My mom likes to take action shots of me playing indoor volleyball but the results aren't the greatest and she is just a point and shoot kind of mom!
She has a Nikon D3000 with the 18-55mm and 55-200mm lens. She has for a couple years just been playing around with the settings, using the sports mode, using the camera internal guide help but alas the quality of her shots isn't as good as I think should could be taking. Sometimes she takes shots with the camera still and other times she follows the action and shoots while in motion with the game play.
The quality of indoor gyms is a challenge as each gym has its unique features with different lighting, some with windows to the outside and the flooring/wall colors create weird color results. I have included a couple shots of what she has taken. Anyone with a couple tips on how she can improve with her equipment would be appreciated. Would like to know settings that would improve the sharpness so that the faces, the ball and the action are more crisp. Thank you
They are not that bad.. The gyms have little or no light so she needs to up the ISO and the shutter speed some to see the ball a little more frozen. The settings on the camera will average every thing out and not up the shutter
L2
You could buy her this book and tell her to do her homework. lol
http://www.amazon.com/By-Bryan-Peterson … FYFEI7WKM0
Shutter priority mode - with a shutter fast enough to freeze the ball - AUTO ISO high enough to compensate... that's pretty much the best option for the kit she has, if it's enough.
L2Photography net wrote: They are not that bad.. The gyms have little or no light so she needs to up the ISO and the shutter speed some to see the ball a little more frozen. The settings on the camera will average every thing out and not up the shutter
L2
When you say up the ISO and hers goes to 1600 then you mean put it that high?? How does she 'up' the shutter speed??
The "Sports" feature in the camera is useless. Tell your mom to take a photography class.
We could spend hours here telling you how but, it is like asking a brain surgeon how to cut a human skull. You need training and guidance from a professional and lots of practice.
Or, she could read books and spend the next 10 years figuring it out.
With the camera and lens she is using is very difficult to get a descent shot in a poorly lit gym.
Okay, this is not a critique forum so I won't talk specifically about the photos.
1. "Sports" mode is for kids soccer in bright light outdoors. It places an emphasis on shutter speed with a wider DoF b/c it figures that the subjects are moving (but not too fast) so they may trick AF. You're situations are totally different. Light is far worse (both quality of the light and brightness). And older athletes (ie: adults who are serious at their sport) are moving much faster. And she's further away.
2. In an ideal world, she'd have a professional quality zoom. That would mean a zoom that would have a huge aperture to let in a ton of light and allow for faster shooting without a speed light. I'm guessing that the aperture for the lens she's using is probably going to be around f4.5 or 5 without looking at the exif data.
3. Crank up the ISO. You'll get some grain. But you're a model--you could trade shooting time for a photographer who'll do some post production work on the photos. So shoot with a higher ISO. And then set the camera not to a program but to "S" or shutter speed priority. I'm guessing you're going to need a minimum of 1/500th unless we're talking players who are just standing around. Have her prefocus on spots on the court. Then shoot a LOT of pictures with the assumption that 9 out of 10 will be out of focus or poorly framed (b/c she isn't a professional and she's learning how to shoot action/sports themes). The law of averages are on her side in this case.
Kendra from Canada wrote: Thank you for taking time to read this over.
My mom likes to take action shots of me playing indoor volleyball but the results aren't the greatest and she is just a point and shoot kind of mom!
She has a Nikon D3000 with the 18-55mm and 55-200mm lens. She has for a couple years just been playing around with the settings, using the sports mode, using the camera internal guide help but alas the quality of her shots isn't as good as I think should could be taking. Sometimes she takes shots with the camera still and other times she follows the action and shoots while in motion with the game play.
The quality of indoor gyms is a challenge as each gym has its unique features with different lighting, some with windows to the outside and the flooring/wall colors create weird color results. I have included a couple shots of what she has taken. Anyone with a couple tips on how she can improve with her equipment would be appreciated. Would like to know settings that would improve the sharpness so that the faces, the ball and the action are more crisp. Thank you
I've shot sports for 11 years now, indoor and out ... it's my bread and butter ...
1. SODIUM VAPOR lighting SUCKS ... set a custom white balance for consistent results EVERY GAME ... or set auto white balance and be happy ...
2. Get better glass ... i.e. 70-200 2.8 for those sideline shots, or a 24-70 2.8 for those at the net.
Bay Photo
Posts: 731
San Francisco, California, US
the best way is to use a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second. 1/250 can work sometimes.
unless you are inside a gym that is lit for TV, your prospects with anything but professional lenses are not great.
sensors are improving all the time. i might suggest setting the camera to the biggest aperture size you can.....f/2.8 etc and then setting the shutter to 1/250. shoot the camera in raw mode and then try to push the image up in processing. if ti doesn;t work, try a slower shutter speed. using a mono-pod or tripod may help a bit, too. the pictures you post seem like they are close to being sharp and might only need a slightly faster shutter speed
An old saying in sports photography is "Shoot tight and crop tighter". Shooting sports is telling a story. Any element in the image which doesn't help tell that story should be cropped out.
Second thing, as my photo professor told me many years ago, it's all about faces and balls. For sports like volleyball, I want to see the face. I want to see the ball. I want to see the story (hit, dig, kill, block, etc...). If possible, I want to be able to tell if the play was successful or a miss.
Look for places to shoot where you get faces. Shooting defense? Sit at center court and get the digs and passes. Shooting blocks and hits, sit at the endline or the corner (depending on where your permitted shooting locations are) and get the players as they come over the top of the net.
Bay Photo
Posts: 731
San Francisco, California, US
TrianglePhoto wrote: Some good technical advice up there.
I'm going to address technique.
An old saying in sports photography is "Shoot tight and crop tighter". Shooting sports is telling a story. Any element in the image which doesn't help tell that story should be cropped out.
Second thing, as my photo professor told me many years ago, it's all about faces and balls. For sports like volleyball, I want to see the face. I want to see the ball. I want to see the story (hit, dig, kill, block, etc...). If possible, I want to be able to tell if the play was successful or a miss.
Look for places to shoot where you get faces. Shooting defense? Sit at center court and get the digs and passes. Shooting blocks and hits, sit at the endline or the corner (depending on where your permitted shooting locations are) and get the players as they come over the top of the net.
that is indeed good advice. and i think with any kind of photo you want to fill the frame with what you envision the photo as, not to crop it, but i think that the photographer here does not have a long lens and using a long would also cause the shake and blur to magnify, because i don; think there is much room on the shutter
but yes, a story is what you want, but i think this is just a mom trying to get some photos to be happy with and document her daughter? if she is lucky, she will get that moment with practice and patience
The difference between a 500 and $5000+ camera rig comes in primarily in low light/sports photography... Cheapest route to faster rig would be a $200 50mm 1.8. It'll take better portraits as well. I might use Manual mode, ISO 1600, shutter 1/500th and the aperture as wide/low as it'll go.
The first thing to look for is a clean background, difficult to get in a small gym unless you get either very high up in the stands or down at floor level.
Better cameras have better AF systems, and faster ones too. Try to preset focus on a spot and shoot when the action hits the spot. Focus on the player and follow them rather than the ball.
Read the options, if any, on setting AF areas as some cameras will shoot on one focus point, multiple focus points or wide area. You want single point or a group of points near the one you set.
Shoot at peak action, there is less movement.
Shoot a lot, memory is cheap, the practice is good and you see what works best for you.
If your club comes to the PNQ (Pacific Northwest Qualifier) tourney in Spokane, look me up. I shoot sports for the guy who has been doing the outs photos at that tourney for 6 or 7 years now.
You need a 2.8 lens, and most gyms require at least 3200 ISO to get 1/500 shutter which still won't freeze action completely. I shoot with a 50d or a 7d and a 70-200 f/2.8. My opinion is you gotta get the shutter speed up to at least 1/500 regardless of where your ISO goes.
Paul Morgan Photography wrote: If your club comes to the PNQ (Pacific Northwest Qualifier) tourney in Spokane, look me up. I shoot sports for the guy who has been doing the outs photos at that tourney for 6 or 7 years now.
You need a 2.8 lens, and most gyms require at least 3200 ISO to get 1/500 shutter which still won't freeze action completely. I shoot with a 50d or a 7d and a 70-200 f/2.8. My opinion is you gotta get the shutter speed up to at least 1/500 regardless of where your ISO goes.
NH ice
Posts: 251
North Andover, Massachusetts, US
ELiffmann wrote: The difference between a 500 and $5000+ camera rig comes in primarily in low light/sports photography... Cheapest route to faster rig would be a $200 50mm 1.8. It'll take better portraits as well. I might use Manual mode, ISO 1600, shutter 1/500th and the aperture as wide/low as it'll go.
The 50 would be a cheap way to go to get faster glass, becuase the lighting is going to be bad in just about every gym. She should be able t get the shutter speeds up to high enough to freeze the action.
JGC Photography
Posts: 108
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
TrianglePhoto wrote: Some good technical advice up there.
I'm going to address technique.
An old saying in sports photography is "Shoot tight and crop tighter". Shooting sports is telling a story. Any element in the image which doesn't help tell that story should be cropped out.
Second thing, as my photo professor told me many years ago, it's all about faces and balls. For sports like volleyball, I want to see the face. I want to see the ball. I want to see the story (hit, dig, kill, block, etc...). If possible, I want to be able to tell if the play was successful or a miss.
Look for places to shoot where you get faces. Shooting defense? Sit at center court and get the digs and passes. Shooting blocks and hits, sit at the endline or the corner (depending on where your permitted shooting locations are) and get the players as they come over the top of the net.
Money!
Mom needs to position herself where she can get shots at your face. Your butt (fine though it may be ) gives no connection with the viewer...Connection usually (but not always) comes through the eyes. Where you shoot from is everything in sports.
The perfect sports shot is one of the hardest things to attain in photography. You need connection, emotion, action, and something that captures the essence of the sport...A tall order to say the least. Fast and expensive glass helps with more keepers sharper images, but being able to anticipate the shot is the most important aspect of sports photography.
Lastly in a gym there is no reason not to shoot in manual....The exposure never changes. Shooting in aperture priority can result in light or dark images as the sensor gets fooled by a background or whatever. Same thing in shutter priority.
Kendra from Canada wrote: Me Voy,
your sports shots rock!!
Thank you everyone, keep the tips coming in and how to change the shutter speed, where do you go to do that?
I don't recall anyone saying..
"S" setting on the dial that has P, A, M, S
The number displayed will be the shutter speed.
Someone else said she needs 200 (1/200th) more likely a minimum of 400 (1/400) but something like 1/500 or 1/640 will freeze movement even more.
The problem with increasing your shutter speed is two fold -- as you increase the shutter speed, you'll need to increase the ISO, which increases the grain and noise... and secondly, if the lighting is poor, you can actually photograph in between cycles of the lighting giving great variability to the lighting. (Lights cycle on and off faster than the eye can see, a faster shutter speed can capture the image while the lighting is low or darkened due to cycle).
Her other option is a faster lens, such as an 85mm f1.8 or 50mm f1.8, those lenses let in much more light than the lenses she's using and the result is the ability to use a much lower ISO (less grain and noise).
A different lens could help bunches, the ones you mentioned are fairly "slow".
Kendra,
You have gotten nearly all of the information you can hope to get without being there. When I shoot high school volleyball, I need to be at least at 1/400 in order to stop the action. Being at 1/500 or 1/640 is better, but only when the lighting is good enough. ISO goes to 1600 or 2000 usually. And aperture to f2.0 - I'll close it down to f2.8 if I have enough light, but that is rare. And of course each gym is different.
The biggest problem with shooting volleyball (for me) was trying to get to where the ball was going for the digs before the ball did. Spikes and such were easier to prep for and get good pictures, but digs were hit and miss at best. I would suggest either being on the bottom row or possibly sitting on the floor or being way up in the top row and standing up looking down on the action a bit. Both can make for good shots.
SoCo n Lime
Posts: 3,202
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
-JAY- wrote: Shutter priority mode - with a shutter fast enough to freeze the ball - AUTO ISO high enough to compensate... that's pretty much the best option for the kit she has, if it's enough.
this ^^^ i would say is the easiest route
whatever else she does always make sure the important part of the shot is filling the frame.. get a good position (front seats) and anticipate whats going on to get the best possible results (which comes naturally after time)
shes got good enough results as it is
if she's feeling brave then =
you could switch the manual mode on and set shutter speed to 1/125th (dont go any slower) and the widest aperture (thats the lowest number like 3.5 or 5.6 ) set iso to 800 or 1600 which ever is giving the best results on the preview screen at the back as any venue should be roughly okay with this kind of setting. if she knows where the switch or option in menu is that will set the camera to match the type of lighting being used then set white balance option to match the types of lights being used she can switch between them when doing tests before game to see which one looks the more natural. i.e not to yellow in cast or to blueish
if your mum sees the picture go really white after test shot (blown out in areas - over exposed) or to dark (underexposed) she can adjust the settings firing another test shot then checking the screen and adjusting away till the pics look good
after a while she'll get used to how the camera is working
always make sure she arrives early and takes pictures and tests the lighting when there is no game being played.. its not advisable to try getting the right exposure while the games going on
I do wider apertures for indoor sports, upper ISO around 800, and AI Servo for focusing. Outdoors I use the lowest ISO possible, and adjust my aperture according to available light, and how much depth of field I want. For both indoor and out, I keep the highest shutter speed possible to get action, and keep a decently exposed image.
Last year I did a shoot at Fenway Park. They had the lights off for a while. That left me with no photos for a good half hour. Light is very nice to have.
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