Meditrina

My husband has asked me to take photos of his softball team during the games. I used the "sport" setting, but I seemed to have missed the picture every time. ie: I was trying to get a shot of my husband hitting the ball and this is what I ended up getting:



I read through the manual for my camera, it is a Kodak EasyShare DX4530, 5 megapixels. But I could not find any more than "Use the sport setting". Any tips for taking better action shots?


(I hope I did that tag thing right. Let me know if I didn't, please)

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"Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles." ~Alex Karras

AquaFox

it's all in the timing, watch the ball and start holding down the button half way to focus the camera before the pitcher pitches, and press the button slightly before he hits the ball.... your most likely going to get a bunch of strikes while trying to do it, but thats the only way with a normal camera




also i would suggest using a tri-pod for sharper pictures, and zoom in more for better framing... if you use a tripod, you can set your frame accordingly, and then you can put all of your effort into the timing.

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...AquaFox...

tecoyah

Its important to guage the timing of your digital, as the shutter action is not the same as that in a 35mm. I am not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I have learned to "Guess" when the actual shot takes place, Kids will do that to 'ya.

And thanks for trying the [TAG] on this....

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Meditrina

Thank you Aquafox and Tec. I have hunted down the tripod I had for my old camcorder. and it fits my camera! I will try to use it next time. I will keep practicing until I get it right. I am excited about doing this for him, and learning something new at the same time.

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"Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles." ~Alex Karras

Hektore

In my ventures photographing rugby I found it very helpful to keep both eyes open, that way you can do a better job anticipating when you're going to start taking the picture. I get so many fewer decent pictures when I'm watching the game through the camera because the lag time between the button press and the actual taking of the picture can be quite problematic,especially if you aren't used to it(and sometimes even if you are). The best thing you can do to practice this is take lots of picture, even of the mundane(think about that intense strike 3 call ), it doesn't matter with a digital because you can delete them later, and all that practice will pay off when the shot you have to get(of the hubby sliding into home for the game winner) comes along. On that same note, take TONS of pictures, with a digital it doesn't cost you any more to take 100 pictures an inning and delete the 90 that didn't turn out the way you wanted than it does to take 10 per inning, and risk half of them being undesirable.

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The advantage law is the best law in rugby, because it lets you ignore all the others for the good of the game.

Sty

Well, the only sure way to get it is to get a camera with a nice rate-of-fire... I fortunately own a 1D, which does aroudn 8 frames per second. With that, I score around 70% of the time.

Unfortunately for the owners of cameras with 3 or less fps, it's a guessing game. Practice makes perfect though, so you might want to rehearse before to see what's your 'shutter lag'. I got pretty good at it, when I was practicing this with passign cars (on the shoulder of a hightway). I was trying to time a car passing on the center of the frame.

Took a few hours to get it somewhere around it.

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Sty

I route, therefore you exist

cJoe

AquaFox has the solution. First learn your camera. Press the shutter release half way, this will get the camera ready by focusing and what ever else it needs to do. Continue to hold the shutter release half way till when you want the picture. It is almost instant from that point. Play with the timing of when to fully depress the shutter release. This photo was taken from way out there then cropped the image. It's not great, but shows the action well

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StanT

I've never had any luck with anticipation. I finally bought a camera with a high fps rate to catch action shots. The picture below is the best of 30. I started shooting before takeoff and continued after landing (hoping for a nice fall). The model needs to dress in something other than "rock" colors, but I can now capture action reliably.

ngdawg

Also check your camera modes and see if it has a 'sequential frames' feature. You can depress the button as the ball is pitched and get several shots as he hits using this feature, keeping the best ones.

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Meditrina

Thanks everyone. I have not forgotten. I just need him to actually have a game that is NOT rained out so I can practice.

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"Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles." ~Alex Karras