need help with metering and aperture settings. I will be about 10 meters from the action and using my 15x85mm lens.

Thanks in advance
Dave

[ricktas]

Use your Canon's AF- continuous focusing mode. Not sure of the exact Canon mode as it is called 3D matrix metering in Nikon terms. Designed to allow you to part press the shutter and then have the AF follow the subject movement to ensure they are in focus.

I suppose re aperture it depends what you want, Do you want the player in focus and the background out of focus, then a large aperture. If you want more of the overall scene in focus, a smaller aperture is needed. Also conditions on the day will determine shutter speeds, but I would be aiming to get say 1/500th second or at least 1/250th, to freeze the action, though some motion blur from say 1/50th second could impart a good sense of the speed of the action. To get the shutter speed you need, you might need to increase the ISO depending on lighting conditions (see start of this sentence re conditions on the day).

Re aperture. To give you an idea, based on your 7D and 15-85 lens.

You can use our Depth of Field tool to calculate focus distance and what will and will not be in focus at each Aperture: http://www.ausphotography.net.au/aptools/ap_dof.html

Jut put on APS-C sensor
the focal length (anywhere between 15-85mm)
the Aperture
Distance to subject (you state 10 metres)

and hit calculate and study the results for near and far limits of area in focus, fiddle with the focal length and aperture settiings to see how it varies and use this knowledge to determine which aperture you will use in any given shot. once you know what aperture you want to use, then you can start working out the shutter speed/iso combination to get good exposures.

Hope that helps.

[Sdison]

Look into using back button focus. I understand the majority of sports shooters use it in conjunction with AF-C, as it allows separate focus and shutter control. I've started using it for all my photography now.

Re exposure, it's probably best to use the widest aperture you can to get your shutter speed up to 1000th of a second to freeze motion. This should be easy outdoors - you should be fine to shoot at 100 ISO pretty easily in sunlight.

If you've got constant light you should be easily able to shoot in manual mode - just find your exposure and go. Otherwise you could look at Av and setting a minimum shutter speed.

Good luck! I'm hoping to head down to the Open next year to shoot.

[Speedway]

Shoot in TV mode (shutter priority) setting the shutter speed to what you want the camera will take care of the aperture, set focus to AI servo and metering to single spot. This should cover most shots using your ISO setting to fine tune for the available light.
Cheers
Keith.

[Duane Pipe]

Thanks for the info Rick. The canon system is al servo. re Aperture, A blurred bg would be good in some cases I suppose it depends on the gb itself and whether it is busy or not. I have read that it is easier to get the player in focus with a lager f-stop number:confused013

Your shutter speeds sound good to me Rick:th3: and with a bit of luck the sun might be out by then so I can shoot with a low iso
Thanks for the link to the dof calculator.

Cheers and thanks for the help.

Dave..

[Mark L]

Try and get the ball in the photo.:)

[Duane Pipe]

Look into using back button focus. I understand the majority of sports shooters use it in conjunction with AF-C, as it allows separate focus and shutter control. I've started using it for all my photography now.

Re exposure, it's probably best to use the widest aperture you can to get your shutter speed up to 1000th of a second to freeze motion. This should be easy outdoors - you should be fine to shoot at 100 ISO pretty easily in sunlight.


If you've got constant light you should be easily able to shoot in manual mode - just find your exposure and go. Otherwise you could look at Av and setting a minimum shutter speed.

Good luck! I'm hoping to head down to the Open next year to shoot.


I had heard of Back focus Sam, thank you for prompting me to take it farther. I set it up and hve had a crack at using it, How long have I owned my camera:eek:

I always try to shoot full manual and am sure of what exposures I need.
The tickets are expensive for the open the finals are $500 so I like to watch the juniors playing world class tennis for free:D

Thanks for the tip. Dave.

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Shoot in TV mode (shutter priority) setting the shutter speed to what you want the camera will take care of the aperture, set focus to AI servo and metering to single spot. This should cover most shots using your ISO setting to fine tune for the available light.
Cheers
Keith.

Thanks Keith I do use al servo for sports but never know what Metering to use so thanks for that:th3: I will try full manual and also shutter priority.

Cheers Dave.

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Try and get the ball in the photo.:)

That's for sure Mark, If I am quick enough:lol2:

Thanks mate.