Arrows in Flight

[GrahameA]

Hi All

Jeffro asked about "Arrows in Flight" photos so I though I would explain a bit more.

These photos were taken with a Canon Digital SLR and with a Zoom lens set at around 80mm. (This is the same width of field if you were using a 120 mm lens on a full frame 35mm camera.) The ISO is 400 and generally the Shutter speed was around 1/500th to 1/100th of a second. The aperture was set at 4.5 which is max open - the camera will find a match so that the exposure is correct. You could use a longer lens but your depth of field may suffer a little but you will get sharper photos - however, as I was taking a whole range of photos at this stage the long lens stayed in the car. Enough of the technicalities.

As I said on the post I am behind the archer and I just press the shutter when I hear the archer release the arrow. With my time lag and the lock time of the camera the arrow is somewhere close to the target when the photo is taken. Ding's bow is a fast longbow in these photos and if you are a bit slow the arrow will be gone or in the target when you take the photo.

I have circled the arrow so that they stand out. All the photos are 800x600 pixels and have been compressed somewhat to keep the file size down.

The first image is normally the complete image and the subsequent is a crop so you can see the arrow clearly. If you wanted a better resolution use a longer telephoto.

If you want to take photos like this you need a camera with a short lock time. i.e. The time between you pressing the shutter release and the photo being taken. Plus you need to be attuned to the sound etc. and release the shutter quickly. Many of the Digital Cameras have a lock time that is long and if you use the method I use then arrow will be long gone by the time the photo is taken - but try it any rate to see if it is possible.

Note - A 60lb 7ft longbow is not a good choice of bows for use in this type of country. It is surprising how often the bow will hit branches etc.

[jape]

brilliant Grahame, i like to see how people do things ...
- pity for the participants that you had to use shots of all those missing to illustrate recorded for posterity

[Jeffro]

Ah thanks for that Grahame the whole photography thing can get a bit confusing sometimes but i got some photos of arrows in flight by clicking when i hear the release as you say.
in this thread http://www.ozbow.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=6144

[GrahameA]

Hi Jeffro

The Lumix is a nice little piece of kit. You will get sharper photos if you can get the shutter speed up - that is what is causing the blur. You may be able to adjust the ISO rating. It would be good to see what it is capable of at 30fps.

You can see the arrow in this shot and that was done by being attuned to when the archer would shoot and using a wide angle. The blur is caused by the slow shutter speed as it is quite dark under all those trees.


p.s. Those images are around 150kB each. at that size they should be around 10k. If you can, next time you are posting some up try and increase the amount of compression by changing the settings for the amount of compression. The problem with the big files is they take a while to download even with a fast connection. The image I have attached is only 85kB abd I could squeeze it down a bit more with a noticeable loss in quality.

[GrahameA]

Hi Jeffro

A bit of maths for people to consider. Most the shots above have the target 25-30yards from the archer. i.e. 75 - 90 ft. The bows are shooting at least 150 fps with the faster bows probably cracking 200plus fps. This gives a time of flight of 1/2 to 1/3 of second. To get the arrow in flight you need to hear the sound, press the shutter and the shutter has to operate in that time period. Yep, you need to concentrate on what you are doing.

A few more that are technically interesting.

These were shot under nice bright sunny conditions at the Archery Nationals a few years ago and we have shots of compound arrows. Compounds are a bit of a problem as the arrows are moving so fast.

1. So here is the arrow about halfway down the range. The thing to note is that that arrow is still oscillating in the vertical plane and it is flying nice and straight.

2 & 3. These are both good fortune rather than good skill. They are crops and were taken with with a 300mm lens mounted on a tripod. I am sitting in a shed to the side of the range probably 50 yards from the archers; a) so I do not distract the archer and b) so I am nice and safe.

4. The arrow is not that far from the bow but the shallow depth of field has blurred the image. Once again you can see the arrow oscillating in the vertical plane but it is flying nice and stright. The observant person will notice that the archers bow is tilted slighly counter clockwise and it is not an optical illusion - look at the level in the scope. You can learn all sorts of things with photos.

5. Two arrows in flight. Check out how much more the fluro green fletches and nocks stand out in comparison to the orange nocks and fletches.

6. This the whole photo that 5 was cropped from. Can you see the arrows??

7. Okay I wll circle them for you.

[GrahameA]

I went to the range today and took the camera.

The target is 30m away and I can almost capture an arrow in flight on demand.

Next time I would go for a much smaller aperture to get a greater depth of field.

[2Dogs]

He's some of my best shots capturing the arrow

[2Dogs]

Linda at the ABA Nats

[2Dogs]

Linda's Beeech Eddie

[buzz]

Thats some real nice work right there 2dogs.

[Hilly]

This is pic from the traditional shoot that Caboolture held a few year ago the arrow on it way to the running

[gundy]

Great shots all!

Scary how those arrows flex like they do....

[Stickbow Hunter]

WOW, you had hair back then Keith.

Jeff

[Hilly]

yep a long time ago LOL