 Karen Axe |
Indoor sports photography I recently purchased a Cannon Rebel xti with a 70-200mm f2.8 lens. I am just getting back into SLR photography after 20 years away. I am trying to shoot gymnasts in action. The lighting is so bad that I need to shoot every shot at f2.8. If I take the ISO to 400, I can manage to push the shutter speed to 125 or MAYBE 160, but I am getting very grainy shots and am having great difficulty with focus. Any help would be appreciated!!! This is my son's passion and I want to get some great shots!
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Jon Close |
What file type/size are you saving? RAW (and to a lesser extent Large/Fine JPG) should retain better resolution with little noise to ~ISO 800. If you don't want to shoot at higher ISO, then the only other alternative is wider aperture. There are no zooms faster than your f/2.8, but the EF 85 f/1.8 USM is pretty reasonably priced (~$320), the EF 135 f/2L USM is a bit more (~$875), and if price is no object look for the discontinued EF 200 f/1.8L USM (though beware this is one of the favorite offerings of ebay scammers).
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Karen Axe |
Thank-you so much for your input! REALLY appreciate ANY ideas that might help me! I have shot well over 1,000 photos in the gym and do not seem to be making ANY progress. Cost is a huge issue for me. I already spent more on the camera than I had planned and then an additional $800 getting that lens at a used camera shop. So I have to try to make this work! I actually was very excited after I got the lens because, in addition to wanting to catch my son in action, there seems to be some nice business opportunities for me if I can figure this out. I am shooting with the large jpeg file, but I will try to use RAW. Is there any other way to deal with noisy photos that is really effective? I'm not fully certain where the problem lies. When I shoot at 400 ISO, f2.8 and a shutter speed of 200, I get the stop action, but the photo is dark. So I use Photoshop to lighten it (is that part of the problem?). The camera autofocus does not seem to focus on the gymnast - even though they are the closest thing to me. Many of my shots are out of focus - some are WAY out of focus. (I will try going to fully manual focus the next chance I get to practice) And even at ISO 400 the pictures are grainy - never crisp. At ISO 800 they seem nearly useless. Should I be able to do better than this. Is it possible my new camera is a lemon? I am also changing the white balance to flourecent light. The shots vary between correct color and yellow, even though I have bracketing turned off. Would it help to use the auto wb? I seem to have chosen a VERY complicated environment to work in - especially for someone who gave up SLR photos about 10 years ago! low light, stop action, flourecent lights, zoom lens, very little depth of field.... HELP
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Jon Close |
Re autofocus - Are you using the AI Focus mode? If so, don't. AI Focus is a combination of One-Shot and AI Servo that doesn't work as well as either. Canon's pro-level bodies don't have AI Focus. Instead, for moving subjects try AI Servo + Auto AF Point Selection. This mode will continuously focus while you have the shutter button half-pressed. Focus will start with the center AF sensor and only "hand-off" focus to the other sensors if the camera thinks the subject has moved off center. AI Servo will also continue to track and refocus when shooting a continuous burst. Re lighting/WB - the artifical lighting in the gym - whether fluorescent, mercury vapor, or halogen/tungsten - runs off alternating current at 60Hz. 60 times each second the filaments/gas in the lights heat and cool, and so the color temperature changes. When using flash or shutter speeds of 1/60 or longer this effect is not noticable. When shooting at high shutter speeds of 1/125, 1/200 and faster, the camera is able to capture the changing color temperatures. You should set a preset WB closest to the type of lighting, or use the Custom WB, but there is no WB setting that can automatically adjust for the alternating current flickering. However, it can be corrected in post-processing.
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