Low light and action photos

[Ultra]

I am new to the digital world and have just purchased a Sony A 700. I want to take pictures of my daughter during her gymnastics meets. A lot of fast action and low light. You can not use any flash during the meet so I need advice on the best settings to use in order to ge the best possible photographs of my daughter? I appreciate any advice that I can get.

[jdepould]

What lenses do you have, and do you have any spare money laying around?

[BillClark]

Highly dependent on your lenses as jdepould mentions, but some things I use when shooting dance recitals with a not-so-fast lens (70-300mm f/4.5-5.6)

I move the ISO up to 1600 (give or take a couple of stops). You start to get noise at this level. I just started using Noise Ninja to clean this up.
I work in shutter priority mode or full manual and usually can't go faster the 1/500 while keeping the aperture fully open. Try working in this mode and adjust the shutter speed to get the best exposure you can.
I adjusted the EV to +5.0 (my maximum) as well.

I also shoot in RAW mode, which allows me to adjust exposure once I get the pictures back on the computer.

Hope that helps.

Bill

[Ultra]

Originally Posted by BillClark

Highly dependent on your lenses as jdepould mentions, but some things I use when shooting dance recitals with a not-so-fast lens (70-300mm f/4.5-5.6)

I move the ISO up to 1600 (give or take a couple of stops). You start to get noise at this level. I just started using Noise Ninja to clean this up.
I work in shutter priority mode or full manual and usually can't go faster the 1/500 while keeping the aperture fully open. Try working in this mode and adjust the shutter speed to get the best exposure you can.
I adjusted the EV to +5.0 (my maximum) as well.

I also shoot in RAW mode, which allows me to adjust exposure once I get the pictures back on the computer.

Hope that helps.

Bill

Bill thanks for the suggestions. Like I said, I am just starting out so I have the basic 18-200 3.5-6.3 Sony lense. I intend to invest in a better lense, but right now the bank is boke. You mentioned using a not so fast lense, I did not realize that there were fast vs. slower lenses, can you explain? Thanks again for the input.

[OsmosisStudios]

"fast" refers to a larger aperture.

On your lens, for example, the maximum apertures (the largest the aperture opening can be) at the focal lengths is f/3.5 and f/6.3 at 18mm and 200mm respectively.

There are lenses that have a constant aperture of f/2.8 (expensive).

You can also get primes with very very large apertures of f/1.8 or larger!

[Kaecha]

I've been asked to take photos of a barrel racing competition here in our small town. It's still cold here and the competition is inside the riding arena.

I have an Olympus Evolt 500 with two lenses: Olympus Zuiko 40-150mm, and Olympus Zuiko 14-45 mm.

I've just ordered a new flash (hasn't arrived yet, but should be here in a couple days) FL-36R as I already tried taking photos in riding arena and they turned out awful.

Here's a link to a couple of them, one is an action shot of a team roping practise and the other has almost no action at all. She is almost standing still for me.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/photo/...eat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/photo/...eat=directlink

(I hope I linked these properly, I just downloaded the picasa program a few minutes ago!)

[AmitMittal]

First of all, I am sorry that I am not answering the questions from either Ultra or Kaecha.

I have been looking for advice on a similar subject.

I am going to a baseball game in Milwaukee in a couple of weeks. The game starts at about 7 in the evening. Our seats are at the end of the right hand side foul line placing me anywehere between 320 and 380 feet from the batter.

This will be the first time I will be using the Tamron lens (18-270mm) in low-light conditions. As you can imagine, with the seats we have, I will have to use the lens at its longest to be able to capture the action.

I am hoping to get some help from you about the following -
1. Is the 432mm effective focal length (for my camera) sufficient to get close enough to the batter?
2. If any of you have used the said lens in a similar situations, it would be very helpful if I could see the pictures and/or know the settings you used.

I am new to photography and have been a lot lately. So, as far as my theoretical understanding of photography takes me, I will have to use the following to get the fastest shutter-speeds:
1. The highest ISO (1600)
2. Maximum aperture (f/6.3 at the longest end)
3. Maximum exposure (+2 on XSi)
4. Shoot RAW (which I do always anyway)

I am looking for any and all advice which could help me improve my understanding and get the best pictures I can.

Thanks in advance.

[Chip]

Ultra - Basically, the goal is to get the shutter speed fast enough so that the action is stopped.

With the lens that you have, if possible, get close enough so that you don't have to zoom out to 200mm. That will let you use a wider aperture (lower f#) and will speed up your shutter. (or you could not zoom out to 200 and crop.)

Or - or in addition - you can turn up your ISO. If the shot is properly exposed, turning up the ISO can produce shots at times that have surprisingly little noise.

Why not pratice at home on something that's moving? Play around with different focal lengths and ISO combinations. See what works and what doesn't and see just how far you can turn up the ISO on your camera. That way, when you get to the meet, you'll have some experience to draw on and the guess work will be minimized.

Good luck.

[jdepould]

Originally Posted by Kaecha

I've been asked to take photos of a barrel racing competition here in our small town. It's still cold here and the competition is inside the riding arena.

I have an Olympus Evolt 500 with two lenses: Olympus Zuiko 40-150mm, and Olympus Zuiko 14-45 mm.

I've just ordered a new flash (hasn't arrived yet, but should be here in a couple days) FL-36R as I already tried taking photos in riding arena and they turned out awful.

Here's a link to a couple of them, one is an action shot of a team roping practise and the other has almost no action at all. She is almost standing still for me.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/photo/...eat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/photo/...eat=directlink

(I hope I linked these properly, I just downloaded the picasa program a few minutes ago!)

Originally Posted by AmitMittal

First of all, I am sorry that I am not answering the questions from either Ultra or Kaecha.

I have been looking for advice on a similar subject.

I am going to a baseball game in Milwaukee in a couple of weeks. The game starts at about 7 in the evening. Our seats are at the end of the right hand side foul line placing me anywehere between 320 and 380 feet from the batter.

This will be the first time I will be using the Tamron lens (18-270mm) in low-light conditions. As you can imagine, with the seats we have, I will have to use the lens at its longest to be able to capture the action.

I am hoping to get some help from you about the following -
1. Is the 432mm effective focal length (for my camera) sufficient to get close enough to the batter?
2. If any of you have used the said lens in a similar situations, it would be very helpful if I could see the pictures and/or know the settings you used.

I am new to photography and have been a lot lately. So, as far as my theoretical understanding of photography takes me, I will have to use the following to get the fastest shutter-speeds:
1. The highest ISO (1600)
2. Maximum aperture (f/6.3 at the longest end)
3. Maximum exposure (+2 on XSi)
4. Shoot RAW (which I do always anyway)

I am looking for any and all advice which could help me improve my understanding and get the best pictures I can.

Thanks in advance.

You'll probably get better responses to your questions by posting your own new threads. Your situations and questions are a bit different from the original post.

[Kaecha]

thanks, I will.