Need some help, new to the game with a Drebel

[stradt03]

Here's the situation... I just got my digital rebel. it has the lens that came with it the EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 (what do all those numbers mean after the mm?) and I also have a EF lens that is 80-200mm 1:4.5-5.6
I hear all this talk about "L glass" I'm assuming that is top of the line lenses. I was wondering where mine would rank...prolly pretty low.

anyway the situation at hand is that i am looking ot shoot my brother's basketball game this sunday, I've taken pictures of one of his games before and was kind of dissapointed with the amount of blur i had. The setting is a college stadium, under stadium lighting with me being about 20-30 feet away from the players. I was using the sports setting last time but like i said was unhappy with the results. I know it is hard to give me a precise setting to use but if you all could just guide me (ie. iso setting shutter speed etc.)towards what i should try while shooting his game i'd appreciate it much.

[EoSD30fReAk]

You're right L glass is the best glass you can get but there are also good non L lenses.
the numbers after the mm is the range of you aparture
so the 18-55 has a range from aperture 3.5 till 5.6

and the 80-200 has a range from 4.5 till 5.6

i never have done sports photography so i can't help you with the rest

[PeterS45]

The higher the ISO-setting the higher the shutter speed when you use the Sports-setting of your camera, so that should be enough. Just make sure to disable the flash, because it will be useless at that distance.

[dtrayers]

Here's a great site to learn about shooting with your new camera:

http://www.photoworkshop.com/canon/lessons_1-5.html

Start at the beginning and work your way through.

[ppardue]

I did not intend to shoot basketball games but ended up doing such. I have shot over 900 photos at the games. I purchased my EOS Rebel 10/03. I am learning as I go. Look up ISO in your manual and Creative Zone. This is what I have been using (P : Program AE (p.66 in manual)) in the Creative Zone, and I have changed the ISO to 1600 (the max) I also disabled the flash, although I don't think that the flash is an issue at 1600 ISO. The ISO is set to 400 in the Basic Zone, sports mode, thus you will get blur. The ISO is what let's the amount of Light come in for an exposure. If you ever had a 35mm camera, you may have noticed the film had different numbers, 100, 200, 400, 1000 these are increments of time (or some sort of measure) the lower the number the longer it will take to expose the film, the ISO setting is the same as these numbers (DSetting the ISO Speed page 50). Also check out page 65 in the manual "Drive Mode Selection" this way you can take a series of photos like when someone is going up for a dunk. Hoping you have the manual, it came with the software in Adobe Reader, or it is with the box that you got the Rebel in, although a boring read I found it very helpful. I am going to check out the website that was suggested, as I am a Novice as well.

[ppardue]

P.S. I also use a 28-200 lense for shooting the Basketball games, works great.

[PacAce]

Here's the situation... I just got my digital rebel. it has the lens that came with it the EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 (what do all those numbers mean after the mm?) and I also have a EF lens that is 80-200mm 1:4.5-5.6
I hear all this talk about "L glass" I'm assuming that is top of the line lenses. I was wondering where mine would rank...prolly pretty low.

anyway the situation at hand is that i am looking ot shoot my brother's basketball game this sunday, I've taken pictures of one of his games before and was kind of dissapointed with the amount of blur i had. The setting is a college stadium, under stadium lighting with me being about 20-30 feet away from the players. I was using the sports setting last time but like i said was unhappy with the results. I know it is hard to give me a precise setting to use but if you all could just guide me (ie. iso setting shutter speed etc.)towards what i should try while shooting his game i'd appreciate it much.

When you shoot in the sports mode setting, the camera sets all the parameters for you automatically. It turns off the flash and sets the ISO at 400. It then tries to set the fastest shutter speed possible with the widest aperture you have on the lens for a given lighting situation. Unfortunately, with the stadium lighting, your lens isn't fast enough to allow a shutter speed that can "freeze" the action. That's why your pictures are blurred.

You really need a faster lens which has a wider aperture opening. However, if you want to make do with what you have, then here's my suggestion.

Set the camera on P mode. Some people will tell you to use the Tv mode and set the "proper" shutter value but, IMHO, your lens just won't have the speed to make this practical. Better to let the camer determine the speed based on the widest aperture the lens has and hope for the best.

Set the ISO to 1600. The pictures are going to come out a bit grainy at this setting. If it doesn't suit you, you can try ISO 800.

If the pictures are still coming out too blurry for you, as a last resort, set the exposure compensation to -2/3. This will, in effect, increase your shutter speed a little bit more but it will make the pictures come out a little darker. You can, however, fix that with a photo editor.

And if none of these "tricks" help, then it's time to get somethig like the 70-200 f/2.8 lens. :shock:

Good luck.

[stradt03]

hey guys THANKS for all the help, i'll have to print this out and take it to the game to use as a cheat sheet. I didn't realize that there were "faster" lenses out there. and what does the f(x) mean when talking about lenses?

thanks
Jason

[Belmondo]

One thing I've tried is to photograph an element or a person, and not a scene. If you take a picture of a basketball game, and everyone is moving while you hold the camera still, the background is going to be in focus, but the players likely will not. If you select one player and 'pan' with the movement of that player, the result is far more likely to be something of interest. You'll have at least at least one component in focus. It makes for a more eye-catching picture.

[EoSD30fReAk]

f also stands for the aperture it's like f3.5-4.5

[stradt03]

so would i be correct in saying that the lower the f(x) number then the faster the lens would be, or is it that you can use it in lower light situations and still get a detailed photo?

[EoSD30fReAk]

when the f nr is smaller the better it lets light through and the sharpnes is better in lower light conditions
how fast a lens is depends on the motor used in the lens
on a lot of canon lenses you'll see the letters USM (ultrasonic motor)
the ones with usm ring motors are the fastest.

[Tom W]

when the f nr is smaller the better it lets light through and the sharpnes is better in lower light conditions
how fast a lens is depends on the motor used in the lens
on a lot of canon lenses you'll see the letters USM (ultrasonic motor)
the ones with usm ring motors are the fastest.

There's two definitions of "fast" being used here. The older definition of "fast" involves aperture size - the larger the aperture, the "faster" the lens. This term was used long before autofocus became available. And yes, the smaller the f-stop, the larger the aperture and the more light the lens lets in. Thus, a lens at f/2.0 is faster than a lens at f/2.8.


The newer definition that EosD30fReAk is referring to is focus speed. Canon's USM lenses are indeed quick in that respect, at least in my experience.

[EoSD30fReAk]

There's two definitions of "fast" being used here.

you're right you can see it in two ways

glad you mentioned the other way of fast :lol:

[CyberDyneSystems]

Another great place to get the basics down;

http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/

[KO_300D]

I have the same restrictions as my lenses are in the same speed ranges.

In the short term I'd suggest taking pictures in similar conditions using different settings, like those suggested above, and see which results you like best.

In my experience I'd recommend against going into Tv mode and setting a high shutter speed as your pictures will definitely come out dark - even with the ISO at max.

For a long term solution - do what I'd doing and start saving for a 'faster' lens.

Apparently selling internal, non-critical organs is a winner :wink:

[ifxbonz]

I would love to post some of my NBA pics with my 70-200 2.8 L lense if some one would tell me how and where to do the post.

andy

[Johnnynf]

I know this thread was started a day or two ago, but I just went through almost the exact same thing as the original author of the thread. I too am new to the digital photography realm and have the DRebel, the kit lens, and a pretty cheap 75-300 zoom lens (although I am getting a new lens soon). I shot a high school basketball game two weeks ago, and I will share my experiences here. I set the ISO at 800, AWB on "Auto", and I used the Tv mode. Even though some others on this thread have advised against using Tv mode, I tried many different modes and this was what I was most happy with. In the P mode, the shutter speed was just way to slow...everything was terribly blurry. I was looking to stop the action, so I used a shutter speed of 1/160. Although some say that the shutter speed must be faster to really stop the action...I had very good results with this speed. I had the exposure compensation on "0" and shot in RAW. It is true that most of the pictures came out dark, but this was easily corrected in the File Viewer Utility. Also in FVU, I changed the white balance to "Tungsten". For me, the pictures that I got by using this process were about as good as I could have expected. Some shots were grainy, but some of this was negated using Noise Ninja. To get anything better, you would either have to buy a very expensive lens or a powerful flash.