Article:		Top Ten Digital Photography Tips
Subject:		sports photos
Date:		2005-01-02 02:03:09
From:		holloB
hello to all! i use sony digital camera DSCP 100 - 5MP and i have hard time taking good indoor sport pictures, like bowling or squash.. There is either to much motion on pictures or they apear to dark, usually objects are not in flash range. i would apreciate any tips/advices thanks greetings!

Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4.

• Indoor sports photos
  2005-08-09 21:31:33  fhotoace [View]
  
  
  The first two questions are, "Have you done this kind of photography before using film and have you been more successful with film than with your digital?"
  
  In the old high school and college days we used to push Tri-x to 1200, underexpose another third of a stop and shoot wide open with a f/stop of f/1.4 or f/ 1.8 to get a shutter speed of over 1/250th or use a flash (couldn't use the flash for conference games). There was grain to say the least and they were still underexposed, but the requirements for a newspaper shot were less strict.
  
  Now with digital cameras (high quality, but not pro quality), you deal with cameras with f/stops of from 3.5 to 5.6 depending upon the focal length being used for the shot. That puts you down almost four or five stops at the start of your shoot. Using the same lighting in the first paragraph, that would mean you would have to shoot (without flash) at about ISO of 6400 and still be underexposed about a stop and a half. True, the lighting in the new sports complexes is more even and higher lux, but don’t expect tight grain and no “action” movement in your shots.
  
  Take a look at the way the pros shoot at Basketball or Hockey games and you will see that they camp out at one end of the court (ice) and just wait for shots. Usually those areas are lit well enough to get flashless shots or in some cases (staff photographers can do this) use wireless remote speed lights pre-aimed and mounted up in the lights and used to capture the action.
  
  
  

• sports photos
  2005-01-12 10:51:36  Greg63376 [View]
  
  
  Hi. I had the same problem with my son's basketball games. The best I could do with the camera I had was to set the ISO to 400. This helped stop the action, but the pictures got grainy. I've just yesterday got a newer camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3. It has an incredible 12X zoom, which I'm hoping will be good for football games. More important to basketball, though, the camera gives you a choice of shutter-priority, aperture-priority, manual, or fully automatic modes. (It has a "sports" mode, but according to the manual that is for outdoor sports with plenty of light.) Basically, I think you need to learn to use shutter-priority mode (if your camera has it) to choose a fairly high shutter speed (maybe around 1/30) and combine that with an ISO speed of 200-400. If your pictures come out slightly under-exposed, you also have the option of brightening them up a little after you put them on your computer using your favorite photo software. Your camera may have other options that might be helpful to you, or you may have to go shopping for a new one. Good luck.
• sports photos
  2005-01-12 11:29:56  Greg63376 [View]
  
  
  Before somebody else says something, I should say that 1/30 is actually a fairly slow shutter speed. In better lighting, you'd probably want more like 1/60 or higher. For a really fast-paced outdoor sport, you'd want something even higher. (Also, I'm still playing with these settings myself. I'm no expert.)
• sports photos
  2005-01-16 18:34:54  underworld [View]
  
  
  For lower light scenarios, 1/30 is very good as it allows more existing light to be recorded whether you are shooting digital or film. Also, with the longer shutter speed it can allow for the flash to be more effective. If your camera has a hot shoe you may want to consider an accessory flash. There are many good quality inexpensive ones made by Vivitar, Minolta and many other manufacturers.