Boys Soccer... Free cc...

It was my first time to take pictures of kids playing soccer game... I have canon rebel xti and lens is 55mm to 250mm... Please help me out... I know that pictures dont look great but I try my best to take good pictures... Also, I did edit the pictures as crops and adjust color... Free CC...

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Seems to me like they are all out of focus. (Just me but they look like they are cropped to be enlarged)
When you AutoFocus, do you adjust it to look in focus through your viewfinder?+
Were you in AI Servo or in One Shot or AI Focus.?

Also : Image Posting Sizing Rules

i was in one shot.... So u suggest e to using ai focus???

i have a question to ask... Which is better to using single shooting or continous shooting for sports?

I would recommend AI Servo & Continuous shooting.

shutter speed info?

For shooting soccer outside and if the weather is overcast or raining like it looks here I would suggest establishing a good exposure, then set that setting in manual for the rest of the game.
Shoot AI Servo, with continuous shooting you will be surprised at how much movement there really is between shots and how often you still miss the peak action, so I would go with single shot and work on your timing.
If the light is changing, then instead of manual, go with Av mode to have control on your depth of field keeping the ISO high enough to keep your shutter speeds up. I'm not familiar enough with the Xti, but if you can switch to center focus point only... it's much faster than other modes for focusing.

The shooting in shutter priority and aperture ending up 6.3 and 7.1 made them really dark besides the obvious focus problem. I actually tried the 55-250 a couple times and it was always searching for focus when there wasn't any sunlight so it proved to be the wrong lens for the situation. The 70-300 I got instead didn't search as much but still wasn't good enough really.

You need to get your shutter speed up and switch to AIServo... I shoot 6-7 year olds and can get nice action shots in focus....

However, your photos exceed the 1024 size rules so please re-size them. Thanks.

I using 1/400 for shutter speed... Is it bad???

JeffCanon wrote in post #8888416
shutter speed info?

I'm curious why u suggest me using av mode???? I thought av good for depth of field... Wha's wrong wit tv mode??? Tv is for speed action... But, I will do it what you say when I'm have a free time.

go with Av mode to have control on your depth of field keeping the ISO high enough to keep your shutter speeds up. I'm not familiar enough with the Xti, but if you can switch to center focus point only... it's much faster than other modes for focusing

1/400 is too slow for most sports.. even indoors it's usually too slow unless you're hooked up to a flash but we won't go there since it says Rookie in your name and you likely don't have flash other than the built in camera's flash.

In TV mode the aperture changes each shot and you end up with the dark shots you got. Start with AV mode and make sure the aperture is F4 at 55 mm ..obviously it'll change automatically as you zoom the lens out since it's F4-5.6 but that's when you raise your ISO to get your exposure.

When you take enough pictures in Av you can start to figure out what shutter speeds the camera is getting to stop the action.. you could then dial the fastest aperture (the F4 at 55 mm), ISO, and Shutter speed into manual mode, adjusting the the shutter speed and iso if you want the action stopped even more.

Myself, I never started in Av when I started, and went straight to Manual and tinkered after the help and comments from people on POTN but that might not be for everyone. Reading the manual helps also, other than the Tv and "running man" as some people have called it sections. Maybe there is a place for the Tv camera setting but I haven't found it so I've never tried it.

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I would think 1/400 is not the issue with these pictures. They are simply out of focus. I am consistently able to stop motion (track and field, gymnastics) with 1/400.

I've never used a 55-250 so I have no idea if its autofocus can keep up with the action, even in AI Servo. I shoot my shoot action sports with 70-200 and like I said 1/400 is not a problem. Occasionally I get the blurred hand or leg (i.e motion blur versus out of focus), but the rest of the body should be very sharp.

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