Shutter speed - Film speed - Focal length - Sports photography

[ddlj81]

I am a beginner and I wanted to clarify some questions I had. I searched but could not get an exact answer in any other post. I have read as rule of thumb at many places that

Shutter speed should be
1. faster than film speed (ISO), and
2. faster than reciprocal of focal length.

I assume, that the above rule, is only for avoiding jitter during hand held shooting and the rule is not meant for freezing motion.

i.e. if i am capturing a sports event and i am using a tripod, say with a focal length 400 mm, ISO 400, I can still use a shutter speed of say 1/250 and still freeze motion (Assuming 1/250 is enough for that sport).
Am i right?

If I am wrong, then could someone please tell intuitively, why the rule of thumb holds good for freezing motion as well. I understand why it holds good for avoid jitter.

[MJPhotos24]

You won't be shooting sports with 1/250 or a tripod. Monopod maybe depending on your equipment (if hand holdable or not), but sports you're trying to get the action and you never know where that might be so need to be able to move. For the most part in good light my ISO is 400, sometimes 200 and shutter is 1/1250 - 1/8000. Only time I come close to 1/250 was night at a high ISO getting a guy standing there doing nothing (the ol' emergency shot just in case I never get the guy again). 1/500 does work at higher ISO's in low light, but really depends.

[Croasdail]

Direction and speed of travel does also make a difference - but yes - as a guide being above 1/500 is a good rule of thumb. Above 1/1000-2000 is going to get you good crisp images of most anything. Baseball takes some real crazy shutter speeds at the higher level of play. Little kids - you really can get down to some pretty slow shutter speeds because they are so much slower themselves.

[Mike R]

For night games, I use ISO 800, 1/400, f/2.8 and flash (set for HSS) for fill. The 1/400 will freeze the motion. Depending on the lighting I have gone as high as an ISO of 1600. Just remember that the higher the ISO, the more noise in the shot.

[ddlj81]

For night games, I use ISO 800, 1/400, f/2.8 and flash (set for HSS) for fill. The 1/400 will freeze the motion. Depending on the lighting I have gone as high as an ISO of 1600. Just remember that the higher the ISO, the more noise in the shot.

Thanks everyone. I will be glad if I can see some sample night shots sport, with the settings. I can learn a lot from that. I have a canon 40d and it does offer good signal to noise ratio at higher iso, but still I am skeptical using more than ISO 800.

[asysin2leads]

Thanks everyone. I will be glad if I can see some sample night shots sport, with the settings. I can learn a lot from that. I have a canon 40d and it does offer good signal to noise ratio at higher iso, but still I am skeptical using more than ISO 800.

There are several posts in the sports section with regards to night sports. More specifically, American football. Particularly what sports will you be shooting at night?

[PhotosGuy]

Sports Shooting Tutorials and Advice (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=135417)

American football. How to photograph? (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=337056)