When shooting events or action photos, engaging people, I often find that frontal (or rear) perspective may be very expressive, but my problem is focusing when the subject moves towards the camera (or away from it). I rarely have even a single decent shot in a series.
If I use AF, then the lag between autofocusing and the shutter release is long enough for the subject to move out of focus. This is especially a problem when shooting wide open. Burst shooting doesn't help here, because the subject is by definition moving more and more out of focus.
I tried focusing manually anticipating the subject, but my eyes are far from perfect in focusing, I often focus at the wrong plane (and it's hard to focus manually when there is nothing at that point yet).
What techniques do you use to shoot such photos?
Answer
This is a classic use-case for continuous autofocus (AF-C). Nikon uses that term, Canon refers to this mode as AI-Servo.
This does not guarantee anything though, just improves your odds depending on:
- Which camera you use: Advanced cameras have predictive-autofocus which calculate the speed at which a subject moves and keeps moving the focus in that direction. This is to be used in combination with burst mode.
- Which lens you use: Brighter lenses can focus faster even if you shoot at a smaller aperture. Different lenses also focus at different speeds for plenty of other reasons.
- The speed of your subject: Obviously!
- The contrast of the subject: Contrast is required to focus and the more contrast the easier it is to focus, so the lens can focus faster.
- Shooting aperture: A small aperture gives you more depth-of-field so focus can be less precise. Keep in mind if it is too small, the shutter-speed will cause the subject to blur.
- The focus point: In almost all cameras the center focus-point is more sensitive and can focus faster and with less light.
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