So I start to shoot artistic swimming and I would like to ask which AF mode work best as I am still getting mis-focused shots and I don't have too many places where the athletes are training so I can practice and try different focus modes.
As you know, shooting athletes in and out of water is not easy as there's water splashing, water covering faces or when they are wearing goggles, or when athletes emerge from water suddenly, or athletes prepare to jump up high etc.
I am shooting Canon R5ii and Sony A1ii.
I alternate between locked single point, single small spot focus, and tracking single point/spot focus but nothing work 100%. And I am not very fast at moving my camera to track moving subjects.
What AF mode works best in:
1 - Athlete on top of water prepare to be catapulted up high ( usually with busy background of people sitting on bleachers, or pool structures. )?
Problem I have is when I place the spot focus point on the athletes, then the focus point may jump off to the people in background during the jump and photos come out blurry...
I am still testing this with locked AF spot focus and tracking spot focus but I got mixed results.
2 - Athletes emerge suddenly from water ( only legs showing )?
I have a bit better rate when using locked AF single point spot focus but sometimes, camera just focus a few inches in front or behind.
3 - Athletes emerging suddenly from water?
I get better rate with single point focus.
4 - Group formation, with faces and no faces showing?
I just want to know what you are using in this case.
Yeah I saw that video. Some differences from normal swimming making synchro more challenging.
It helped a bit but not 100% yet.
Thank you for posting though.
