need help with sport setting on digital rebel

[rebel61021]

I am New owner of Canon Digital Rebel and I tried taking pictures of my son at wrestling practice but even on the sport setting they came out blurry put it on the auto setting and it takes good pictures but can't take 4 right in a row. I only have the lens that came with it. is there a better lens that will not make the picture blurry or do I need to learn how to set things Manualy. Thanks for any help that I get.

[robertwgross]

Let's break it down into different things.

First, you had poor light in the room, and you didn't want to use flash, so the light was poor and you could not improve it. That will also contribute to the color tint.

You shook the camera. Not too badly (see the background wall), but you have to expect that when you are using a slow shutter speed and no tripod. If you had used a tripod, or at least leaned back against a post, that might have helped. Some people instinctively jerk the camera body when they squeeze the shutter button.

Your subjects were moving. For fast action, if you need to freeze motion, then you need to have a fairly fast shutter speed. You can push the ISO up high, but only so much.

So, you had several things working against you for that shot. If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently?

---Bob Gross---

[robertwgross]

The preset exposure modes on a Digital Rebel (e.g. Sports mode) will get you in the ballpark, and if you don't know how to think about the exposure, then that is the best that you can do. However, you will get better success with experience.

The camera might be giving you settings like f/4 and 1/30 second at ISO 800, let's say. The experienced photographer, in an instant, can think about those settings and realize that 1/30 of a second is going to get blurry results from subject movement. The beginner cannot think about it very quickly, nor very instinctively. The experienced photographer will already have it mentally registered what the wide open aperture of that lens is, so he knows how much farther he can go (to get a wider aperture and get a quicker shutter out of the deal), but he might also know how limited the DOF will get if he goes wide open. Some of us have our cameras set up so we can push one button or two, very quickly, and it pushes the ISO up, notch by notch. High ISO tends to create more color noise, but most of that can be processed out using a program like Neat Image. So, if you positively have to get the shot, what are you going to do? Maybe push the ISO up.

If this was a practice, maybe you could have used a big external flash unit. They may not allow that in a competition.

---Bob Gross---

[S230]

I took a look at the EXIF file and you shot at 1/6Sec F5.6 which is really slow. Also you used ISO 400.
Try using manual mode at 800 or 1600 ISO. You are using the Kit Len's max apature is already at 5.6 because you already extended your focal length to 55mm (Maxed). The other possible way is to change lens. I recently purchased the Canon 50mm 1.8 and yet to determine if it makes any difference. If you set to higher ISO, You will also notice grainy images but at least you can get the faster shots.

Hope this helps.

-------------------
ExposureTime : 1/6Sec
FNumber : F5.6
ISOSpeedRatings : 400
ExifVersion : 0221
DateTimeOriginal : 2004:12:29 21:29:06
DateTimeDigitized : 2004:12:29 21:29:06
ComponentConfiguration : YCbCr
CompressedBitsPerPixel : 3/1 (bit/pixel)
ShutterSpeedValue : 1/6Sec
ApertureValue : F5.6
ExposureBiasValue : EV0.0
MaxApertureValue : F5.6
MeteringMode : Division
Flash : Not fired(Compulsory)
FocalLength : 55.00(mm)

[rebel61021]

Well I guess I better read the book more for starters... I was sitting in a chair when I took the photo. and can not get the ISO or anything for that matter to change unless I go into the manuel settings and I know I am not ready to try to figure that all out.

[sparker1]

Why not use Av mode, wide open (smallest f number), increase ISO until the camera sets shutter speed high enough for your action (1/250 or 1/500)?

[boone]

Isn't the Digital Rebel Sports mode locked into ISO 400? A custom mode would let you change it, but the Sports Mode is the only one on the Rebel that does the "servo" focusing for moving subjects. I'd probably opt for the higher ISO in this situation than the focusing mode.

[robertwgross]

Why not use Av mode, wide open (smallest f number), increase ISO until the camera sets shutter speed high enough for your action (1/250 or 1/500)?

Although this is a good suggestion, in principle, if you do the math, the camera is not going to let him go that fast.

---Bob Gross---

[eastcoast909]

Ok, the sport setting is not going to do it with the rebel. Bob has all ready covered the reasons why not.

You are going to need to get to the highest ISO settings you can get and that probably means going to the Wasia hack. This will allow you to get to ISO 1600 and 3200 if you really need it. With the higher ISO settings you will be able to get faster shutter speeds. I have not tried wrestling but am assuming that once you get to 1/250 it should start to be sufficient for stop action. Please correct me if I am wrong as I don't have a lot of experience with this.

As far as the AFAI portion I don't think that wrestling would really require much servo following for a focus on the subjects. You should be able to compose, focus and shoot before the subjects move too much out of focus in the shot. Once again please correct me as the only sports shooting I have done has been in a skating rink with figure skaters (move very fast, long way away http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/santa/icon_confused.gif ).

The other thing that you need is a faster lens. The kit lens is really at a disadvantage in this kind of setting. Depending on the amount of money that you can/want/afford to spend you can do this. It should be a f2.8 or faster (canon or otherwise) as you are going to be in fairly close in this setting.

Don't despair it is possible with this camera, just more practice.

[MT]

Rock meet hard place.

A couple of comments though. Sports mode "locks" ISO @ 400. As noted above, switching to AV mode and setting the aperature wide open will give you the highest possible shutter speed - alas, as noted it's still going to be too slow - in the same lighting - 1/6 @ ISO 400 is 1/25 @ ISO 1600.

A faster lens would help - the 50 1.8 (an inexpensive lens) gains you about 3(?) stops - however it's not perfect. The best choice - if allowed - is flash.

This was taken at last years kids state wrestling - using a DR, 28-135 and 550EX in "P" mode. The shutter is automatically set to 1/60 - but it *almost* works becuase the flash "stops" the action. Notice the "ghosting" though.

http://www.pbase.com/billcarter/image/27380901.jpg

For better results actually stopping the action, switch to Manual mode, set a shutter speed of 1/125 (min) and aperature appropriate to obtain decent DOF and let the ETTL do the work for you - although this means that flash will be the *only* relevant light - so backgrounds will likely be dark.

This was 1/250 @ f5.6 w/550EX ISO 400


http://www.pbase.com/billcarter/image/37117626.jpg

[MarkH]

A couple of comments though. Sports mode "locks" ISO @ 400. As noted above, switching to AV mode and setting the aperature wide open will give you the highest possible shutter speed - alas, as noted it's still going to be too slow - in the same lighting - 1/6 @ ISO 400 is 1/25 @ ISO 1600.

A faster lens would help - the 50 1.8 (an inexpensive lens) gains you about 3(?) stops - however it's not perfect. The best choice - if allowed - is flash.

With the 50 f1.8 you gain just over 3 stops, if you can shoot 1/25 sec at f5.6 then at f2 you can shoot at 1/200 sec. 1/200 sec at 50mm (or same angle of view that an 80mm would give on a 35mm camera) should work quite well.

A 550EX flash would allow a good shutter speed with almost any lens.

If you need a longer lens the Canon 85 f1.8 would be good value for shooting with available light.

If you select Av and choose a wide aperture and a high ISO you will get better results, don't go thinking that using Av will be too hard (because it's not). Try it, learn it, you'll be glad you did.

If your budget is a bit tight at the moment then start by buying the Canon 50 f1.8, it is really cheap, but it is sharp and offers a nice wide aperture. You can worry about buying the 85 f1.8 and flash when you can afford them.

Remember that with digital it costs nothing to experiment, try Av or Tv - they really are not that hard to come to grips with. Experiment in your living room, you can get the hang of it and then take some good pics at the next wrestling event.