Digital Photgraphy

[Chili]

I just upgraded my digital camera to a Minolta DiMage S304 and am looking for some advice from some of you experienced digital photgraphers. 

The first question is about quality and image size, my previous camera only had two options low quality and high quality, since I didn't like the idea of low quality the choice was simple.  This camera has many options and I'm not sure where to make my selection for image and quality.  I want really good quality pictures but if I'm taking them at a setting that is total overkill then there is little point in the huge file sizes that they produce.  The camera has 4 Image size settings 2048x1536, 1600x1200, 1280x960 and 640x480.  The camera has 4 quality settings as well Super Fine (which saves in TIFF format) and then 3 JPEG settings of Fine, Standard and Economy.  The default setting for the camera is 2048x1536 at Standard quality.  I guess the question I have right now is am I better off reducing the size of the picture but upping the quality?

Once I have made the decision on which quality setting to shoot at the next question is in regards to taking action shots.  I am going down to the Minneapolis SX and hope to take a bunch of photo's during practice.  The camera has a continuous mode that takes a frame a second so I thought I would use that to take a series of guys going over a jump or through a corner.  The question in this regard is the focus.  On auto focus will this camera pre-focus on something in the background further away causing the riders to be out of focus?

Any other digital do's and don't would be appreciated as I'm still rather green at this photography stuff both regular and digital.

 

[Chili]

oops my bad on the forum, I thought I was in off-topic when I posted it. Thanks to whichever of the mods moved it for me.

 

[Philip]

Go to www.pro4um.com

 

[nikki]

Chili - first of all - depends most on what you are going to do with the photos. Are you going to print 8x10's (shoot at large size/high quality)? Are you going to post them on the web (shoot at medium size/standard quality)? If you are going to import the photos onto your PC, you can always reduce the size/quality at a later time. Also depends on how much storage room you have on the camera/PC.

And as far as focusing - I have learned that SX photos are one of the hardest to take from a distance because they are so "busy" with background objects - so good luck! Normally though - if your object (rider) is at the center of the photo and you follow them in the jump/turn sequence, the camera should stay focused on them. Also the indoor artificial lighting may interfere some with a normal lens. Make sure you get to the stadium by 12:30 to attend the afternoon practice sessions where you'll be able to get pretty much front row and get some nice shots. Wait until Millville though - you'll get some KILLER photos at a National.

 

[High Lord Gomer]

I take my pictures at the highest quality possible. That way I can print them if I want and stil reduce them (and lower quality) if I want to post them.

For mine, at 2048x1536 each pic is about 1.5MB. To post them, I shrink them to 512x384 and cut the quality to 75%. That drops the size to around 40-50K.

For action that fast, the successive shot mode will be useless. A friend has a camera that takes them fast enough to use, but it's a $5,000 camera.

Personally, I focus on a spot (like the top of the jump) that I think will be the same distance as the rider when I want to get the picture. Then I wait for the rider to move into position.

Outdoors, when making settings to get the correct exposure, I point at an area of properly lit ground. If you auto-expose at an object in the air, many times the sky will be properly exposed and the rider will be too dark to recognize.

 

[yzeater]

I have a Nikon Coolpix 4300 (4MP), and I've just started to get into digital photography as well. A couple suggestions. Take the highest quality you can. My camera takes 2200x1700 pictures at the higest resolution. I can take TIFFs or JPEGs. The TIFFS don't really look much better, and they're much slower to work with because they're 16MB a piece instead of the 1.5MB JPEGs. The continuous mode won't really be all that helpful...you want to take the shots seperately. How big is the memory card on your Minolta? If it's less than 128MB, I'd recommend an upgrade. Also getting an extra battery so you don't have to worry about running out of power. One last thing, do you have a mac? If not, get one, it'll make everything with photos 10x easier. Good luck!

 

[Chili]

I've got 2 -128 mb cards as well as the 16 mb card the camera came with so I'm good to go for storage space. I've also got two sets of 1700 mah rechargeable NiMH batteries so I should have that area covered. As for the mac I'll pass :moon:

Most of the pictures will just end up being stored on a cd and occasionally viewed on the pc or the dvd player. If I get a real killer photo I may like to get that printed on a 5x7 or 8x10 but that will most likely be photo's of Troy outside versus ones from the SX race. As for the continuous mode I tested it the other day taking continuous photos during rush hour on a busy street and it seemed to work ok, Gomer you don't think it will be of any use trying to get a series of photo's of the field going through the first turn or something like that? My main thought on the continuous run would be again for Troy outdoors setting up in say a corner and just sitting there holding down the button and getting shots as all the riders come through to compare technique etc. I figure this way when I tell him you not up on the edge of the seat and he claims he is and my eyes are just to old to see that close I have photo evidence :)

Philip thanks for the link I will check it out and do some reading on my night shift tonight!

 

[oldguy]

Chili nikki hit it on the head with the busy background. I got some great shots on film last year but you have to really look to see the rider. Outdoors with sky or vegetation they would have been great shots.
Practice is another matter- you can walk around and get shots before the seats fill up

 

[High Lord Gomer]

The time between pictures seem pretty short when you're fiddling with the camera, but I'd be willing to bet three pictures of the first turn would be:

1. Carmichael about to get another holeshot!
2. A pileup at the back of the pack!
3. Ooh, Albertyn is still trying to find all of his body parts and pick up his bike!

I have the Sony DSC-75 (I believe it is almost the functional equivalent of yours).  When I use the continous, I got one picture of the rider where I want and 2 of empty track where the rider used to be.

YMMV, TIWAGOS, and WTHDIK?!

 

[scooter1130]

It sounds like some of the best tips have already been posted. 

You won't have a problem with running out of memory with 2- 128mb cards, so take your pictures at the highest quality you can, and if you wnat to save space later you can decrease the size and quality.

With the auto focus, you want to focus on the area where the rider will be before he gets there, to do this, point at an object that is about the same distance as where the rider will be, and press the shutter bottun half way, holding the button half way will keep the focus point so when the rider gets in the area your camera will be focused.

Follow the rider with the camera before snapping the picture, and follow through after the shot.

But the best tip I can give you is to practice, and try different features of the camera to see what gets the best picture.  If you want to check the link for "my pictures" below, there are some shots from last years nationals, most of them were taken with an Olympus C-700.

 

[Chili]

scooter you've got some great shots there. Do you hit all the nationals? The closest one to me is Milville and even that will be about a 10 hour drive but we plan to make the trek this year!

 

[scooter1130]

Chili,

Thanks for the comment on the pics, I try to get to all the nationals that are within a 5 hour drive.  I usually get to Southwick, Unnadilla, Broome Tioga, and Budds Creek, and sometimes Steel City, buty thats about a 7 hour drive.  But I have never been to a Supercross.  The closest one is Atlanta, which is a 12 or 13 hour drive.  I'll be looking forward to seeing how your pictures come out.

And 1 thing no one has mentioned about pictures at Supercross, Lots of people make the mistake of using the flash at indoor events.  your flash won't carry far enough to help any, and all it will do is light up what is right in front of you, and make the riders darker.  It will also drain your batteries quicker.  Use a faster shutter speed instead and you should get some good shots.

 

[Chili]

Well I snapped about 150 pictures during the SX weekend and met with promising but limited success.  I was having some troubles early and all the pictures were pretty blurry.  I switched to ISO 800 and learned how to use the manual spot focus and seemed to have some better results.  I've posted a bunch of the pics in my gallery, obviously to be posted these were greatly reduced.  Check out my gallery link in my signature if you'd like to see the start of my learning curve with the new camera.  I think that once I get all the features hashed out I will really like this new camera and will be able to get some top notch pictures.

 

[oldguy]

Chili the pics turned out great- just wait til Millville and the blue sky backgrounds:thumb:

 

[_SOLO_]

I've got a Kodak LS443. 3x optical zoom, (about to buy a lense with 2x more zoom) and I don't know how much digital (I never use it). 4 MP(resolution of 2448x1632) Takes videos. It is probably the easiest point and shoot digital camera there is, I haven't taken tons of pics with it yet but you can find them at http://community.webshots.com/user/jeremyl17 They are all about in there not just in the "Pics by me" album.

 

[MX Mac]

Chili, I think they turned out great. I would just add a couple of comments, the "industry" term for what was described above by a couple of people as "following" the rider and shooting where they will be is called "shadowing" and it looks like you were doing well at it.

The other thing is to try and run manual mode for apperature and shutter to drive the best color saturation(and run slightly fast shutter speeds go to 1/2000 or 1/5000 of a second)....when zooming with a non professional grade lens this becomes extremely difficult..unless you are using an SLR with a lens like a telescope...which then becomes even harder to shadow the rider... it's like holding/positioning a 25ft pole out in front of a rider.

Ever notice that if you zoom in on an object say 30 feet or more away with a traditional video camera that if you move the camera slightly it moves the object drastically and way out of view?? Conversely, if shooting subjects at relatively short distances, the slight movement of the video camera is hardly noticeable.. This is the same principal as Zooming with a digital camera, which makes "shadowing" even harder, as well as the changes to the lighting in background of the subject you're shooting as he moves across your shadowing range.

Ok 1 more thing, try to shoot you pics from the front (or angles off the front or center) of jumping or rapidly accelerating subjects....this is why you see so many shoots of MX riders in turns because they are traveling much slower and the saturation time allows for better depth...

Unless of course you can upgrade to a true Digital SLR camera that shoots 3-5 frames per second, and has a minimum of 5 to 7 point focal modes and shutter speeds to 1/8000 of 1 secs. the absolute ultimate is
Canon - EOS 1Ds Digital SLR Camera Body: $7,999.99
Canon - 400mm EF f/4 DO IS USM Zoom Lens $5,999.99

 

[_SOLO_]

Don't forget the new Kodak 14n, a 14mp camera for less than the Canon's.

 

[MX Mac]

I agree with the 14n as well, I will put an example of the "shoot from the front in the gallery" pretty cool picture of Mike Brown

 

[Chili]

Mx Mac,  ty you for the comments and tips.  I did notice that the clearest pictures I took were head on shots.  The pictures started to get better as I switched to manual and used ISO 800 and got a bit of a handle on using the spot focus to set up the shot.  As for shadowing I learned that one the hard way last summer as I tried to get some shots of my son jumping, after about 40 shots of his rear wheel we got it figured out, on a positive my son got alot better at that one jump that day :)

 

[MX Mac]

I took some shots with my traditional SLR at Atlanta SX. I will scan them in and add them to the gallery. My digital doesn't have my zoom power, so keep in mind these are shrunken down print scans and not fancy negative scans!

After doing all this, I really need to upgrade my Sony digital!

 

[PAINFULRM]

still cant beat the old slr with an awsome lens(sorry guys just old school i geuss)

 

[bud]

Originally posted by MX Mac
....this is why you see so many shoots of MX riders in turns because they are traveling much slower and the saturation time allows for better depth...

If you say so. Corner shots often capture the feeling of movement too. And the roost :). Here's some I took and had taken of me today http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/4967/