photographers ?'s

[Rotatorcuff]

Good call pixsguy. Study the settings while shooting in action mode and you will learn what works best for the type of lighting, speed, etc. Let the camera teach you.

[TravelSoftballDad]

I could use some help with night game shots

They are always grainy and blurred....what do I have wrong? Anyone....Bueller?....Buuueeelller?

[SkinnyFats]

I could use some help with night game shots

They are always grainy and blurred....what do I have wrong? Anyone....Bueller?....Buuueeelller?

You need to get your shutter speed fast to avoid blur. You need to get your ISO low to avoid grainy pics (although cameras with larger sensors are getting better and better about high ISO pictures now).

In other words, you need a DSLR with fast lenses. How much do you want to spend to get these shots? The equipment is all out there, but it's not terribly cheap.

Canon's EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM is my favorite lens to use for softball.

[TravelSoftballDad]

Thanks...day shots are great but, have to admit, I didn't know what to change for the night shots under the lights. Thanks...will adjust this weekend at States and see how it goes.

[SkinnyFats]

You may not be able to adjust your current equipment to get the job done.

Look at it this way - the camera needs a certain amount of light to take the picture. The amount of light required depends on the ISO setting - the ISO tradeoff being that less light required (higher ISO) equals grainier, noisier pictures. Note that DSLRs can take far better pictures at high ISO than can point-and-shoot type cameras.

So you pick your ISO (thus setting the amount of light you need). Now you have to get that amount of light to the sensor. A short shutter speed means less blur in the pic, but also less light to the sensor. A large aperture means more light on the sensor, but the lens has a certain physical maximum it can be set to, and cheaper lenses tend to not be sharp at these settings.

In other words, it may not be physically possible to take the pictures you want with the equipment you have. To get the shutter speed high enough to remove blur, the amount of light entering the camera may result in a black picture. Raising the ISO way up may result in such a grainy crappy picture that you may not be satisfied anyway, etc. etc. That's why most point-and-shoot cameras take really nice pictures outside on sunny days - it's easy to get the light you need. Night games and indoor shots are much more challenging, and require different equipment to pull off what you want.

[DonnieS]

The equipment is all out there, but it's not terribly cheap.

Canon's EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM is my favorite lens to use for softball.

$1,599 on Amazon, fyi.

[SkinnyFats]

The equipment is all out there, but it's not terribly cheap.

Canon's EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM is my favorite lens to use for softball.

$1,599 on Amazon, fyi.

Yep, a few months worth of travel ball expenses, or just rent one for the weekend. Set it wide open at f/2.8 and shoot away. It'll have beautiful blurred backgrounds, and incredibly sharp details. It autofocuses very quickly as well. You'll get Sports Illustrated type shots, easy as can be.

[fastpitch7]

I took some shots of cars going by my house at 50mph and I was impressed how well they came out.

I take it there is not some kind of table cheat sheet for dummys thats says, action shots, sunny day, ISO ___, Aperture______, shutter speed______ just to get some kind of guidelines... I mean if there is 8 diff iso, and 8 dif apt, and 10 diff shutter, thats alot of combinations to try to learn from.

I was planning on using the sports setting to start this weekend and adjust if i need to.

thanks to all for the help

[SkinnyFats]

It's actually not as complicated as it sounds. If you want to avoid blur, you need a high shutter speed. Sometimes some blur looks cool, but lets say you want to stop everything. As a previous poster stated, stay at a shutter speed of 1/750 or faster.

From there everything is related, and luckily it's pretty simple. As an exmaple of the relationship of the settings, let's say you are in automatic mode where the camera sets everything for you, and the camera's auto-exposure system is happy (says there is plenty of light) at a shutter speed of 1/1000, an aperture of f/8, and an ISO of 400. If you changed the ISO to 800, (which means it needs half as much light), the camera would either increase the shutter speed by one stop (to 1/2000), or reduce the aperture by one stop (to f/11). All three parameters are always related to one another.

Here's another example. For most sports pictures, shutter speed is important. Set the camera to some relatively low ISO (lets say 100), and select shutter priority. Set the shutter speed to 1/1000. The camera will now automatically set the aperture. If it's too bright outside (meaning the camera can't physically shut the aperture small enough to avoid having too much light) the camera will complain. If there is too little light (the reverse), the camera will also complain. You then have a choice of changing either the ISO or shutter speed to solve this problem. If the camera is happy, shoot away.

I'm probably rambling a bit here, and I need to run to a tournament game. I'll end with this. When you select the camera's sports mode, the camera will essentially do this: set the shutter speed to a relatively high speed, then set the ISO and aperture to settings that allow a good picture to be taken given that shutter speed. It will also select a continuous auto-focus mode to allow you to follow the action and have the camera stay in focus, among other settings. You can implement the same sort of mode (if you prefer), with more control of the camera, by playing around with the settings yourself. Plus, you'll learn a lot about how your camera actually works.

Good luck, and post some pics to show us how you did!

[fastpitch7]

[quote][/quote]the camera will complain. [quote]


just got a thought the camera looking at me going dumba** you can't do that...


seriously thanks for the help