One lens is too long the rest are to short...which is the hoy grail?

I shoot girls club volley ball (my daughters play). It takes practice, lots of practice to get a few decent shots that stand out - the parents of the kids like the photos but I doubt anyone outside of the club gets too excited about the images (I like them).

You have good exposure in your photo, so the gym must have decent light - consider yourself lucky in that respect.

I tend to edit the photos prior to posting, tossing out photos - I guess I am old enough to have sat through kodak slide shows where every shot is displayed on a screen in a living room. I prefer to see the top shots than every shot.

I liked this shot in your flilckr - it stuck out of the thumbnails for me

http://www.flickr.com …/in/set-72157629183521650

Below is a sample of one of the games I shot of a serve - taken with a manual focus Nikkor 180 at 2.8 on a Canon XSI.

great stuff

The softness really bugs me, but after reviewing some of the exif info, my shutter speeds were 125 or 250 a LOT. I am guessing that is the primary problem. Still doesnt explain softness of girls sitting on the bench though.

Should I be using AI Focus, or go between AI Servo, then ONE SHOT when, taking the more still shots?

all of mine are soft to me
even at 1/2000
prob my focus

First thing I would do is throw it in manual mode and find a SS @ f/2.8 and ISO3200 that gives you a decent exposure. Minimum SS to moderately freeze action is 1/500th. You may have to bump up exposure in post. Don't bother switching to one shot AF, just keep it on Servo. I assume you're using back-button focus as well? If not, this is a must for sports, especially basketball.

Second thing is get down low, and work on getting peak action instead of motor-driving. Continuous shooting is nice to have for some circumstances, but save yourself the time editing and memory card/hdd space and force yourself to get better timing by shooting single frames for most action. Plus, if in the future you want to shoot with a flash or strobes, you'll be trained and ready to go.

Third, viewers generally want to see the face and ball. That's not to say that interaction, jubilation and other shots are bad without one or the other, but generally for basketball, they're a requirement. This goes back to #2.... wait for that peak moment. Be sure to try different positions/angles along the baseline.

You're off to a good start. You're colors and WB look spot on. Just get some practice in and you'll be well on your way.

thanks buck

Thanks for that, abruckse!

Regarding the BBF, can I pretty much use one settingfor everything, and just switch from servo to one shot when I have still shots in my travels?

I am kinda on the fence about which one to use.

0: AF/AE lock
1: AE lock/AF
2: AF/AF lock, no AE lock
3: AE/AF, no AE lock

Im thinking 2 or 3, but not sure what would be best for sports at isolating the target and focus on them.

good question

JersFocus wrote in post #14067046
Thanks for that, abruckse!

Regarding the BBF, can I pretty much use one settingfor everything, and just switch from servo to one shot when I have still shots in my travels?

I am kinda on the fence about which one to use.

0: AF/AE lock
1: AE lock/AF
2: AF/AF lock, no AE lock
3: AE/AF, no AE lock

Im thinking 2 or 3, but not sure what would be best for sports at isolating the target and focus on them.

I know there are a lot of backbutton focusers out there but it's not something I've ever gotten into. It would involve using my thumb and then what would I use to change my focus points? I tried it for a little bit but ended up losing more shots because I was unable to juggle both focusing and moving focus points around. I will just say that I've only personally seen very few shooters who use backbutton. I'm not saying it isn't prevalent but it's not prevalent anywhere I've been. I just prefer the shutter halfway down method better.

0: AF/AE lock
1: AE lock/AF
2: AF/AF lock, no AE lock
3: AE/AF, no AE lock

which one then?
of is this a stupid question?

elrey2375 wrote in post #14067098
I know there are a lot of backbutton focusers out there but it's not something I've ever gotten into. It would involve using my thumb and then what would I use to change my focus points? I tried it for a little bit but ended up losing more shots because I was unable to juggle both focusing and moving focus points around. I will just say that I've only personally seen very few shooters who use backbutton. I'm not saying it isn't prevalent but it's not prevalent anywhere I've been. I just prefer the shutter halfway down method better.

What I like about it is, in servo, the ability to lock down the focus. With the focus dancing all over in servo, there is no way to recompose without the focus refocusing as well. That drives me nuts.

I shoot now with one shot, half click then recompose, and with servo, its just shoot and crop to recompose, or just shoot and hope the servo focuses properly on the single center spot.

I hear you though, I read somewhere that 10% of pros use it, so thats a small margin but, I would imagine that 10% of photographers or less primary do sports.


I am just rambling at this point about things I know nothing about , but I really like the idea of back button focus and stopping/locking the servo focus.

I guess the biggest thing for me is that, I can prefocus, by locking in a focus on a certain spot. Then, when the action gets there I can just fire away without forcing the camera to refocus and re-expose between shots.

So....in theory... I will get a higher FPS and I will know its targeting the correct area.

Essentially, I would like to simply aim the camera at the point I need to get pre-focus on, push the "*" button to gain focus, then release it to lock in the focus.

I pre-focus and use older manual focus lenses. I still track the subject and when they are in the prefocus zone I selectively shoot (I do not like editing a lot of rapid fire images).

I guess I find it easier to set focus and still track (with out focusing during the tracking). It is hard for me to pre focus and wait for the for the subject to enter the focus zone - they move in and out of the zone quickly and I miss shots.

Below is an example in a dimly lit gym using this approach.

JersFocus wrote in post #14062939
The softness really bugs me, but after reviewing some of the exif info, my shutter speeds were 125 or 250 a LOT. I am guessing that is the primary problem. Still doesnt explain softness of girls sitting on the bench though.

Depends. If the shot of the girls on the bench was taken at 1/125 and you were shooting at 200mm, that would explain the softness.

ok if im shooting at 200mm at 2.8
the zoom softens it?

might explain a lot of my snitty pics

highet f stop huh