I purchased a decent compact camera for a recent big holiday, and would like to start messing with some proper photography. I’ve done some reading while away, and going to purchase the Understanding Exposure book, but wondered if people in the know have any advice on here for the type of photos us mountain bikers like to take.

From the limited stuff I’ve read, aperture priority, shutter priority or program mode seems a better choice than jumping into full manual mode to start with, but is there one of these modes that you would recommend over the other while starting out? It’s for your usual bike, woods and mountain type pictures.

Any starting points with modes etc. would be appreciated. Example photographs with settings used even better – looking through some of the what camera threads there seems to be some great photographs on here.

Many thanks for reading.

Shutter priority will be better for action as you can choose the shutter speed. This allows you to freeze the action easier, although you may want to use a slower speed and pan the camera, thus freezing the subject but not the background.

Aperture priority is better for static subjects where you can use the depth of field to blur stuff behind the subject if necessary.

Program mode will choose the shutter/aperture settings for you. A good camera will allow you to change the combinations.

In my less than professional opinion, the key at this stage would be the ability to manage over or under exposing the picture in order to compensate for differing lighting conditions, rather than getting too heavily involved in the various program modes. Once you’ve sussed getting good exposure, move on to varying the shutter/aperture settings.

Obviously this is very simplistic and others with more experience may have a different view.

Rich.

Shutter oriority would be the place to start 1/2000s will get rid of blur. But you might want blur if you’re panning with the rider to keep them bkur free but blur the background. You might be going as low as 1/50th in that case. Think about what you’re trying to achieve and set as appropriate.

With a compact camera auto focus is unlikely to be up to the job. If it isn’t you’ll want to manual focus in advance to where you want to take the shot.

I suggest you try aperture priority. Set the aperture as wide as possible, to let plenty of light in. Then increase the ISO a bit, until it gives you a fast enough shutter speed.
For most compact cameras, they will have a wide depth of field whatever the aperture.

Also set autofocus for moving or continuous. Plus try burst mode.

As others have said, for action shots shutter priority mode is usually the right answer – you pick the shutter speed to do what you want (freeze the action, get some blur with panning, whatever) and let the camera sort out everything else.

Try also putting the ISO up if you’re having trouble getting the shutter speeds you need. Not too high obviously.

For focusing, depends how good your camera is. If it can do fast continuous AF, then go for that. You’ll need to experiment to see whether centre-pint or multi-point works better for you. If your camera can’t focus that quickly, try prefocusing – focus before the rider comes along, then lock the focus if you can.

Shutter mode also depends on your camera – with a SLR which has effectively instant shutter response, you can set it in burst mode and take a bunch of shots. If your camera has a shutter lag, it’s sometimes better to time it for one good shot instead of several bad ones.

Quick & simple guide
Shutter Priority;Use this to control how sharp you want something to look.The higher the shutter speed the sharper the image,but the trade off is everything can look static.I try & go as slow as possible to emphasize speed
Aperture Priority:The higher the F stop the more of the image is in focus,do you want all of the image in focus or are you trying to separate the subject from the background?
Just practice & you’ll get the hang of it,it’s only digital so just delete the duff images.
HTH

Important & mentioned in the previous posts.If your cameras A/F is not up to tracking the subject then pre focus and take just the one shot.
I can relate to that,I usually take a Lumix with me & I miss lots of action/fast moving stuff where my SLR has no problem,but weighs more so often gets left at home..

I pretty much shoot all sport stuff on Manual, with Auto-ISO switched on. That way I get the shutter speed and Aperture I want, and just compromise on ISO (which with modern sensors is hardly noticeable at all even up to 10s of 1000). E.g. I shot this with f5.6 1/1250s which worked out at ISO 250.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/cStc4f]This Ad will appear in Mountain Bike Action in September 2012[/url] by brf, on Flickr

Not all cameras support auto-iso in manual. Typically manual is manual everything.

I’d say that its important to understand the role of shutter speed. aperture and iso combine to give correct exposure

Its important to understand how focal length and aperture control depth of field

Its important to understand how subject motion, camera motion, focal length and aperture control motion blur

But in reality for Mountain bike photography its no that hard to get right and the various modes all in the end let you get to the same place. They change how easy it is to get what you want but they don’t change what pictures look like

I think getting action photos in focus is a bigger challenge than exposure so I’d start practicing now. You may find with a compact that when you are stood by the trail you need to focus on the spot where the bike will be before it arrives. Then shoot a burst of shots while you follow the bike. My compact isn’t fast enough to focus a the bike comes along. But try the different modes on yours.

If you tell us what camera you have I’ll recommend some settings in terms of aperture

I’d echo the above regarding focus. I find it the hardest thing to nail. I usually pre focus where the rider will be and shoot a short burst.
I use shutter priority when I want to freeze the action, pushing up the iso often to deal with the sort of light you tend to get in mtb.

If I’m doing more of a panning shot I may use aperture priority.

Panning shot in AP

SP

SP

AP

Thanks for all of the replies. I have got my head round shutter priority for action type shots and will experiment. The camera will shoot 10fps in burst mode for JPEGS, or 1.9 if RAW. For shots of the woods or hills when I’m out then it seems like aperture priority is the one to go with? My camera allows aperture of f/1.8 – f/8, so for big landscapes where I want everything in focus I would be looking towards the f/8?

Also, I see a lot of certain types of pictures, where the colours really contrast with each other. it’s hard to explain but an example would be the Highland Trail 550 article in this month’s Singletrack – Is this just getting to know how to use the light with the various camera settings or is this an effect added by the camera (HDR?) or afterwards in Photoshop?

Again thanks for all of your replies, it’s given me lots to experiment with.

so for big landscapes where I want everything in focus I would be looking towards the f/8?

Depends on the camera. Have a look at DOF master. On a compact with a wide lens you probably won’t need to stop down much at all to get everything in focus.

If you tell us what camera you have I’ll recommend some settings in terms of aperture

Cheers it’s a Canon S120.

Cambridge in colour is a good tutorial site.

Not all cameras support auto-iso in manual. Typically manual is manual everything.

Pretty sure all Nikon DSLRs do (every one I’ve ever had has had it).

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/06/12/auto-iso-the-friend-you-never-knew-you-had/

That look you are after is all done in post processing. I find adding contrast and “Clarity” and reduscing saturation in post processing gives that look

I think you won’t need f8 for huge depth of field with a small sensor F5.6 or even F4 will give good depth of field. Try and focus about 1/3 of the way into the depth you are trying to keep in focus

Again play around before your big trip

Pretty sure all Nikon DSLRs do (every one I’ve ever had has had it).

Yeah, nikon dslrs do, but they’re not a good reference point when talking about compacts.

Now we know what it is we might find out one way or another 😉

[/quote]Not all cameras support auto-iso in manual. Typically manual is manual everything.

Yes this seems to be the case – I can switch to auto-iso in P, TV and Av modes, but the option is not there in manual.