Indoor Track/Field - 1st time 50D, 70-200 and Manual

[jmorales]

Please C&C. I used an XTi last year with the kit lens. Always shot either in TV or AV mode. I did not like the quality of the pictures. This year, I have a 50D with a 70-200 2.8 lens. I have also read about 100 threads from different POTN members and the settings they use. We had a high school indoor track meet today at Ohio State. When I walked in the field house, I almost walked right back out the door. It was dark and I thought for sure I would not get any worthwhile photos. I did not use a flash as I don't have my 580 yet plus they would not allow it. Below are some of the shots I took, I have done no processing other than resize for POTN. I had some blur especially on the subject. The background seemed to stay in focus. I tried going to 200 and 400 but the pictures came out too dark. This was my first time controlling all the settings manually.

Info: Camera 50D, Lens 70-200 f/2.8, ISO 1250, speed 125 on all photos.


1. Lighting conditions in the field house.



2. one of the first races i shot. I was impressed with how bright they came out considering the conditions.



3. Here is a shot with some of the blur I mentioned.



4. another event



5. Start of the relay. As long as they were still, the shot came out fine.



6. Again, some blur on the subject



7. Should I go with a higher speed in exchange for brightness then PP for brightness?



8. Taken from across the field house. Pretty impressed with the lighting.


Overall I was pretty satisfied for shooting manual for the first time with a new camera and lens. Let's see what you experts have to say. thanks.

[Tony.Ibarra]

I use the 50D to shoot indoors all the time. The one thing I can say is don't be afraid to crank up the ISO. I was shooting tonight at 2000 and was getting almost zero noise. Question: what auto-focus points did you have selected? On several shots, the camera chose not to focus on the participant, but the backgrounds. You might want to look into changing the metering mode and using a specific focus point, and composing your shot from there. This is a sample image from tonight that I got. ISO 2000, 1/500th, f/2.8. The camera can handle it, don't be afraid to crank the ISO up. There's a guy on here who's signature is "A noisy sports image is better than a blurry sports image."

Good words to live by.

[jmorales]

Tony,

Thanks for the info. I will try going higher on the ISO. I began the day with the focus set at auto. These are the shots where the background was sharper than the subject. At some point, I switched to center focus so I could keep the subject focused. I still had problems. I'll play around with the higher ISO and speed. thanks again.

[johndevane]

"Experts" HeHe... You're looking for someone to claim to be an expert? I vote for DMW, Sauk, Namasste, Adam, Dan-O, MJ, Big K and Ziv ( In no particular order so I don't hurt any of their precious feelings ).

My amateur advice... In #2,3,6,7 and 8 -- Panning shots would have looked great. 1/125 is tough even for panning, but it will look great if you nail it. No way will 1/125 work for action coming at you, the way you tried.

For the shots you took: Crank up the ISO and get some decent shutter speed to stop the action better. Your question on #7 - "Should I go with a higher speed in exchange for brightness..." You should go for higher ISO to get shutter speed and STILL GET brightness. The 50D has way more capability than 1250 ISO. ( 12,800 ? ) Whatever it is, use more than 1250. You said you tried lower ISO, but not higher.

For a good point, #3 and #7 is pretty good timing.

That's about all I have for now... get the pictures sharp(er) so we can talk about crops, WB, horizons, etc.

We'll have to wait for the experts now.

Regards,

John

[sc_andrew]

I am not sure why this camera is considered a low noise at high ISO camera by some. I have just purchased it a few days ago and am very disappointed with the picture quality. At low lighting (at home with all lights on = not dark at all) even ISO setting of 200-400 shows a considerable amount of noise. My sister’s Nikon D40x, which is a low end camera, when compared in the same lighting conditions shows almost no noise. I have done some research and many people who bought Canon 50D confirmed my concerns. Now I am stuck with this camera, since I probably would not be able to return it without paying 15% restocking fee. My lens is a kit lens 17-85mm. This is my first mid range DSLR, so I am quite new, but already feel let down.

[Huskers69]

crank up the iso to get a faster shutter speed.

[tomcat360]

Originally Posted by sc_andrew

I am not sure why this camera is considered a low noise at high ISO camera by some. I have just purchased it a few days ago and am very disappointed with the picture quality. At low lighting (at home with all lights on = not dark at all) even ISO setting of 200-400 shows a considerable amount of noise. My sister’s Nikon D40x, which is a low end camera, when compared in the same lighting conditions shows almost no noise. I have done some research and many people who bought Canon 50D confirmed my concerns. Now I am stuck with this camera, since I probably would not be able to return it without paying 15% restocking fee. My lens is a kit lens 17-85mm. This is my first mid range DSLR, so I am quite new, but already feel let down.

Try over exposing about 1/3 of a stop. Noise will disappear.

Now back to the original post. I think everyone has already hit it on the head, pull that ISO up. Noise over blur. And as mentioned, some of it is back focusing, not motion blur, such as number 6.

Try cropping them a little tighter, especially with all that resolution from the 50D! Also don't strip your exif data please.

[SPORTshot]

Hey jmorales.....not to hijack your thread, but I shot this at 3200 the other night. It didn't turn out too bad, and I think my lighting was worse than yours. Just an example to show you higher ISO.

[Chicle]

Considering the lighting those are looking pretty good. But on #6 it isn't that you have motion blur in the picture rather the focus is off. If you look at it all the people in the background are in focus and the runner is just OOF.

[jmorales]

Originally Posted by tomcat360

Try over exposing about 1/3 of a stop. Noise will disappear.

Now back to the original post. I think everyone has already hit it on the head, pull that ISO up. Noise over blur. And as mentioned, some of it is back focusing, not motion blur, such as number 6.

Try cropping them a little tighter, especially with all that resolution from the 50D! Also don't strip your exif data please.

tomcat - thanks for the info. With regards to stripping the exif data, I don't know how I stripped it. All I did was post the photos on flickr. Is there something I can do to keep the exif info for each photo?

Originally Posted by SPORTshot

Hey jmorales.....not to hijack your thread, but I shot this at 3200 the other night. It didn't turn out too bad, and I think my lighting was worse than yours. Just an example to show you higher ISO.

sportshot - not a bad photo. I had another track event at OSU again and took some more shots with the higher iso. I will post them as soon as I get a chance. thanks

Originally Posted by Chicle

Considering the lighting those are looking pretty good. But on #6 it isn't that you have motion blur in the picture rather the focus is off. If you look at it all the people in the background are in focus and the runner is just OOF.

Chicle - tried having the camera pre-focused for when the runner ran buy me and you saw the results on shot 6. I have not yet mastered the technique of panning the camera following the runner. I have tried it and the whole shot ends up oof. I have to practive locking the focus for a particular distance and shoot when the runner hits that spot. Thanks for the info.

[Joe Cyr]

Why were you not allowed to use flash? I have never had that be a problem. At the Maine State Indoor Track championships I used flash for some shots, but not all. As long as you don't use flash at the finish line, it's never been an issue and there were several other "pros" shooting with flash too. But perhaps those of us in the media are granted special perks.

Here is a photo to illustrate how I used the flash. The subject matter is not very exciting, but it produces a nicely lit photo for this example. I angled the flash up to avoid harsh shadows. ISO 1250, 1/300, f2.8, in manual with the 70-200.

[namasste]

hey there. since my far too modest bud John made me feel so good about myself, I'll offer some thoughts mostly on composition (since everyone seemed to touch on exposure already).

Overall, they aren't bad but could be much better with some simple crop and straighten in most.

2. straighten and crop this tight, lose the distraction on the left side

3. straighten and crop tight, lift the shadows slightly on the athlete as well.

4. not a keeper

5. straighten

6. not a keeper

7. again straighten and crop tight

8. nice effort and you are on the right track (pun not intended) BUT you timed it very late (you need him as he is putting max effort on the pole just prior to launching and also just as he's arching over. You also needed to shoot this from the other side and in front of the mat, not behind.

All in all, consider what your final product should look like not just catching some action and I think you'll start seeing much greater imapct in your sports images. Hopefully this is a bit helpful, if not blame it on John.

[northpointphoto]

You need to crank you ISO so you can get a higher shutter speed. for anything event in track and field 1/125 just wont cut it. I would set your shutter speed to at least 1/400 and then adjust your ISO till you get a good exposure.

As far as your actual shots go you need to work on your cropping and composition. A big part of track and field is capturing the emotion in the runners because running by its self is boring. Shoot tight, and try to capture the athletes at the peak of the performance.

Also, with the pole vault shot you really need to be right there to get a good pole vault shot. I would suggest standing on the runway side of the bar. Set a manual focus on the bar compose the shot and wait till they enter the frame and fire away. For high jump I stand on the mat side of the bar and do the same thing. Heres a HJ shot I got last year using that method.