Having trouble with 7D settings
 

Hey, so I shoot alot of equine stuff. So alot of my pictures are done indoor with poor lighting. So I was at a team roping event doing pictures, and I really struggled with getting clear shots. I had my setting at Al Servo, with 1/160 on manual and using a 70-300 f-2.8 lens. Now the pictures would not be clear, so I changed things up, and set my one setting at One Shot--now I got clear shots...that just doesn't make sense to me. Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?

Thanks

when you say 'not c lear' do you mean blurred or dark?

were you photographing moving subject, if not AI Servo probably isn;t the best focusing method as you can;t foicus and then recompose because it refocuses every time you change composition.

what focal length were you using? 1/160 sounds as if it could be too slow causing blur, especially if you were at the longer end of the range 300mm, also what aperture, too wide and less will be in focus too small and your shutter speed drops.

So as to what you're doing wrong, it depends...

post a few shots up of what you mean.

Definitely the focal length imho. at 300mm you want to be at 1/700 plus w/o IS. Don't be scared to bump up the iso to 1000+ as the 7D can handle it.

You could always try back focussing on the 7D. Up the shutter to at least 400 if your at the long end of your 70-300, increase ISO to 800 or more as the 7D will handle it and use the back focus button to keep your focus while using AI servo and try going through the aperture range to see what works best with what your shooting. They're similar settings I used at a party in an empty converted barn without great lighting but my lens was a 70-200 f4 non IS and they came out a treat.