NEW user with sports mode

Hey all I a new user to the cannon family I just bought the t3i. I have not purchased anything else for it just what came with it for now.

I bought it for 2 reason one very important is my son is a 16 year star basketball player. I put the camera on sports mode and continuos and attempt to take action shots. The only ones that are clear are when he is standing still. Any moving shots are blurred or look like he is streaking. It has been indoors with numerous gyms so not the lighting or maybe it is that they are all the same. The lense is what came with camera EFS 18-55

Is there anything I should try different to get the photos clearer ? And is there a lense that will help. I am Camera stupid so please answer in English (not Insulting) just simple steps until I learn.
Thank you

Sounds like too little light and sports mode is giving you too slow of shutter speeds to freeze the action.

you probably need to ditch the sports mode, go to manual and up the ISO and open up the aperture to give you the higher shutter speeds you need for the lower light in the gyms you are in.

Thank you can you tell me how to do those things please. and what the numbers should be?

Tall order shooting in a gym with the 18-55 lens. But next time out, try this...

Shoot in manual mode. AI Servo. Set shutter speed to 1/400. Set largest aperture possible on the 18-55 (f/3.5). Now check exposure and bump up ISO until acceptable exposure is obtained. Probably going to be ISO 3200 or greater.

This will get you about as good as it will get with the equipment you have. If you want to get better results, you will need to consider spending a bit more money on a faster/longer lens.

Thank you what lense do you recommend > Not going ot break bank but good >

Well, breaking the bank is different for everybody.

If the gym(s) you are shooting in are well lit, you can get away with a 70-200 f/2.8 lens of some sort. I stay with Canon versions ($900 to $2200 depending on version and new or used), but Sigma and Tamron also make versions that are less money.

If the gym lighting is not good (most it seems) then a nice fast prime lens is the way to go. The Canon 85mm f/1.8 is pretty much a staple for indoor sports. ($300-350) Next step up would be the Canon 135mm f/2.0L. ($800 used)

I shoot a lot of indoor sports and the 85 and 135 are my go to lenses when I am not using strobes.

Thank you

Ricky1066 wrote in post #16717728
Hey all I a new user to the cannon family I just bought the t3i. I have not purchased anything else for it just what came with it for now.

I bought it for 2 reason one very important is my son is a 16 year star basketball player. I put the camera on sports mode and continuos and attempt to take action shots. The only ones that are clear are when he is standing still. Any moving shots are blurred or look like he is streaking. It has been indoors with numerous gyms so not the lighting or maybe it is that they are all the same. The lense is what came with camera EFS 18-55

Is there anything I should try different to get the photos clearer ? And is there a lense that will help. I am Camera stupid so please answer in English (not Insulting) just simple steps until I learn.
Thank you

Something that comes as a surprise to DSLR newcomers is that the camera's so-called "sports mode" is often not useful for sports.

Indoor basketball is illuminated with far less light than the outdoor daylight events for which sports mode works best.

To get useful basketball images, you'll need to make adjustments to the camera and buy another lens. Camera sensitivity of ISO 1600- 6400 will be needed to get a correct exposure and a "fast" maximum lens aperture of f/2.8 will be needed to allow an action stopping shutter speed.

No, this information is not included when you purchase the camera, and it's something you will not learn until you learn that using sports mode is not an universal panacea.

With the correct lens and settings it's straightforward to generate action-stopping basketball images.

And, the least expensive lens that will be useful for your purposes is the one that generated these sample images, the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II

I use a Canon 50D and Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS whenever possible for high school basketball.
Settings in our gym with very good lighting (for a high school) and a light colored floor:
ISO 6400 f/2.8 and SS 1/640 sec. I get lots of motion blur at 1/400 sec. and some at 1/500 sec.

Gyms with worse lighting: ISO 6400 f/2 and SS 1/500 sec. with my Sigma 85mm f/1.4 lens. I don't try to get action shots if these settings don't work.

I shot two high school games in a college arena last night. It was a miserable experience. They had high bay lighting with different colored bulbs and one over the three point line was not working. A three shot set captured in 1/2 sec. had one photo overexposed, one okay and one way underexposed. The ball covered the player's face in the "okay" photo. Colors ranged from blue to orange. A few shots had the color varying across the image.

I strongly suggest you get a good f/2.8 lens or at least a Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens. Caution: 85mm might be too long in some gyms. The 70-200mm lenses without IS are cheaper than those with IS.

I shoot with IS turned off for sports or anything else that requires a shutter speed of 1/200 sec or faster. Motion blur is a much bigger issue for sports than camera shake.

I think his son is 16 years old. I suspect that 1/200 is way to slow. I would suspect there to still be motion blur at that shutter speed.

IMO... Shoot for these settings:
Manual mode (switch dial to "M")
Shutter speed: 1/400 minimum. 1/500, 1/640, so on and so forth would be better
Aperture (f/stop): smallest number you can get. f/3.5 to f/5.6 on your current lense.
ISO: 1600 minimum. I suspect you will need higher. Basically, dial in the other settings, set iso to 1600, take a test shot. Everything look dark? go up to next highest number in iso. Take another test shot. Repeat until you get a bright enough picture. Warning, it will look grainy.

Lenses. A different lens will let you use a smaller f/stop number, which basically allows in more light, so you can "live" with lower iso numbers.

Not that I have all of these lenses, but some to consider, with cost.
New Canon 50mm f/1.8: $100-$125
Used Canon 85mm f/1.8: $300
Used Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 no Vibration Compensation: around $500

Note the first 2 are fixed focal length lenses... so "getting your son bigger" in the picture requires you to move.

Note, on the T3i, you may have to use "expanded iso" to get to iso 6400. I have to on my T1i. Don't know about yours.

These were taken with the 50mm:

In helping novices take sports photos in a gym, I recomend using Av mode and a high ISO, then adjust to max. aperture. This lets the camera select the fastest shutter speed it can for a proper exposure. Some one new to photography is going to miss a lot of shots trying to make adjustments in manual mode. When using Tv mode they tend to set the shutter speed to high for the max. aperture and get underexposed images.

Don't forget to set a custom white balance as well otherwise your colors are going to be off.

One lens you may consider is the 85mm f/1.8. Around $400 or so. As far as settings, I would try both Av and Tv. First Tv, set the camera to ISO 1600 or higher and then set your shutter to at least 1/400 and go from there. If they are too dark, try going to ISO 3200 and even 6400 if you need the shot. If you go with Av, set to the widest aperture possible. ISO at 1600 or 3200 and see if the shutter is fast enough. But without the best lighting in a high school gym, I think that yo are gonna have a really bad time with that current kit lens.

as an example
here is a T2i with a canon F1.4 at F1.8. ISo 3200 and shutter all the way up at 1/2000. could have been down at 1600 and shot at 1/1000 to get nearly the same shot with less noise. So the 85 1.8 would far somewhat similar.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/peeaanuut/83236​94661/

peeaanuut wrote in post #16719192
One lens you may consider is the 85mm f/1.8. Around $400 or so.

Aside from setting the camera properly, and practicing the techniques involved in shooting sports, the lens suggestion above is your best chance in capturing decent bball shots. Shooting sports is not cheap and getting great shots call for investment in gear.