setting for taking sports action

[JaGr]

Hi I woud like to gather some info on what settings I should use to take some sports action in an indoor court. For eg a basketball game. Lets say I'm sitting at one end of the court, what do I use to take action in front of me and at the other end? Would there be a setting that is good for both. Thanks for any feedback.

Using Sony F707

 

[siron]

Originally posted by JaGr
Hi I woud like to gather some info on what settings I should use to take some sports action in an indoor court. For eg a basketball game. Lets say I'm sitting at one end of the court, what do I use to take action in front of me and at the other end? Would there be a setting that is good for both. Thanks for any feedback.

Using Sony F707

Sports? Well..I guess this area the shuttle speed comes in dearly. You might wanna catch the full action without any bluring or image..or you might wanna pan with the person with the ball etc. So Play ard with shuttle speed loh..aperture too.
Anyway you just got your 707?

 

[JaGr]

Yes. Just curious why is there so limited control in the burst 3 and auto bracket mode. for eg cannot use flash etc

 

[Jed]

Generally, I wouldn't bother switching around. I don't shoot both ends of court being generally a one-team man (and generally only the near-court pictures, with players facing you, are the ones that sell). However, personally I think the right thing to do is to use the shutter speed that's fast enough for both ends of court, in which case you'll need a shutter speed that's fast enough for the near end of court.

A lot also depends on your lens focal length. I generally use 1/320 because I'm always shooting indoors and that's the most I can get out of the EI I'm using, and last season I shot with 1/160 when I had half the EI I have now. Comparing the two, I wonder how I ever got by with 1/160, there is quite a lot of movement.

 

[JaGr]

How about aperture? I suppose a larger aperture would let more light in since the court might be a bit dark but then that would narrow the dof

 

[Jed]

With sports you generally don't want DOF anyway, so yes, the wider you can shoot the better. If you're indoors, you're very likely to have very poor light levels.

 

[JaGr]

I think if I set the camera in burst mode I can take many frames with one click and then choose the frame of the action shot I like best. However in this mode I cannot use flash(it is disabled). Also in the exposure bracket mode I cannot use flash. Why is this so? The flash cannot charge in time?

 

[Flare]

Flash cannot charge in time for those bust mode... and in some sports... flash isn't allowed.

 

[siron]

Maybe external lights loh... panning in sports would be nice..anyway it's not as easy as said.. Must train ahh

 

[JaGr]

do you guys think its too dark or anything wrong? if so pls let me know whats wrong

829a ExposureTime 10/1600
829d FNumber 2.4
8822 ExposureProgram 4
8827 ISOSpeedRatings 400
920a FocalLength 44.1

 

[siron]

Definately it's too dark... where you are anyway?

 

[JaGr]

singapore. that was in the jurong ice skating rink. how can I make it brighter? I do not have an external flash. The ISO has already been set to 400

 

[Jed]

Yes, it's underexposed. Was your exposure time a typo? I'm assuming 1/1600 of a second instead of 10/1600? In which case, you don't need that high a shutter speed, you can drop it to about 1/500.

 

[ckiang]

Originally posted by Jed
Yes, it's underexposed. Was your exposure time a typo? I'm assuming 1/1600 of a second instead of 10/1600? In which case, you don't need that high a shutter speed, you can drop it to about 1/500.

Let's see. 10/1600. Strike off 1 zero on top, 1 zero on the bottom, and you end up with 1/160. Which I think is more likely. Ice skating rinks are not very bright.

Regards
CK

 

[siron]

Yeah actually some sports pic very hard to take since no flash is allowed as the area is usually very dim. And if you set too long of exposure...It's gonna be blur