indoor help needed

[nails]

i have spent the last few months fighting with my other lens(75-300 1:4-5.6 usm) in low lighting and having images that just sucked so i went out and rented a sigma hsm 70-200 f2.8 because i want shoot my kids indoor lacroose games and after some research i found a lot of people like the sigma or canon 70-200 f 2.8 for that purpose.
my question is what settings to use or any tips when using the sigma
iam relativly new to all this but want to learn
thanks in advance


canon rebel xti

[eigga]

Av or Manual

ISO 1600, center point, Servo, f/2.8

Read a lot of this..

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=135417

[nails]

i have been using tv for the past while never even thought about manual or av
1/400 to 1/ 500 iso 1600 awb ai servo but that was with my lenses
in the morning i will be shooting with the sigma should i switch to manual or av

[eigga]

ditch tv...use M if you have the ability to understand the histogram...otherwise av will work.Indoors I use M almost always

[KIPAX]

Indoors you will have constant lighting.. this is by far the best enviroment to use manual. With AV/TV or wahever indoors any bright lights in the background or very contrasting colours reflections etc can throw the cameras metering out... Manual is easy in constant lighting and will give you many more keepers than any othe mode.

there are only three settings so shouldnt be that complicated.

Aperture.. we already know what to do... indoors poor lighting and the reason you bought the lens... F2.8

So only shutter speed and ISO to worry about.. The shutter speed you will want to get as high as you possible can.. The iso you would want to be as low as you can. You cant have both in these conditions so you ahve to decide based on what camera your using and its iso capabilities.

I would have a starting point of iso 1600 and f2.8 so now all we have to do is set the shutter speed..

Looking at your histogram you want it to peak center.. at high iso your ok to go slightly over expose but under expose is very hard to work on in high iso situations IMHO

Set the shutter to 400 and take a test shot. Look at the histogram if the graph is filling the left side then lower the shutter until it goes more center. if the graph is to the left then up the shutter.

Its not exactly the way I would do it but is a goopd starting point if you ahvent done it before :)

[snyderman]

Not sure about shutter speed for lacrosse, but for basketball 1/500 - 1/640 will freeze action pretty well. And depending on available light indoors, you may need your highest ISO setting on your camera as well.

dave

[bnorm27]

I would also suggest using a monopod!

[nails]

thanks i will try these settings and i will post back with the results later
thanks again you all have been very helpful

[MT Stringer]

ndoors you will have constant lighting.. this is by far the best enviroment to use manual. With AV/TV or wahever indoors any bright lights in the background or very contrasting colours reflections etc can throw the cameras metering out... Manual is easy in constant lighting and will give you many more keepers than any othe mode.

there are only three settings so shouldnt be that complicated.

Aperture.. we already know what to do... indoors poor lighting and the reason you bought the lens... F2.8

So only shutter speed and ISO to worry about.. The shutter speed you will want to get as high as you possible can.. The iso you would want to be as low as you can. You cant have both in these conditions so you ahve to decide based on what camera your using and its iso capabilities.

I would have a starting point of iso 1600 and f2.8 so now all we have to do is set the shutter speed..

Looking at your histogram you want it to peak center.. at high iso your ok to go slightly over expose but under expose is very hard to work on in high iso situations IMHO

Set the shutter to 400 and take a test shot. Look at the histogram if the graph is filling the left side then lower the shutter until it goes more center. if the graph is to the left then up the shutter.

Yeah, what he said.
I also carry a gray card with me so I can set a custom white balance.

Mike

[nails]

well day 1 went well i got alot of great shots and some bad ones(out of focus) but i am still learning but the lens works well shot with tv, 1/500, iso 1600, awb, ai servo, av at 1.5 with evaluative metering and the pics turned out good.
i tried manual but just couldn't get the av high enough to get good pics because i had toset the shutter speed to 1/50 just to get it in the middle.
i must be doing something wrong,
thanks again for all the help

[eigga]

I just dont understand using Tv ... maybe for special effects like panning but thats all IMO


i tried manual but just couldn't get the av high enough to get good pics

Not sure what that means Manual and Av are both settings... in Manual you decide everything so it shouldn't be a matter of "getting" something high enough.

Post some pictures with exif and you will get much better advice because some of the stuff you posted is confusing.... please dont think this is a knock, I was lost not too long ago and POTN learned me good :)

[dmwierz]

>>i tried manual but just couldn't get the av high enough to get good pics because i had toset the shutter speed to 1/50 just to get it in the middle.<<

??? Shooting in Aperture Priority doesn't give you higher shutter speeds. Proper exposure is proper exposure, regardless of the mode the camera is in. The proper exposure settings in Av will still be the proper exposure settings in manual. Your comment makes me thing you might want to spend a little time understanding how your camera works and what the term "Exposure Value" means:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_value

This is a little cryptic, so in simple terms, the Exposure Value is comprised of the sets of Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO that produce the same image exposure.

Want higher shutter speeds? Open up your aperture (smaller number) or increase your ISO. Want greater depths of field? Stop down a little (decrease aperture - larger numbers) which will require you increasing your ISO to account for the smaller aperture to maintain EV. Want less noise? Decrease your ISO, and open up your aperture (smaller number) or decrease your shutter speed.

Make sense?