First outing with the 70-200 f/2.8 IS

This is one example. It seems I had a lot of grain in most of my pics. Maybe it was just the time of day (late afternoon/early evening), shadows or something. I'll have to practice more to figure it out.

Shot through the black backstop netting.
1/2000, f/2.8, ISO 400, AV Mode, AI Servo left focus point (on the batter).

Mike

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shuter was way to high in my opinion

huh?
What makes you say that?

Thanks
Mike

you don't need to shoot at 1/2000th to stop motion... shoot at like 1/1000th.. or something... then bump you iso down and the grain will go away.

"Shot through the black backstop netting"

Just have a question, is the "grain" from the netting?

Will the slower SS and ISO help with this?

I shot through netting before and got the "grain" look too.

Would love it if this was to work!

Thanks!

You may have a point there, AlexMa. I usually have field access but not this time.
I have been using a Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and the Sigma 120-300 f/2.8. I don't recall having this problem before...and I shoot at all range of shutter speeds. That's whay I questioned the shutter speed thoughts.

I also have some good shots through the netting with no grain problems. That's why I'm perplexed.

Thanks for the feedback. I need to practice some more.
Mike

I'd agree, drop the SS to 1000, and lower your ISO down as well. I doubt it's the lens creating excess noise.

It appears that I am in the minority but I do not consider ISO 400 a 'high noise' setting.

Zivnuska wrote in post #5726119
It appears that I am in the minority but I do not consider ISO 400 a 'high noise' setting.

I agree. My thought is that you are getting the noise more because the foreground in your shot is a bit underexposed. The bright conditions in the background make this a very tough if not impossible shot to get exposed properly across the entire image.

I would suggest metering in the shaded area and letting the blown highlights in the background be what they are. I think this would have fixed the small amount of noise you are seeing.

Dropping shutter speed to 1/1000 is going to increase the motion blur of the bat and ball and players hands and arms. Not necessarily a bad thing and is more a personal preference. Personally, I generally like to eliminate motion blur if at all possible.

As long as you were at 2.8 and had the lens right against the fence it should not cause any problems unless the sun is also hitting the fence which can cause some tinting and contrast problems due to the reflection.

My $0.02. Hope it helps.

Zivnuska wrote in post #5726119
It appears that I am in the minority but I do not consider ISO 400 a 'high noise' setting.

I never said 400 was high, but I don't see any point in having above 100 or 200 if you don't need to.

saturnin wrote in post #5723877
shuter was way to high in my opinion

mongoosed wrote in post #5723993
you don't need to shoot at 1/2000th to stop motion... shoot at like 1/1000th.. or something... then bump you iso down and the grain will go away.

CanadianKitKat wrote in post #5725908
I'd agree, drop the SS to 1000, and lower your ISO down as well. I doubt it's the lens creating excess noise.

Obviously y'all have never shot much baseball. 1/1000th of a second is WAY TO SLOW even at the Little League level to stop the action. I usually try to be 1/2000th or higher. ISO 400 is not high, in fact that is usually my starting point and I work up or down from there depending on the light. I also shoot head on pitcher shots through the fence all the time, I have never noticed any extra "grain" as you say but they always need some levels in PS. The other difference is I shot through the fence with either a 300/2.8 or a 400/2.8, the added focal length could help blur the fence more. Look at these shots from a recent thread of mine, the pitcher shots were through a fence. The EXIF is embedded and all shots were at 1/2000th or above with higher ISO than 400. Even on bright sunny days I shoot at ISO 400 or more to get the required SS.

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=497595

The batter is underexposed in your shot. The meter in your camera was fooled by all of the bright light in the bg.

Zivnuska wrote in post #5726119
It appears that I am in the minority but I do not consider ISO 400 a 'high noise' setting.

Agreed here as well. As to those who said drop down the shutter speed, I agree with Sledhed. 1/2000 is not that high as baseball goes, and ISO 400 is definetely not high enough of an ISO that noise would become an issue.