ISO v aperture

With regards to a faster shutter speed......

Is it better to lower ISO and shoot wider open or is it better to use a higher ISO and smaller aperture when shooting in lower light conditions? Obviously the depth of field will be affected but as a general rule which is more preferable at shooting say indoor basketball or an arena event like motorcross.

I think it would be better to always have a smaller aperture, unless you have a problem with DOF

Just depends. Some cameras can shoot at higher sensitivities than others and still come out with a pretty clean shot. And lenses are generally sharpest a couple of stops below wide open. So ideally, without taking depth of field into account, you'd shoot at the shutter speed you want, at a clean ISO (lowest possible), a couple of stops from wide open. Beyond that it's up to you to make the compromise. Sharpness? Noise? Motion blur? Like I said it depends.

Need more info. What are you looking for from the pic? Are you tripod mounted or hand held? Is your subject moving or stationary? DO you want a deep DOF or thin? All these will govern which is better as well.

There deff. isn't an either or answer for that. So many variables.

What Dan-o said...

For sport though you want to maximise the chance of being in focus on fast-moving subjects, so a razor thin DOF is a bad idea: you need to close down the aperture to avoid that, so upping the ISO is the only real in-camera option left.

Keith R wrote in post #3942606
What Dan-o said...

For sport though you want to maximise the chance of being in focus on fast-moving subjects, so a razor thin DOF is a bad idea: you need to close down the aperture to avoid that, so upping the ISO is the only real in-camera option left.

Depends on the sport. Weightlifting and curling don't really move all that fast.

I can't believe curling is a sport, but evidently it is.

When you shoot in arenas where you don't have the choice to lower the ISO or stop down because you have to shoot max ISO wide open to get a proper exposure, this is not a question you have to ask Considering how little trouble I've had shooting basketball with an 85mm f/1.8 wide open at ISO 3200 (the vast majority of OOF shots are so OOF that a slightly smaller aperture wouldn't provide enough DOF anyway), whenever I have enough light to make a choice I always choose lower ISO rather than smaller aperture. If wide open works just fine, I'd rather have cleaner images.

Whatever it takes to get the shutter speed needed to stop the action to the desired degree.

Selective focus

"For sport though you want to maximise the chance of being in focus on fast-moving subjects, so a razor thin DOF is a bad idea: you need to close down the aperture to avoid that, so upping the ISO is the only real in-camera option left."

The above is generally true, especially for less experienced photographers.

Although the learning curve of using a wide aperture with narrow depth of field in shooting sports is rather steep, the results are often gratifying. The ability to isolate individual players from the background can make a rather mundane shoot look rather spectacular. You can often see examples of the effective use of narrow depth of field in the Sports Illustrated magazine images and you can often see images with not only the subject but the background in focus posted on this and other forums. These posts are usually from new photographers who have not mastered the skill of using a wide aperture lens or do not have one to use.

Although, using a wide aperture is generally effective in isolating specific subjects, it is not the only way to do that.

I was just shooting the Unlimited Hydroplane Races at San Diego's Mission Bay with a 400mm f/5.6L lens. I could not get the blurred background I wanted to isolate the hydroplane using f/5.6. So I opted to shoot the boats coming out of a turn so that the "roostertail" would be the background rather than the mess of people and lift cranes onthe opposite shore. Another way would have been to shoot down from a high angle but, I had neither a helicopter nor a lift platform available.

This is an additional reason besides allowing a faster shutter speed (or lower ISO) and faster and more accurate focus (on some camera models) that many sports photographers will opt for the 70-200mm f/2.8L lens over the f/4 models of that focal length.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.