A budding photographer friend of mine sent me this photo he took during a high school “field day”. At first glance, I just have to smile. Not only is it a good action shot, but since it is a sack race, it gains some bonus points for abnormal content.
How could he make it better, though?
I have looked at a few photos from my friend already, so my eyes already know to check the focus, since I already know it is one of the things he needs to work on. With this photo, I cannot quite tell, though. The subject’s face does not seem crisp, but considering the movement in the photo, it could actually be a very small motion blur instead of a focus problem.
But hey, can you blame him? This dude is movin’, and I am already surprised that the photo is as good as it is. The mid-air freeze makes it look like this guy is not actually hopping through the course, but using some Jedi hovering trick. It feels very “zero gravity” to me.
If I had been in the same situation, shooting a sack race, here is what I would have tried to make the photos better. One, his face is fairly dark. Now, I do not know how far away the shooter is, but it does not feel to be very far. So, even if I do not have the top of the line flash with a 30 meter rating, the camera’s built-in flash will most likely provide that little “umph” to light up the face.
Second, I would slop a load of gel in this guy’s hair to make sure it stuck up the whole time…no, not really. That is such an excellent piece of this photo, but not something we can plan. Congrats, there.
Third, I always find focus tough to handle with this quick stuff. One option is to buy the top of the line speed shooter camera, which will only cost you one of your children, but will shoot a billion frames a second, all perfectly focused. Usually though (since my first child is not yet born, I guess), I would try shooting manual focus. Sound like I am going backwards?
In this nice sunny day, I could most likely close up the aperture some and still keep the speed I need. By closing the aperture, I increase the depth of the photograph that will be in focus. Then, I would manual focus on the distance at which I hope to catch that photo…this is educated guessing. In this sack race, I would focus on the cone. Then, when he come hovering around that cone, I pop that pre-focused photo.
Sure, that seems to defeat the purpose of auto focus, but I find that unless you have that top of the line camera made for action photography, you have to get creative (or just do it the old fashioned way). If your camera has it, you can try continuous focus, where the camera “finds” the subject you want in focus and automatically follows it as you shoot off photos. Impressive. Honestly, I have not tried it much.
In conclusion, I give my friend excellent points on this photo. He grabbed a great action shot. The hair is just icing on the cake!
