Canon Rebel t7

[AmandaLeeR23]

There’s a big micro sprint car race this weekend, and my friend is racing in probably his last big race. I want to take some great action shots for him, if at all possible. My camera is the Eos Rebel t7. What would be best way to do this?

[Waddizzle]

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@AmandaLeeR23 wrote:
There’s a big micro sprint car race this weekend, and my friend is racing in probably his last big race. I want to take some great action shots for him, if at all possible. My camera is the Eos Rebel t7. What would be best way to do this?

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Just do it!  What lens(es) do you own?  The standard kit lenses with the T7 are not exactly Canon's best lens efforts.   It may be little late to order any new lenses online. 

How close to the action will you be?  The best way to grab sharp images is to be as close as practical.  Use a fast shutter speed, if you can.  This is where having a wide aperture lens comes in handy.

[jrhoffman75]

Welcome to the forum AmandaLeeR23.

You want a fast shutter speed, continuous shooting (hold shutter button down and camera keeps firing) and most likely AI Servo so the camera keeps adjusting focus as the subject position relative to the camera is changing.

Try and capture an effect that implies motion, like the wheels throwing up dirt.

Plan on a lot of frames for one or two keepers.

Come back if you have any more questions.

[AmandaLeeR23]

On the other side of the fence. With all the covid stuff going on, not many are allowed in the infield except ambulance and field crew. Im still new to this camera, so I havent gotten another lense other than what it came with. Whats a good one?

[jrhoffman75]

You didn't say what you currently have, but you want a long (high mm value lens).

The Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 II USM is reasonably priced and fast autofocus. Another option is the 55-250 STM lens.

The absolute best would be one of the 70-200L lenses, but they are quite pricey.

[Waddizzle]

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@AmandaLeeR23 wrote:
On the other side of the fence. With all the covid stuff going on, not many are allowed in the infield except ambulance and field crew. Im still new to this camera, so I havent gotten another lense other than what it came with. Whats a good one?

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Time may be too short to buy a better lens than the standard kit lens.  You did not say what lens(es) you have, so I will assume that you have just one, EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II.  The second lens that commonly comes in T7 camera kits is the EF 75-300mm f/3.5-5.6 USM III.  

It would breat if you had a "faster" lens.  This means a lens with an f/number that is f/2.8, or has a smaller number.  Aperture describes a ratio.  The smaller the number, the larger the aperture, which means more light can enter the camera.  This allows for the very fast shutter speeds needed to freeze action.  I think you would want a shutter of at least 1/400 to 1/800, depending upon the focal length of your lens.  The longer the focal length, then the faster your shutter will want to be.

If there is a Best Buy in your area, then pick up the EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens.  This is good portrait focal length, and it is fast enough to allow for the faster speeds needed for action photography.

Follow John's advice above regarding camera settings [and lens choices].  Pick up the camera and practice.  Practice.  Practice.  Practice.  Practice on cars driving past your house, if you can.  Sometimes people get paranoid when an anonymous person takes their photo.

I have found the easiest setting for on the mode dial for action photography is M mode, and set ISO to Auto.  You can use the main dial to set shutter speed, and the rear buttons to dial in a wide (small number) aperture setting.

[ebiggs1]

"What would be best way to do this?"

Nobody here can give you exact instructions on how to shoot this race without seeing the venues and knowing the conditions. Some very basic suggestions is all.  One thing I will offer is do not buy a 50mm f1.8 lens for this shoot.  Total waste of money.  It is a special use lens and this ain't the special time to use it.

Being as this is a first time shoot, just set the camera to P mode and the lens on AF. I would use One shot AF.  This is no time to learn what you don't know. But you have a AI Focus AF mode. It switches between One shot and AI Servo AF automatically. I think that might be a good thing to try. The T7 is no speed demon at 3 FPS but make sure you use that too. Select a higher ISO number like 800. Average WB.  In this case I would use large jpg file format.

If you use these settings, you are going to get some good pictures. Some are going to be great and most are not. That's just the way it is. However, look at the settings of the keepers. Remember what worked and what didn't. Next time you will be able to get more keepers as you have a basic knowledge of what to do. 

What was the shutter speed (SS)?  What was the focal length (FL)? Was ISO 800 high enough?  All these settings and more.  Next time you may notice that a faster SS was better so you might use Tv to fix SS at a higher level.  Or, perhaps small apertures was best so next time you use Av to fix the aperture. That kinda stuff.  Learn, learn, and learn!

You have to walk before you can run, kido. So use this as your learning "how to" experience.  BTW, your T7 has a "Sport" mode you might give that a try on a few shots.

[AmandaLeeR23]

I’m at work, i’ll have to look at the camera when I get home. But thanks so much for the tips! I know I’m probably rushing things, just wanted to do something nice for him!

[ebiggs1]

WHen you get home grab a nice mocha latte and the T7 user manual.  Get up close and personal with it. Especially check out the Creative mode section. You might find the T7 is pretty smart and can figure out how to get you some very nice shots all by itself.

The reason you don't want to buy the 50mm f1.8 lens right now is because you already have that focal length in the lens that came with your T7. The only thing it offers over your lens is a f1.8 aperture and you are not going to use f1.8 for a car race.

[Waddizzle]

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The reason you don't want to buy the 50mm f1.8 lens right now is because you already have that focal length in the lens that came with your T7. The only thing it offers over your lens is a f1.8 aperture and you are not going to use f1.8 for a car race.

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He is not taking aperture into consideration, which is surprising given the low noise performance of your camera body.

Actually, that is exactly why you would want to have the lens in your bag.  Yes, your kit lens has the same focal length, except the kit lens will use an f/stop of f/5.6, which is 3 stops of light slower than the f/1.8 lens.  Why is that important?  A couple of reasons.

Reason number one has to do with your AF point selection.  Use the center AF point, because it is the most accurate AF point.  It also gets more accurate with a lens with an aperture of f/1.8 or faster.  

Reason number two has to do with your camera's high ISO performance.  It does not really have good high ISO performance.  I would estimate that images captured at ISO 800 will begin to look noisy, and it will only get worse at higher ISO settings.  I would use the f/1.8 aperture lens set to f.2.8, which will gain you two stops better performance over your kit lens.////

If you want to use FAST shutter speeds as recommended, then you will need to use high ISO settings.  Suppose that a given shutter speed, 1/800, with the f/1.8 lens needs an ISO 800 setting.  The same shot with the f/5.6 kit lens would need ISO 3200, and the photo will be quire noisy and soft, instead of clean and sharp.  

If you have an overcast day, then all of you photos could be noisy with an f/5.6 lens.  The EF-S 55-250mm lens is also an f/5.6 lens.  It will give more focal length, but it gathers far less light, about three stops less light, which is significant!

Selecting lenses and setting exposures is a constantly changing set of trade-offs.  The fun part is finding the optimal set of trade-offs to get the best result for a given set of shooting conditions.