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My new found love (OK it is now officially an obsession ) meant that on the weekend, after the zoo, I wandered through Bondi looking for some interesting shots.

The skate bowl is just a complete hive of activity. I found the challenge was to focus where I wanted, have enough shutter speed for a crisp subject, but not lose the sense of motion. I think I failed. So I am turning to the experts I have seen on here that accomplish this regularly...

My question is - what is the blurriness in these photos - particularly the first two? Is it poor focus - or more likely a too slow shutter speed? And secondly, in general terms, how do you do about selecting a shutter speed for moving subjects?
EXIF data is under the photos for reference. Thanks in advance.


#1: 1/200 f14 ISO100 25mm


#2: 1/200 f14 ISO100 25mm


#3: 1/400 5.6 ISO100 24mm

nice action shots ........ but a lower angle would give the pix's a bit more action.......

Hi! Mitchell,

I notice you are using F14, the sweet spot for sharpness with my Nikon lens's seems to be around F5.6 down to F8. Also, have you tried "spot" metering / focus? Not familiar with Canon.
I would either crop or zoom in more to remove "clutter" to bring more attention to the main subject, and aim to get at least 50% of the facial expression with eyes open. Also, (I think) the shallower the DOF (smaller the F#) the sharper it is.

Is that a genuine Canon "Dust Bunny"? above the shoulder in the first one, and below the elbow in the second one

Liked the last one the best

I think you ISO is a bit low and ditto to the f14 aperture setting...

If you want to freeze the movement either use a higher shutter speed, which would mean either higher ISO or drop in aperture (i'd be tempted to do the latter first) and see how you go. Also another way is to pan the movement with the skater...err scooter-er and at the moment you want to take the pic,press the nice button that takes the pic

That's pretty much the way I take my bike pics...or any movement pics. You have to track the subject through the viewfinder to get a good idea of the speed and motion of the subject.

PiroStitch wrote:... scooter-er...

Love it