My first attempt at sports photography

http://i1.tinypic.com/neumpu.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/neuobb.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/neuoh5.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/neuomg.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/neuq2f.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/neurut.jpg



The pics taken at dusk with my 20D, in auto mode, meaning long exposure
times and blur. I was totally unprepared for the shoot, but even if I had been,
I wouldnt have been able to use anything else but auto or the sports mode
(can anyone actually shoot in manual mode in situations like that?)

I also used the wide end of the zoom lens, because I wanted to make sure I got
the cats in the image, and that explains the small image size of the subjects.

Any tips for doing better next time?

Thanks!

Ed Ruf (REPLY to E-MAIL IN SIG!) wrote:


Shutter priority and up the ISO as needed to get proper exposure.


It makes sense. You would think that the sports mode
would do the above automatically, but it doesnt.
None of the automatic modes adjust the ISO for you,
in fact. Weird.

Ed Ruf (REPLY to E-MAIL IN SIG!) wrote:
On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 00:36:05 GMT, in rec.photo.digital 223rem
wrote:


Ed Ruf (REPLY to E-MAIL IN SIG!) wrote:



Shutter priority and up the ISO as needed to get proper exposure.


It makes sense. You would think that the sports mode
would do the above automatically, but it doesnt.
None of the automatic modes adjust the ISO for you,
in fact. Weird.


No offense, but now that you've moved up to a dslr, give up on the "modes."
If you don't wish to shoot manual then use aperture priority when you want
to control DOF and shutter priority when you wish to control shutter speed.
Within each of these ISO is then the next knob if needed to get proper
exposure.

I shoot in manual, but I'm slow. The cat chase was over in a few seconds.
No way to capture that in manual mode.

Ed's pretty much right, but I'm not sure that shooting RAW would
dramatically help that type of picture.

Keep away from the "modes", especially the sports mode. They generally
set the ISO to 800. Sometimes (most times) you might need to go
higher.

Put in into Shutter Priority and keep your shutter speed up to at least
1/100. Go to at LEAST 1/200 in most circumstances. Outside, go to
1/1000 if you can but you might want to knock your ISO to 400 for most
stuff but 800 for real sports.

The go get yourself the flash with the highest guide number you can
afford. At dusk, you can set your ISO down to the 400 range, go to
manual mode, put the shutter to your highest flash syn, adjust your
aperature to whatever you want for the DOP, and let the flash give you
enough fill to stop the action and make things look good. However for
sports, dusk is the hardest time because there isn't enough light to
shoot without a flash but there is enough light that you will get a
little blur at 1/200, so go to 2nd curtain sync.

Pat wrote:

Put in into Shutter Priority and keep your shutter speed up to at least
1/100. Go to at LEAST 1/200 in most circumstances. Outside, go to
1/1000 if you can but you might want to knock your ISO to 400 for most
stuff but 800 for real sports.

The go get yourself the flash with the highest guide number you can
afford. At dusk, you can set your ISO down to the 400 range, go to
manual mode, put the shutter to your highest flash syn, adjust your
aperature to whatever you want for the DOP, and let the flash give you
enough fill to stop the action and make things look good. However for
sports, dusk is the hardest time because there isn't enough light to
shoot without a flash but there is enough light that you will get a
little blur at 1/200, so go to 2nd curtain sync.


Thanks, very specific advice. Can a pro photographer be fast enough
to do the above in one or two seconds? I now I cant--so the auto modes
still have their use for capturing stuff that happens unexpectedly
and is over quickly.

No, I think that as you play around you will find that there is little
use for the auto modes. They are just a pre-selected setup that is
supposed to work for a certain circumstance and really doesn't. Try
this for a while.

Set your ISO to either 400 or 800 depending on what you like. Inside
sports with a flash, I generally use ISO 800. Inside without a flash,
ISO 1600 or 3200. It's noisey, but you might have to accept that.
Outside sports, with 400 or 800. For "fast sports", use 800 even
outside.

Now set your camera to Shutter Priority Mode. Leave it there until you
have a reason to change it. This is now your "normal mode". For
football and baseball, use 1/200 or higher. Outside 1/500 or 1/800 is
a good start. I sometimes go to 1/1000 but seldom above that. When
you go to an event, set up your camera and there's no need to change
anything unless you don't like what you are seeing. So look at the
first few and make adjustments.

Things to be careful of: first is shutter lag. Digitals are not as
quick as film cameras, so there's a lag between when you press the
shutter and it takes the image. It isn't much, but for those who
converted from film, its annoying. So, if you are taking sports, you
have to shoot in advance of what you want to take a picture of. You
have to anticipate. Also, if you are shooting with a flash, shut off
your burst mode because you have to wait for it to recycle.

As for what a professional photographer can do and how quickly he/she
can do it, it would amaze you. To change the shutter speed "on the
fly" is incredibly fast. You spin the wheel. To change the ISO, is
maybe 2 or 3 seconds. But you can teach yourself to do that. Just
start going over the controls with your eyes closed. Where are the
controls? Learn to find them without looking.

For now, use shutter priority mode. Switch to Aperature Priority if
you need to keep a DOF or have another reason to, but for now ignore
it. Use manual for backlit subjects and for sports by flash. Ignore
everything else for now.

The more you do, the more you'll learn.

For now, go to every youth sporting event you can find and shoot a
hundred pictures or so. My kids are heavy into sports and I shoot
about 100-150 images most weeks. It keeps them (and their friends)
motivated (they spend their whole studyhalls looking at pictures).
Take a look at www.salamancasports.com if you want. There's nothing
really special there, just the unedited pictures for the local kids and
their parents. Definately not "high art".

Pat wrote:

Take a look at www.salamancasports.com if you want.

I liked the boxing pictures (I'm a big boxing fan)!

I have 3 young indoor-outdoor cats who love to chase and wrestle
each other. I believe they're much faster and unpredictable than
humans. Any tips?

Sedate the cats.

When people shoot butterflies and other insects, they put them in the
refridgerator to cool them off so the don't fly away. Maybe the same
thing will work with the cats. (just joking).

Why not take a catnip ball and throw it to them so they case it. Then
they'll stay together and (hopefully) near the ball.

Boxing is intersting because you have the ropes to deal with. For the
first boxing (outdoors), I just dealt with it because I just had my
camera with me. For the second, I brought along my "wedding bracket"
that holds the flash up higher. It screws into the bottom of the
camera and extends off the left side. It then goes up, has a hinge,
and then comes back over the top of the camera so you can have your
flash over your lens, but up about 6 inches. When you switch from
landscape mode to portrait, you swing the flash (on the hinge) and it
pivots to being above the camera (while in portrait mode). So
basically the flash is handing upside down way to the left if you leave
it in that position and go back to landscape mode.. I used that so
that when I looked throught the viewfinder, my flash wasn't right at
rope-level -- it was beside me.

Glad you liked them. My favorite boxing photo is
http://www.artisticphotography.us/lo...xing%20692.htm
I printed it in B&W and it looks so "old school".

I find basketball the hardest because of the bouncing ball and the
angles.
This is horrible because of the bounce of the ball:
http://www.artisticphotography.us/lo...ball%20026.htm

This is how you want them to look, but I was still a fraction of a
second late
http://www.artisticphotography.us/lo...ball%20004.htm

This is what happens when you don't wait for the flash to recycle.
http://www.artisticphotography.us/lo...ball%20045.htm

These were all shot at 1/200, f8 if I remember correctly, and in manual
mode.

If you want to see something that's weird, look above the door on:
http://www.artisticphotography.us/lo...ball%20032.htm
See the white lines. It's a reflection off of something.

Here's another thing to watch out for (see if can find the problem):
http://www.artisticphotography.us/lo...ball%20064.htm

See the shadows above the kids on the wall? That's because I was past
the range of my flash. The flat (and shiny) floor will concentrate the
light towards the kids as a reflection. Here, the light reflected off
of the floor was brighter than the direct light from the flash. I
never miss the opportunity to srew up a shot.

The good news is that the parents and the kids have pretty low
expectations. I only shoot them because few of the other parents have
the equipment it takes to get shots of their kids, so I do it for them.

223rem wrote:
Pat wrote:


Put in into Shutter Priority and keep your shutter speed up to at least
1/100. Go to at LEAST 1/200 in most circumstances. Outside, go to
1/1000 if you can but you might want to knock your ISO to 400 for most
stuff but 800 for real sports.

The go get yourself the flash with the highest guide number you can
afford. At dusk, you can set your ISO down to the 400 range, go to
manual mode, put the shutter to your highest flash syn, adjust your
aperature to whatever you want for the DOP, and let the flash give you
enough fill to stop the action and make things look good. However for
sports, dusk is the hardest time because there isn't enough light to
shoot without a flash but there is enough light that you will get a
little blur at 1/200, so go to 2nd curtain sync.


Thanks, very specific advice. Can a pro photographer be fast enough
to do the above in one or two seconds? I now I cant--so the auto modes
still have their use for capturing stuff that happens unexpectedly
and is over quickly.

The problem with shutter priority mode is that when the light
is too low, and the camera can't open up any more stops, then
the picture is underexposed. I know a number of wildlife
photographers and all who I have talked about this issue
use aperture priority most of the time, than manual for
specific tough lighting conditions. With aperture priority, you
control depth of field and shutter speed with one finger
on the camera, so you can adjust for a given situation very
quickly. For action shots, the faster the speed the better,
typically faster than 1/1000 second unless you want some
blur to show motion. People tend to shoot wide open and use
lenses that are sharp wide open.

Wildlife action examples (shutter and aperture data are
with each image):
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.bear
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.bird

Roger