Ranger Adventure

[txpaulranger]

I do have to do practice wax on, wax off everyday.

[txpaulranger]

I thought 300mm lens couldn't focus with even Stabilizer on.

[tonto2011]

Originally Posted by txpaulranger

AndyR is so right. Those are what my camera had gone wrong in so many reasons.

F7@#$ing great catch!!!

[tonto2011]

send us more plz...

[jerrybud]

Aunt flow.. Is that you lol

[RubberGears]

That's what I call being a sport of a subject. The girl in yellow busted our hero and gave him the finger but she kept her knees up and legs open.

Figuring out focus will reduce risk. Instead of banging off frame after frame praying for one in focus you can get in, take a couple in focus and then get out. This situation could have turned ugly if she had a boyfriend or some other white knight jerk hanging around.

[txpaulranger]

more from past adventure.

I have a question about Europe. Is it safe to go there in this coming summer? As I read news report, immigrant crisis is all over ruining European way of life.

[AndyR]

Paul, PM me if you want my top picks for a Euro trip, including exact locations in the cities. Don't think this info makes for a good post on a public, Google search ranked forum.

The girl across the fountain with the period stained panties was a fantastic find. You must have been very disappointed & a bit angry too when you got home and looked at them full size and seen how only a few turned out sharp & clear.

The key to this game if you shoot still pictures (as opposed to video), is to move from being a first encounter under enemy fire "Spray & Pray" army private to an Elite Special Ops Sniper. Yes, pro photographers call it "spray & pray" just like military guys do. Both situations involve "shooting" after all, just very different types.

You need to be fast. Uppertunities don't wait for you to figure out what is wrong with your camera. The longer your camera is pointed at a target, the greater the danger of being noticed, and the greater the risk to you.

You ***MUST*** know your camera inside out, every detail, and how to make it do exactly what you want within seconds. If you don't, you will fail. You do not need to take photography classes to lean this. Read the manual. Read the internet. Practice.

You can practice with your camera any time, any where. Any subject material will suffice, you do not need to be shooting ups.

Things to consider (specific to using a DSLR for candid shooting, other types of cameras may vary):

Since you need to work fast, you don't always have time to completely stabilize your body, arms & hands while shooting. Higher shutter speed is ALWAYS better. A shutter speed of 1/125 or below is too low for any type of candid shooting, although it is perfectly fine for many other types of photography.

The Canon 75-300mm IS lens is no screaming hell when it comes to sharpness. It is especially poor when you rack it all the way to 300mm. When you hit the stops, consider racking it back a fraction of a turn to about 280mm. Fewer sharp, in focus pixels are ALWAYS better than more, blurry, out of focus pixels. No amount of sharpening in Photoshop will fix a blurry image, however if you shoot RAW, or the very highest quality JPG, you can always upscale a smaller than desired image by 20-30% without any appreciable loss of quality. Note that Canon Image Stabilization always creates some strange looking blur around the edges of the image, this is normal.

Look at your images, evaluate what went wrong. Learn to spot the difference between the blur cause by camera losing focus, and the blur caused by camera shake:

Blur caused by camera shake is fixed by higher shutter speed. Your best bet here is practicing what you are personally capable of, every human is different. Quickly focus on something & snap off a shot at various focal lengths. What shutter speed do you need to make it come out perfectly sharp (remembering you will be under more stress when you go shooting candids)? These numbers will become your minimums that you will never go under when shooting candid.

Blur caused by camera losing focus can be caused by not setting the focus mode correctly (as you now know), but it can also be caused by choosing to focus on something with no contrasting lines for the camera to pick up. For example, a long expanse of flesh tone thigh gives the camera nothing to focus on, nor does an expanse of solid color panty. But the mottled grey stone of the step / curb just below her panties might be just the ticket, and close enough to the same distance away to nail nice sharp focus on the ups you want.


For what it's worth, here are a few settings that I used to use frequently...

Sitting / Lying / non-moving subject, flash OFF:

Shutter Priority (Tv) 1/500sec, (aperture adjusts automatically), ISO never below 400
Center focus point, One Shot (not continuous) AF, Drive mode continuous shooting

Moving subject:
Switch to AI servo continuous focus (still using only center point), possibly up shutter speed to 1/640 or 1/800

Sitting / Lying / non-moving subject, flash ON, bright to deep shade or early evening:

Manual mode (M) 1/200sec (limited by X-sync of camera), aperture f8, ISO never below 400
Center focus point, One Shot (not AI servo) focus, Drive mode continuous shooting
Note 1: Flash must be decently powerful off-board of same make as your camera - eg Canon 580EX v2 - get one cheap used, but avoid the 580EX v1 like a plague.
Note 2: Camera must be set to ETTL II = AVERAGE (this is not the default) to avoid the reflections from water bottles and reflective safety stripes on clothing from totally under-exposing the shot.

Sitting / Lying / non-moving subject, flash ON, bright sun:
Same as above, but use Tv (shutter priority) mode, attaching the off-board flash will automatically lower the shutter speed to X-sync (which is 1/200sec on your camera).

When you use flash, do NOT go much past 200mm, certainly no more than 250. Make sure Image Stabilization is on, and steady you body & hands as much as possible. The extremely short duration of the flash (~1/2000+ sec) helps capture a sharp, crisp image, but don't push your luck.

Yes, you can use flash at many tourist attractions, because everyone else is too. NO ONE NOTICES!!!!

[txpaulranger]

Thanks for great suggestions. To be honest, I have totally lost last 1/4 of your suggestions. I try to understand learning from manual and other info and practice more for sure. It is still three months to go.

[txpaulranger]

more action.