Sun, Water and Movement

[One Click]

Soon to be taking some shoots at a sporting event in QLD. There will be sun, pool water and movement.

Suggestions please as to best settings to use. I do have a polarizing filter but have rarely used.Camera is a Nikon D3100

Thanks in advance

[Darey]

From memory the D3100 has "Scene Mode" settings so I suggest you try Scene Mode set to "Sport" for your first few shots and see how that works. Hopefully by using this automatic mode you can concentrate on your compositions and focus and get some nice keeper shots.

Take notice of the settings the camera chooses and that may give you a hint on what settings to use if you want to be more adventurous and start choosing and manually setting your own settings. eg: for a bright sunny day you may want to set your ISO to 400 and use "Aperture Priority Mode" with the aperture set on f4 or f 5.6. This will give you a useful Depth of Field and most importantly keep your shutter speed up around the 1/1000 sec mark to stop action.

I hope this helps and have fun taking plenty of shots.

[Mark L]

^ that sounds okay.
Once you get adventurous, maybe consider shutter priority (not sure what Nikon call it). Allows you to keep the shutter speed up. Let camera decide aperture. You can pre-choose ISO, or put it on auto ISO. The main point being, you control the shutter speed to capture action.
Maybe also consider turning on "continuous shooting" drive mode (Nikon calls it ...?) you'll end up with more photos to delete, but you won't miss that nearly wonderful photo by a fraction of a secound.
Just a couple of thoughts!
Hope you have sun and fun.

[One Click]

Thanks Darey and Mark. So do I also use the polarising filter, was wanting to use manual settings rather than auto or sports / action mode.

[fillum]

Generally for sport a wide aperture is preferred to give some separation between the competitor and the background (ie the background is blurred, hopefully). Although for pool sports if you are shooting with a longish focal length and somewhat downward into the pool you may not need to worry so much about a wide aperture because the background might just be the water which won't be distracting.

You didn't specify the sport (swimming, water polo, etc?). I'd generally aim for a shutter speed of at least 1/1000 with 1/500 being about the minimum, but this might depend on the stroke (eg could perhaps get away with a bit slower on breaststroke for example). I'd use aperture-priority with auto-ISO enabled. I'd initially set auto-ISO to a minimum shutter of 1/1000 and whatever maximum ISO you are comfortable with. (I might also try a few shots with a min 1/500 and see if was getting sharp enough images).

Polariser can cut reflections off the water so might be useful, however effect can vary depending on your shooting position (and where the sun is). For example (I think this is right), if you are shooting a 50m pool from the side and set the polariser to minimise reflections at the starting end, when you turn the camera to face the other end of the pool the reflections may actually be increased (unless of course you adjust the polariser each time you shoot to a different end). You'll also lose a stop or two of exposure with the polariser, but that might work in your favour if it's especially bright. I'd suggest taking it and trying a few test shots and see how well it works.

Keep an eye on your exposure on the lcd. If there are bright reflections off the water your subject might be under-exposed. You may need to dial in some exposure compensation.

If you are able try to get some shots up the pool, works especially well for breaststroke and butterfly. (If you get the opportunity you might also like to experiment by using a slower shutter speed and panning with the competitors - might get some interesting 'arty' stuff ).

Let us know how you get on. And have fun...



Cheers.

[One Click]

Thanks everyone, will report back after the event. For your info fillum only freestyle, it's a triathlon event. First race of the Junior National Series, the pictures I took last year had far too much glare off the water. Hope to do better this year. Will report back after the event and let you know how I went

[One Click]

Well pleased to say much better results this year, used the polarizing lens and set at f/5.6, 1/1000

Here is a couple of the results.

[Mark L]

#2 is your photo but my pic
All the best for Christmas O C.

[One Click]

Thanks Mark

Anyone wanting to see more pictures of the event http://www.facebook.com/Triathlon.in.Pictures?ref=hl