Canon EOS R7 Motion Blurr Problem on Action Photos

[GabriellaRS]

I have a Canon EOS R7 camera with an 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 RF lens. I take a lot of photos of puppies for a small puppy raiser. I run it in manual and keep the shutter speed around 1/60-125 depending on lighting. And the ISO on auto. I have SERVO set, Subject detect on for Animals. I have Autofocus on, set on Whole Area. 

I have a lot of motion blur at the edges of my subject. For example, the puppy moves, and I got his face clear, but his wagging tail is blurred smoothly, like some professional sports photos. I don't want any blur on the subject. I want to be able to catch the wagging tail clearly in motion, with the entire puppy, including his wagging tail or moving paws, in a very clear picture. The background around the puppy can be blurred, but I don't want any part of the puppy blurred. 

Does anyone have experience with this? Can anyone tell me what settings to use to avoid motion blurr at the edges, and to capture the movements clearly? 

Thank you! 

[kvbarkley]

Increase the shutter speed to 250 or so.

[Tronhard]

Like KvBarkley, I think you shutter speed is too slow.   

May I ask why you are shooting in M mode when there are Tv and Av modes available to let the camera take some of the burden and give you fast, reliable solutions to dynamic situations?

[stevet1]

GabriellaRS,

You don't say what aperture you are using. You might be having a depth of field issue.

My T81 manual says that in the Zone methods of AF, the camera has a tendency to focus on objects closest to you.

Try this as an experiment:

Take your camera out of the "whole area" focusing, and put it in single point. 

Do as Trevor suggested and put your camera in TV or shutter speed mode, and as others have suggested, increase your shutter speed to around 1/250 or so.

Do you use back button focusing? If not, learn how to do that.

Keeping your camera in Servo mode, change to burst shooting instead of one shot.

Aim the center point of your focus on the puppy's eye or eyes, and as he or she starts to move, follow his or her movements while keeping that back button focusing button pressed down and fire off a burst of 5 or 6 shots.

If that doesn't work to your satisfaction, put your camera in Av (aperture priority) mode and increase your aperture to f/8 or so, trusting that your camera will select a fast enough shutter to capture movement.

Give that a try and see what you think.

Steve Thomas