Problem Shooting Action Photos

[culture_warrior]

I am a newbie XSI Rebel owner. I am trying to shoot basketball game shots in a HS gym. Plenty of light. Initially, the subjects came out blurry. I went to TV mode and increased the shutter speed. It helps reduce the blur but the shots are now way too dark. If I go higher than 1/80 they go completely dark. If I increase the ISO setting to 1600 it helps but still too dark. How do I shoot action photos correctly, remove the blur of the subject, and still maintain adequate light without a flash?

[Mike]

What lens are you using? Try Av mode and set your lens to its widest aperture (lowest number) to let through as much light as possible and set your iso as high as you need it to be to get a fast enough shutter speed. You could also try M mode - set your aperture nice and wide, then set the shutter speed to what you can reasonably hand hold and then adjust your iso up or down to get your exposure correct.

Also, the lens you use determines what your minimum shutter speed should be so as to reduce blurring caused by camera shake. As a (very) general rule of thumb your shutter speed needs to match your focal length. So if you are shooting at 100mm your shutter speed should be 1/100s. It can also be advised to add in the crop factor of your camera to this equation so your XSi has a 1.6 crop which would bring the minimum required shutter speed for a 100mm lens to 1/160s for shake free shots.

ps, welcome to the forum! :)

For more help on this, post some of your shots in the sports share and ask for help with where you have gone wrong or how you can improve. Make sure that the exif info is still intact in the picture too so we can all see what settings you used.

[JoYork]

What lens are you using? If it's the standard kit lens (18-55 or 18-55IS) then it's most likely not fast enough. In other words, the aperture on the lens won't be wide enough (you may be using the lens at f/5.6, whereas you would benefit immensely from a lens which allows you to shoot at f/2.8 or even wider - this will let in much more light).

For now you need to use the highest ISO setting you can - it's better to have a noisy photo than a blurry one, generally speaking.

[culture_warrior]

I am using the standard lens that came with the XSI purchase. The shots I'm taking are in TV mode. It's the only mode where I can (best I can determine) change the shutter speed. I really would like to shoot these action shots using the "Sports" mode but I can't find a way to change the shutter speed in that mode. Also...how do I change the aperature setting?

[JoYork]

The limitation here is your lens. You are already shooting at the widest setting it can manage... indoor sports shooting requires a much faster lens (ie one with a wider aperture or lower f/number).

You might want to look into buying a prime lens. Many basketball shooters tend to go for the 85mm f/1.8 lens.

[neilwood32]

IIRC the kit lens is an f5.6 when shooting at full extension. Better lenses will go to f2.8 or wider which means that you are getting four times the light in ( f2.8-f4 =1 stop, f4-f5.6= 1 stop and each stop is double the light). This makes them a lot better for low light.

Primes will go even wider allowing for even more light (if you go as far as f1.4 you would get 16x the light as you would with your kit lens).

[culture_warrior]

Can I adjust to f2.8 with the lens that comes with the camera?

[Mike]

I am using the standard lens that came with the XSI purchase. The shots I'm taking are in TV mode. It's the only mode where I can (best I can determine) change the shutter speed. I really would like to shoot these action shots using the "Sports" mode but I can't find a way to change the shutter speed in that mode. Also...how do I change the aperature setting?

You can also change your shutter speed in Manual. This is the most flexible mode for shooting and if you can learn how to use it sooner rather than later you will be doing yourself a big favour. GoingManual.com (http://www.goingmanual.com/photo/board/index.php) may help you go manual!
Sports mode is an auto mode on the camera which sets everything for you but will restrict your shooting options. Try to ignore those and learn to use P, Av, Tv and M modes. If you learn M the others will be easier.
I also agree with the others that getting a faster lens will help you but you need to determine a budget. Fast primes start quite cheap - the 50mm f/1.8 is the cheapest lens available but after that they're go from about £250 to thousands!

[Michael_Lambert]

What lens did your kit come with? 18-55 / 17-55IS something better?

If you got the 17-55 IS 2.8 then yes you can shot at F/2.8 however if you got the 18-55 you can only step down to F/3.5

Ideally for shooting any sports in general you want bright lights and shooting at F/2.8. While the lighting in the gym may look bright chances are they are not.

[culture_warrior]

Came with the 18-55

[Michael_Lambert]

Well that lens will not really cut it for sports photography, Ideally its too short of a focal length for most work and very slow.

You would be better off picking yup a 50 or 85mm F/1.8 if you are on a budget.

[syco]

Hi, I'm Simon the author of GoingManual.com (http://goingmanual.com) linked by Michael (thanks for the link!). The link is to the boards but they got killed by spammers so are not functioning but the links on the home page should help you understand the relationship between ISO, aperture and shutter speed.

There really isn't a shortcut to understanding all this so you need to take a couple of days to read up. Your photography will improve so much the investment in time will be worth it.

So for the 18-55 kit lens the max aperture will vary with the focal length. This isn't the case with every lens but is a feature you'll see on cheaper lenses. The variable focal length is great for recomposing without physically moving but if your at ISO 1600 and have the aperture as wide as it will go you can only slow the shutter speed down to let in more light. If you drop too low for the movement you get blur and that's whats happening to you.

In Av the Aperture is set wide open and the camera is slowing the shutter too much resulting in blur. In Av the camera will open the aperture wide but it can't open it wide enough because of the limitation of the lens so as it is set at too high a shutter speed not enough light can get in resulting in an underexposure.

Your options are limited. As suggested you can get a lens that will open up to a wider aperture or get flashes but that will be difficult to light up a sporting event with out a pretty sizable investment in multiple flashes and wireless triggers.

If your budget is limited, a 50mm f/1.8, while very short for sports, is only $80. It will not have any zoom so you'll need to move around to compose. It will force you to plan your shots and position yourself to be in the right place when the action happens. Ultimately it will make you a much better photographer because of it.

I don't know any serious photographer that doesn't own a 50mm prime. Like I say, not usually for sports but a whole host of other applications. A great investment and the image quality is outstanding for the price.

[BillsBayou]

A monopod will help to overcome the 1/focal-length shutter speed limitation. That is, you shouldn't shoot fastere than 1/200 for a 200mm focal length. However, you can cheat that down quite a bit to get a slower shutter speed (and thus more light) with a monopod.

[ssracer]

Plenty of light for your eye and plenty of light for your camera are two very different things. I recently shot some pics of a guitar player in a well lit coffee house. Even with my 50mm set at f/1.8 and the ISO at 800 I was still only able to get the shutter speed up to 1/25 to 1/50.

The 18-55mm is a nice lens, but it just isn't going to work well in this situation.

[PhotosGuy]

Good advice from Simon (syco). Here's an example of variations with Av outside: Post #47 (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=5191658&postcount=47)
Click the "Thread: Need an exposure crutch?" link at the top-right if you'd like more info on using your hand for exposure.