How Should I Approach This??..(I Haven't Got My Manual Licence Yet)

[shazzabess]

I want to take some shots of my daughter at her boxing match at the weekend and need some advice on how to go about it.
I have a Nikon D5000 with AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm & AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm lens (is that enough info?)
I have not had the camera for very long and am still using the Auto mode mainly because I am finding the Manual side of things a bit daunting.
A few months ago I took some boxing photos with the camera set on Sport Mode and continuous and they were a disaster....out of focus and grainy.
I would welcome any advice as I would like to be able to get a few decent shots for her.

[OsmosisStudios]

You've got a classic problem: not enough light. What that means is you have 4 options:

Raise the ISO: this leads to grain
Grab a flash: Which leads to, generally, unflattering pictures. May not be allowed
Lower the shutterspeed: Get blur
Get a faster telephoto lens: Your wallet pretty much dies.

Your choice, really.

[Henry Wilt]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

You've got a classic problem: not enough light. What that means is you have 4 options:

Raise the ISO: this leads to grain
Grab a flash: Which leads to, generally, unflattering pictures. May not be allowed
Lower the shutterspeed: Get blur
Get a faster telephoto lens: Your wallet pretty much dies.

Your choice, really.

How true, but it did make me chuckle.

Seriously though, it's as OsmosisStudios says. Probably the lesser evil is raise your ISO if the light is a problem then do some noise reduction in pp (providing you're shooting in RAW of course).

[Barbara V]

I'm thinking a certain amount of grain would lend itself well to a boxing match.

[tasmo2]

Originally Posted by Henry Wilt

How true, but it did make me chuckle.

Seriously though, it's as OsmosisStudios says. Probably the lesser evil is raise your ISO if the light is a problem then do some noise reduction in pp (providing you're shooting in RAW of course).

If the OP is still in Auto, im thinking probably not shooting raw.... could be wrong though...

You could always go Auto ISO, I would think a grainy photo would be better than no photo for you.