The rule of thirds need Help

grinch8 · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 12:19 pm Post subject: The rule of thirds need Help

This is a failed attempt
and i wanted the rider more to the left aswell!

ok.. so say im takeing a photo of a jump and i was to employ the rule of thirds.. or maybe put the rider right up in one corner.

I cant pre-focus on a jump like th one in the photo as there is nothing to focus on where the rider is going to be.

i also cant track the rider along as its a hip and he is behind trees untill he appears.

I cant focus in one corner because even when i have dynamic focus on it still focuses on something in the middle which in this case is the tree or ground.

so what are your techniques with a moving subject and rule of thirds??

thanks

JAW · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:11 pm Post subject:

I dunno if this is going to be much help, but what i would do if focus on the lip from which he has taken off (obviously before he has taken off it!) and then, whilst focused on it, set the camera to manual focus so that it won't re-focus on anything else. Now you can move the camera about to get the desired composition.

Looks like it could be a sweeeet shot BTW!
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Hamish · Forum Veteran Joined: 29 Sep 2006 Posts: 1011

I'd compose where I knew/expected the rider to be and use manual focus if I couldn't get an AF point over the rider.

Remember that if you have enough DOF then you're better to focus slightly in front rather than to the back of the rider so prefocussing on the lip of the landing wouldn't be a disaster. But I see that you used f1.8 which doesn't give you any room for error. If I'm using the 50 f1.8 then I normally up the ISO a bit to avoid shooting at f1.8. You really don't have any room for error and can get horrendous CA if you overexpose. It's better to have a wee bit of noise and more DOF/less CA.

Also, I'm lucky enough to have wide enough AF points on my D200 to use the rule okay with AF-C and a single point:

f2.2 1/500 ISO 400

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grinch8 · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:49 pm Post subject:

i get really confused by f number, the conditions where pretty dark, although there are two flash's one under and one to the left.

I run shutter priority allll the time because i cant get to grips with appiture

so im guessing the best thing for me to do in that situation it to put the appiture up.. and then put the flash power up as they where running on lowest power all day.

JAW · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 11:11 am Post subject:

Increasing aperture will give you more room for error but it does = increased shutter speed which is why hamish said up the ISO's.

Nice shot hamish!!
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Hamish · Forum Veteran Joined: 29 Sep 2006 Posts: 1011

Aperture is pretty important - it's worth reading up on it and understanding about how it works with focal length & focussing distance to affect DOF. Also all lenses don't perform as well wide open (i.e. at the lowest number) as they do when they are closed down a bit. It's generally better to avoid shooting wide open unless the lighting is favourable and not too contrasty.

You should always be aware of what sort of aperture you are using, even in shutter priority.

As for flash... well if it's really depends on the balance between what the flash is providing versus the ambient lighting. If the main source of lighting then you can use long shutter speeds for the ambient light (and a larger f number) and the flash burst will freeze the action. If the subject is reasonably well lit then that doesn't quite work and it'll get a bit blurry.
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grinch8 · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 11:36 am Post subject:

well i took 42 shots over 5 hours..

couldent get any rule of thirds shots
alot of sitting around waiting for riders

Heres proof atlest one came out half decent!

JAW · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:20 pm Post subject:

Very nice! Shame about the plastic sheet on the downramp...
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Hamish · Forum Veteran Joined: 29 Sep 2006 Posts: 1011