Nikon D40 Settings for action shots

Question

A lot of people might have asked the same questions, but I can't just make a good answer for myself.

I would like to take some action shots.

For an example: Someone jumping the trampoline in the garden.

What 'F' should I take, which shutterspeed and which iso?

And please tell me if there are more settings I should change & how to do.

I've read the manual but I can't find a good answer fitting for my question.

THANKS!

Answer 1

Yeah what david said ! He gave you a good overview. You can set the shutter speed in programed mode, shutter speed priority program, or manual. Keep the iso around 200 max and noise will not be a big issue. You can go higher at the cost of a bit more noise. And if you want it even more automatic there is a program mode on that camera for action shots you can set it to that but the camera sets everything then rather than giving you control. Its the pictogram of a person running on the mode dial

Answer 2

The basics are as mentioned above: fast shutter speed, appropriate ISO etc.

On the D40, you can go in two directions:

- Auto mode: If you select the mode with the icon of the person running, the camera will do tracking autofocus, and all the other stuff.

- More manual control: Set the autofocus to tracking mode, with a single focus zone (rather than all 3), select a fast shutter speed, the aperture should not matter too much, set an ISO that allows at least 1/500 or some appropriate setting (depending on the sport -- a car race will require faster sutter than a bike race), go for continuous shooting mode.

The D40 manual actually provides a decent overview on sports shooting & the various things that you can control.

Answer 3

To make the D40 take action shots, you need to know how to set up your camera. I will suggest reading Ken Rockwell's article on basic setup of the D40.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40/use...

The following drivel references page numbers in my manual. Hopefully, your manual is the same.

You need to know about the following:

You need a fast shutter speed to stop motion. As a previous poster stated, at least 1/250 seconds. Faster shutter speeds, like 1/500 will do a better job at stopping motion but may not be necessary. To use faster shutter speeds you need lots of light or you end up using a high ISO (film sensitivity) which will increase the image noise.

Sports mode (pg 19 in your manual). This is a preset for your camera. If all the following mumbojumbo is too much to follow, use this mode. This mode will try use the highest practical shutter speed. If you know how to control your camera, then use shutter priority mode and continue on reading.

Shutter priority mode (pg 41). You set the shutter speed you want. For starters, use 1/250. Experiment to see what sort of shutter speed will work for your situation and artistic desires. Sometimes blur looks good as it imparts motion.

You need to control, or be aware of the ISO setting of the camera. Low ISO is desirable from a image noise standpoint. However, you could be shutter speed limited if there isn't enough light. The D40 takes acceptable images up to ISO 800. Strive to shoot at ISO 200 or 400. You can force the ISO on the camera by setting Auto ISO mode to off (pg 76). If you decide to turn Auto-ISO off, be sure to set your ISO setting manually (pg 37 or 73).

I will recommend keeping the Auto-ISO setting ON. There is another sub-setting to the Auto ISO setting. You can control the highest ISO setting the camera automatically chooses. See pg 76, ISO auto. You can set the max sensitivity. For your action shots, you may want to choose a max sensitivity of 400 or 800. 1600 will give you grainy (noisy) shots, so best to avoid if possible.

Put your camera in continuous shooting mode (pg 32). The D40 will rattle off continuous shooting at 2.5 frames per second. I keep my camera in continuous shooting mode always. The D40 will capture around 100 continuous shots before needing a rest to transfer the images to memory.

Read up on Rear Curtain Sync flash (pg. 36). You can get some interesting shots in this mode (motion blur plus a sharp image of the subject). This is good to use as it's starting to get dark or in medium lit situations.

If you're shooting your kids during daylight, consider using your flash. This will fill in shadows and make things look more natural.

Learn to use exposure compensation (pg. 47). The D40 light meter is pretty bad and tends to blow out highlights. I find that -0.7EV compensation works for most of my shots.

You don't need to concern yourself with the lens opening (f-stop). Wide open is good.

After all this monkeying with your settings, be sure to set it back to your normal settings.

You also need to read up on what all these setting do. A bunch of us spouting settings won't do you much good unless you understand the terminology and outcome of such settings. Go borrow a basic photography book from the library. You want to learn about ISO (ASA in older books), f-stop, and shutter speed. Learn how these interact and why you want to force various settings. Even books before the digital age will suffice.

Go take an adult ed photography course at your local community college. They will hopefully teach you the basics and the instructor can answer your questions in detail.

Answer 4

The basic answer is that to freeze action you need a fast shutter speed or you will get blurry shots. So what I would do is set your ISO to 100 or 200 more if you need to but start there. Then put your camera on shutter priority and you should be all set. The shutter priority mode will adjust the shutter to the fastest speed it can with the available light.

If you are comfortable using the camera on manual you will need a shutter speed of at least 1/250th of a second or faster. Set your shutter speed to 1/250th. Then adjust your aperture until the light meter is in the middle. If you can't get a good exposure raise your ISO a bit and try again. If the shots are blurry raise the shutter speed.