Sports shooting settings

[Staci B]

Our church is hosting a Miracle League (baseball clinic of sorts for physically disabled children) on Sat. And asked me to photograph the event.

Here in sunny CA! It has been cloudy/overcast and intermitten sun. I was wondering, since I am basically walking around, capturing a variety of shots of the event for slide show presentations, future fundraising, and promos of future events. What settings would be the best, and easiest to use that day.

I am used to shooting in M mode, RAW, with my Nikon D200. Any ideas, helpful hints would be greatly appreciated! Will check back here tomorrow! and TIA!

[Lee Sacrey]

I shoot a lot of soccer and volleyball as those are 2 sports my kids play. What has worked for me is shooting in aperture priority mode, with the fastest aperture setting being used. Actually, I seem to use f4 quite a bit. I seem to use my 70 - 210 mm quite a bit for those shots as well. I also general take both RAW and jpeg at the same time. However, I am no pro photography so advice from more experienced photography should be considered over mine, lol.

[Quo Fan]

I've shot some action sports. Open you lens up as wide as it will go for shallowest DOF. Highest ISO you can reasonably shoot. This will give you the fastest shutter time to stop action. Close down the lens for the blurred "action" shots.

Being overcast is a good thing. This will give you even soft light, no harsh shadows to deal with, but then you get crappy looking skies in the photos.

[autofocus]

Staci, I think you want to consider your locations relative to where you anticipate the action will be...move around the field, get yourself setup, and wait for those action moments to come to you....sounds like fun

[waffles]

Originally Posted by Lee Sacrey

What has worked for me is shooting in aperture priority mode, with the fastest aperture setting being used.

Most of the time I would recommend against that. It should work for you since you'll be shooting during the day. But once you get into night games it just won't work.

I usually go with a shutter priority at no lower than 1/160.

[Jim Bryant]

The only time I shoot in Manual is when the lighting is constant (like night games under the lights) because when shooting day games, your light might change constantly. So, I prefer to shoot at 2500 -4000 shutter speed to stop the action. This will give you a limited depth of field so that crap in the background will be out of focus.

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

The only time I shoot in Manual is when the lighting is constant (like night games under the lights) because when shooting day games, your light might change constantly. So, I prefer to shoot at 2500 -4000 shutter speed to stop the action. This will give you a limited depth of field so that crap in the background will be out of focus.

Yea, I hate when crap is in focus

[Staci B]

THANK YOU! That is exactly what I wanted to know...I do plan on moving around all morning to each clinic site, and then after lunch they will play a "game".

I am not sure if you have heard of Miracle League...it is baseball for handicapped children, our church is building a field just for this on our new church property. This is a first event, hosted at our local college, until the field is built. Anticipate an incredible day, filled with kids, some who get to play for the first time. I can't wait to capture expressions!

One more question...metering. Are you using matrix? meter off the subject?

Thanks again, for some great advice. I hope to post a few, oh, maybe I can't do that actually.

Originally Posted by Staci B

One more question...metering. Are you using matrix? meter off the subject?

At some point you will have to go outside and try it out and see if it works

[waffles]

Originally Posted by Staci B

One more question...metering. Are you using matrix? meter off the subject?

That's what I always did.