Some questions...indoor sports photography!

[JennB]

Hello everyone,

Before I ask any questions, here's what I've learned about indoor sports photography so far:D :

1) My 50mm/85mm would be the best lenses to use because they're good for low-light/no flash photography.

2) Shutter speed should not go below 1/400. Experiment with 1/500 or 1/640.

3) Aperture should be wide open? Is this right?

4) ISO should be a minimum of 800, but 1600 will probably be better.

5) Autofocus should be at Al Servo for moving subjects.

6) Use the M setting.

I pretty much have what I need here for photographing my daughter's cheerleading competitions, right? I am not allowed to use flash most of the time, but I'm allowed to get close to the mat. My questions are: Which AF Point should I use? Should I select all points? Or the center one? Right? Top? What about metering mode? Evaluative? Partial? Or center-weighted average?

Please let me know what you all think! All advice/comments/suggestions will truly be appreciated. Thanks in advance!!!:)

[fslshooter]

That's a good check list but add 7) Check histogram frequently to see if exposure is OK.
3) Aperture should be wide open? Is this right? Yes. Just remember that DoF is very narrow wide open and you'll have to nail the focus point.
Which AF Point should I use? Should I select all points? Or the center one? Right? Top? Center
What about metering mode? Evaluative? Partial? Or center-weighted average?In manual the metering mode has no effect but if you're using your camera for a light meter Evaluative or Partial might work best. Your historgam reading will give you an idea of which to use.

[JennB]

That's a good check list but add 7) Check histogram frequently to see if exposure is OK.
Yes. Just remember that DoF is very narrow wide open and you'll have to nail the focus point.
Center
In manual the metering mode has no effect but if you're using your camera for a light meter Evaluative or Partial might work best. Your historgam reading will give you an idea of which to use.

Hi Jerry,

Thank you for the quick response!:D As someone new to SLR and photography, I would like to know what I should be looking for when I look at the histogram for correct exposure. Sorry for sounding so stupid, but I have no idea how to read the histogram.:o

Do you recommend not going wide open? Should I go to 2.0 or maybe 4.0? How small can I go without ruining the shots?

Thanks again! BTW, I've seen your website. Great photos from a great photographer!:)

[symes]

1) My 50mm/85mm would be the best lenses to use because they're good for low-light/no flash photography.

This is correct, but I also like my 70-200mm 2.8 and my 35mm 1.4, which is good in low light as well...

2) Shutter speed should not go below 1/400. Experiment with 1/500 or 1/640.

This is not always the case. I just finished shooting a University Basketball game and I found that 1/250 and even 1/200 was ,pre than enough. This is why it is important to look at the histogram

3) Aperture should be wide open? Is this right?

Again this depends on your shutter speed and everything else. I find that I use a little higher fnumber like 3.0 and up, but sometimes I use as low as 2.8 and 2.5. The wider the aperture the more dead on your focusing has to be, so watch out.

4) ISO should be a minimum of 800, but 1600 will probably be better.

Use the lowest ISO you can get away with...I would shoot RAW so that if you are a bit off you can still save the image...If you were doing this professionally than I might not use RAW but because your main goal is to get some shots of your daughter I would use it.

5) Autofocus should be at Al Servo for moving subjects.

DEAD ON...I would also suggest using the CFn 4 - 1 function that lets you focus with * button instead so that exposure and focus are two separate functions...

6) Use the M setting.

I would find your min settings first, like try AV and see what kind of shutter speed you get at AV 2.0 and ISO 400...then work your way around till the camera's metering does it for you...the more times you shoot the quicker you figure out what is needed for exposure...

Cheers,

[fslshooter]

I would like to know what I should be looking for when I look at the histogram for correct exposure.If the scene consists of equal areas of darkness as well as light then the histogram should be somewhat bell shaped. If it skews to the left then you've under exposed and if skewed to the right then you've overexposed. Luminous Landscape has an excellent histogram tutorial at http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml.
Do you recommend not going wide open? Should I go to 2.0 or maybe 4.0? How small can I go without ruining the shots?If you can stop down a bit and still shoot at a shutter speed fast enough to stop the action, you might be wise to do so. In addition to a narrow DoF the focus is soft on some lens wide open. I'd try to stay below f/4 though -- I seriously doubt that the lighting conditions will allow anything beyond that.
Thanks again! BTW, I've seen your website. Great photos from a great photographer! Thanks -- still lots to learn and IMO, POTN is a great place to do it.

[liza]

The focus on that 85mm lens is so sharp that I'd stop it down to 2.2 for a while until you get used to it. That should still allow you to get a higher shutter speed. Also make sure you're on burst mode to get the action in a succession of shots. The XT is a tad bit slow for sports compared to the 20D or 1D MkIIN, but you should still be able to capture some good action shots. Cheerleading isn't as fast moving as basketball, so you should be okay. :)

[JennB]

Symes, thank you for the addition to my list. I will try to experiment with all the settings you all suggested here.:)

Jerry, thanks for that link about histograms!:D I printed the article out so I can study it a bit more. I will make sure to stay below aperture f/4.

Liza, thanks for the advice.:) I'm hoping to get some good indoor action shots tomorrow. If I wanted to bring only one lens, which one should it be? 50mm or 85mm?

Thanks again!

[gmen]

Hi Jenn... a few thoughts on your points...

1) My 50mm/85mm would be the best lenses to use because they're good for low-light/no flash photography.
Those lenses offer the wide aperture that you may well need to get an acceptable exposure in low light conditions.

2) Shutter speed should not go below 1/400. Experiment with 1/500 or 1/640.Once your shutter speed drops below 1/500s, you will be more and more liable to motion blur. If you're looking to freeze the action then the faster the shutter speed you can achieve, the better.

3) Aperture should be wide open? Is this right?You may have to work with the aperture wide open (or near to wide open) if the lighting is particularly poor. If had the choice of shooting action at 1/200s at f/2.8 or 1/400s at f/2, I'd definitely go with the latter. I'd rather have a few shots that are slightly out of focus due to the limited depth of field, than (potentially) ALL my shots rendered hopeless due to motion blur.

4) ISO should be a minimum of 800, but 1600 will probably be better.You'll only be able to determine the ISO required when you are at the venue. It's all part of the exposure 'recipe'. The available lighting will dictate what ISO you'll have to use given the shutter speed that you want to achieve. Using a lower ISO should result in less noise, but not if you are underexposing. Try to nail the exposure. A well exposed image at ISO1600 will look significantly better than an underexposed image at ISO800.

5) Autofocus should be at Al Servo for moving subjects.Yep... and, as the other posters have already stated, use only the centre point for maximum sensitivity and accuracy. I think Symes mentioned using the * button to focus (via CF 4-1). If you've used this setting before and you're comfortable with it, then great. If not then it may be worth practicing with this alternative focusing method before putting it into practice at an important event. Just a thought.

6) Use the M setting.The lighting should be fairly consistent at an indoor arena... so once you have determined your exposure then you can set it manually. This will prevent the camera being influenced by dark/light backgrounds, dark/light uniforms etc. To determine the manual exposure settings, shoot some test shots. Bias your settings towards a reasonably high shutter speed (i.e. 1/500s) and then, using the histogram, see which balance of ISO and aperture give you a workable exposure for the ambient lighting conditions.

Ideally, you may choose to use a handheld meter or to shoot a grey card to give you a base reading for the manual settings, but chimping the histogram is certainly another route to success ;)

I would also agree with the idea of shooting in RAW. This will give you a small 'safety net' if your exposures are not spot on. However, be aware that it will slow your camera down somewhat as it tries to write the larger files to the CF card in burst mode... and, of course, RAW files shot at high ISO will produce significantly larger file sizes than jpeg images, so take plenty of CF cards with you.

Good luck with your shoot. I'm sure we're all looking forward to seeing some of the results!

---- Gavin

[liza]

In answer to your question, Jenn, I'd bring the 85mm lens, although you should easily be able to tuck the little 50 in your bag.