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09/02/2005 12:57:06 PM · #1 |
This will come in quite handy this week at the San Francisco Grand Prix :) Cycling that is and not cars :) |
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09/02/2005 11:55:21 AM · #2 |
Originally posted by Cagey:
I need advice on shooting indoor basketball or volleyball for a local high school. I use a D70 with either a AF-S Nikkor 18-70 or a AF-S Nikkor 24-120 VR with a SB 600 speedlight. I am getting a lot of blurred photos and need the correct settings to achieve better photos. Any suggestions? |
I took a lot of grade 7&8 girl's basketball pictures last year. The girls prefered ambient light to flash (thier uniforms were synthetic, and reflected the flash). What I learned was:
- use (and set) manual white balance.
- Set drive mode to continious. Take lots of sequences.
- if you use flash, check the Gym's lighting. If its fluorescent (all the Gyms my daughter played in were) use a CTG or green Sto-Fen diffuser on your flash so the background doesn't look too green.
- Set ISO as high as you can without grain becoming a problem. I used ISO1600, and some pictures had some grain, but it wasn't too bad when viewed at 1280x1024.
- Set Apreture Value to as wide open as possible. I used 2.8. This usually gave me shutter speeds of at least 1/125 and sometimes 1/250. 1/125 was generally fast enough. Strangely enough, most gyms had the same light level. I'll try a 50mm prime this year (its on order).
- Shoot in RAW so you can better adjust the brightness and contrast or shoot in small JPG so you can fit more pictures in the buffer when in continious drive mode.
- Try and save some space in your buffer. There's always one great shot you miss because your buffer's full.
- Set a goal for each game. This may be to try second curtain sync, or some similar technical trick. It may be to get pictures of faces and emotions. Try shooting from different locations--under the goal, at the halfway mark, from high on a stage or balcony, etc.
Message edited by author 2005-09-02 11:56:00. |
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09/01/2005 05:01:56 PM · #3 |
I am still finding my feet with photography in general, having recently bought myself a Canon 350D with a 75-300mm lens.
For practice, I photographed a floodlit soccer game last night for the first time. Unfortunatly, out of the 292 photos I took, I am not happy with any of them :(
All of the action shots were blurred. Upon discussing this with a friend, it was as a result of my shutter speed being far too slow.
I started by using the automatic sports mode, but could see on the previews that this wasn't working, so I went manual and set the camera to ISO 1600 and f5 and then later f4.5. But I neglected to play with the shutter speed and this was set to 1/30 which this thread obviously reveals as being far too slow.
But I am not dettered and will return for more games to get more practice and (hopefully) some much better shots. |
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12/08/2004 04:46:58 PM · #4 |
The saying goes that to get a good photo it's not the Hardware it's the person behind the hardware.
In Sports Photography this is not absolutely true, the Equipment plays a major role in allowing you to get the shot. A fast FPS and a BIG fast lens are minimum requirements. 400mm f/2.8, 500mm f/2.8 or 600mm f/4 are standard tools of the trade.
 Well equipped photog!
Message edited by author 2004-12-08 16:53:58.
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12/08/2004 03:37:05 PM · #5 |
Great tutorial, not too "preachy" ;-)
Just good advice. |
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12/08/2004 03:32:34 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by Cagey:
I need advice on shooting indoor basketball or volleyball for a local high school. I use a D70 with either a AF-S Nikkor 18-70 or a AF-S Nikkor 24-120 VR with a SB 600 speedlight. I am getting a lot of blurred photos and need the correct settings to achieve better photos. Any suggestions? |
You may want to try manual mode. Set your shutter to 1/160 or 1/200" and the aperture as wide as it will go. Set your iso to 800 or so and let the flash do the work.
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12/08/2004 03:04:48 PM · #7 |
| I need advice on shooting indoor basketball or volleyball for a local high school. I use a D70 with either a AF-S Nikkor 18-70 or a AF-S Nikkor 24-120 VR with a SB 600 speedlight. I am getting a lot of blurred photos and need the correct settings to achieve better photos. Any suggestions? |
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11/28/2004 11:29:39 PM · #8 |
Nice tutorial.
I'm new around here and I've found that what you describe has lots in common with what I do when I photograph every year the Macao Grand Prix. The basic this is that I keep my speed at 200/250 and my ISO at 200. The results are good if you get lots of practice, specially panning the camera to accompany the car's movements. |
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08/02/2004 01:43:25 AM · #9 |
Great tutorial, lots of helpful advice
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02/17/2004 10:03:45 AM · #10 |
Here is what i use when doing sports,17-35mm,24-70mm,70-200mm,quantum turb battery pack,550canon flash, sekonic light meter,300mm and eight 512mg cards and you can use every last meg of all eight cards all lenses are 2.8...monopod for 300 too..
This just and update now i shoot EOS 1D MK IV with EOS MK III as my back-up cards have changed 600's and 300x nothing lower than a 16 gig card now i have about ten,newer 70-200,300mm,500mm,and of course the 24-70 anyway that was then this is now lol...
Message edited by author 2011-01-07 19:58:11. |
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02/17/2004 09:56:47 AM · #11 |
| Hey good advice, i too shoot sports and i have two Canon 1D's and without the high end stuff its not impossible to get shots that may get used but it helps a lot,to have it if you can efford it . I didn't follow the action well at first then i got a chance to sit in on a workshop on the subject of getting the shot. Shooting high school and even little league will help, took about one season and i was back in there shooting now i'm shooting everything from football to professioanl bullriding. If you can spend the cash to get the best it will pay for itself..oh and i shoot with AP as a stringer.... |
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07/24/2003 11:01:04 AM · #12 |
Originally posted by Toddh:
Hey Gordon, great pics.... the key to shoot aussie rules, IMHO, is anticipation... the more you watch the game the better you will become at "reading" the play. Many years ago I shot a heap of stuff whilst at college for the Collingwood Magpies who are one of the biggest teams in aussie rules league. That was pre-autofocus and pre-motordrive. I loved it, could bang off about 2 - 3 shots a second winding and focusing manually, I couldn't do that now.....
Alan, excellent tutorial and you know I love your football shots! |
A lot of the problem was that the team aren't really that good - most of the game was played on the ground :) I've met a few of the Collingwood players - was 'forced' to go out drinking with them last time I was in Australia...
The shots I took ended up in the Adelaide Crows newsletter, didn't make my father in law too happy - he's a Port fan.
I think anticipation is the key for any sports photography - the better you know the game, the better you can shoot it I think.
Message edited by author 2003-07-24 11:01:59. |
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07/24/2003 09:54:24 AM · #13 |
Thanks for the kind words! If memory serves, my brother uses a Nikon D1H, and he is indeed using some mighty scary lenses. They generally carry more than one camera, too, so he might have either another D1H or a D1X along when he shoots the games.
Originally posted by bosie:
i like the tutorial, the best i found on the internet :)
just interested, which cam does your brother have? a scary 1Ds with a huge and even more scary lense?
thx |
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07/24/2003 09:44:32 AM · #14 |
Hey Gordon, great pics.... the key to shoot aussie rules, IMHO, is anticipation... the more you watch the game the better you will become at "reading" the play. Many years ago I shot a heap of stuff whilst at college for the Collingwood Magpies who are one of the biggest teams in aussie rules league. That was pre-autofocus and pre-motordrive. I loved it, could bang off about 2 - 3 shots a second winding and focusing manually, I couldn't do that now.....
Alan, excellent tutorial and you know I love your football shots!
Message edited by author 2003-07-24 09:46:09. |
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07/24/2003 09:22:46 AM · #15 |
Originally posted by Jacko:
Gordon ... those pics are great. Now I really can't wait to get my 10D. Did you volunteer your services? How did this come about?
What lens were you using? |
Seeing this up the top reminded me - the official team back in Australia used 6 of my pictures for the newsletter (circulation about 50,000) |
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07/24/2003 06:02:07 AM · #16 |
i like the tutorial, the best i found on the internet :)
just interested, which cam does your brother have? a scary 1Ds with a huge and even more scary lense?
thx
Message edited by author 2003-07-24 06:02:52. |
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03/10/2003 11:36:15 AM · #17 |
Originally posted by Jacko:
Gordon ... those pics are great. Now I really can't wait to get my 10D. Did you volunteer your services? How did this come about?
What lens were you using? |
It is a local 'ex-pat' team that some of my friends at work play in. I offered to come and take some pictures of their tournament, mainly for experience for me. They plan on using some of these shots for publicity/ newsletters and so on as well, so I'll get some portfolio material from it too. Other than that I'm being paid in beer (Cooper's Pale Ale sponsor the team) as they don't have much in the way of money.
I was using a D60, with a 1.4x teleconverter and a 70-200 F4l zoom, on a manfrotto monopod that I borrowed for the day. Having a ball head on the monopod actually made it useful.
It was a overcast day and not very bright, so all of these were shot at ISO400 to keep the speed up and wide open at f5.6 (the teleconverter drops the max-aperture by one stop)
I still have problems getting accurate focus - mainly because I'm trying to compose the shot other than dead centered. I tried AI servo but was mostly too far away from the action to accurately track someone - I suspect user error in that particular case :)
Was fun and I just need some more practice I think. |
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03/10/2003 11:23:57 AM · #18 |
Hi all... if anyone would like some more tips or help with sports photography, please feel free to contact me. I worked on my highschool newspaper for 4 years, and currently work for the Cornell Daily Sun at Cornell University as well as the Cornellian Yearbook. My dream is to work for Sports Illustrated. Anyway... I'm happy to give advice, as sports I'd like to think are what I do best.
Check out my work HERE
and let me know if you have any questions... also comments are always appreciated! Thanks :-)
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03/10/2003 11:20:09 AM · #19 |
Originally posted by Gordon:
Thought I'd share this... |
Very nice work, as always! I especially like the creativity of triptych2.jpg. |
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03/10/2003 11:17:01 AM · #20 |
Gordon ... those pics are great. Now I really can't wait to get my 10D. Did you volunteer your services? How did this come about?
What lens were you using?
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03/10/2003 11:02:30 AM · #21 |
Thought I'd share this : thanks for the great advice in this tutorial and the discussion. I'm just starting to get the hang of things - still loads of room for improvement!
www.playaussierules.com
Should also be getting some of these used in the print newsletter getting sent around the US and to Australia...
The rest of the shots are here
Message edited by author 2003-03-10 11:03:24. |
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02/17/2003 06:42:08 PM · #22 |
I tried a variety of things - MF worked quite well because it was a running event, so the participants were always passing through the same place - it was pretty easy to predict where they would be!
The AF just wasn't keeping up - but like you say, the servo mode would probably be better - also I could have stood somewhere else, so that they wern't running straight at then past me - but I doubt the pictures would be as interesting. |
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02/17/2003 06:29:44 PM · #23 |
I'm surprised you had as much luck as you did by using the manual focus -- that seems like that would be nearly impossible to accomplish on a consistent basis!
I don't know that the numerous focus points have been all that helpful to me -- I think that so long as I know I can consistently focus on the center of the frame, even if it's moving, I'm happy. Give the AF servo mode a try; I'll bet you'll like it. |
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02/17/2003 06:02:01 PM · #24 |
I tried manual focusing (by setting it on something stationary) and trying to shoot when the action moved through that area - which worked quite well too. My camera has an AF servo mode, sounds like the same sort of deal - continually focuses.
Certainly made me appreciate the need for one of these fancy multi-focus point cameras - 3 horizontal points made life kinda hard, especially when shooting in portrait orientation. I see the D100 has 5 points which must help a bit.
I think the main think I'm missing is some practice though.
Race photos
I just had too many out of focus results, or maybe my expectations are too high ? |
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02/17/2003 05:58:39 PM · #25 |
I use the "continual focus servo mode" (if that's what it's called) to focus for the sports stuff, and it seems to work surprisingly well. In other words, on the front of the camera, there's a switch I can throw to choose between manual focus, continual or single.
Set on "single," the camera would focus on a subject as soon as I press the shutter part way down, and that point would remain as the focal point. The problem is that if the subject begins to move, that point is no longer where you want to be focused. So by using the continual mode, it will keep the subject in focus even if they're moving.
I don't know what the equivalent settings would be for the Canon, but I'd imagine it will be similar.
The only downfall about using this is that your subject pretty much has to be centered in the shot (unless you get creative with setting it to focus on other areas of the frame, which is also a technical possiblity with the Nikon).
If you have something else in the center of the shot, it'll end up focusing on it.
Originally posted by Gordon:
Still like this tutorial - but some questions - how have you been dealing with focus ? Do you focus manually, or use the autofocus on your camera ? How about trying to focus on moving subjects ?
I recently tried doing some running photographs and that was the main thing I found challenging (along with framing/ composition/ everything else) |
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