Please help...bball tournament Saturday

[ljame]

I cant seem to get this right..im in doors at a basket ball game. I am using a Canon Rebel XS. ef 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III

some times i get alot of blur...then at times its too dark...please help
ohhh i did not use a tripod either

[MOmilkman]

It will be really hard to help you considering you didnt post your EXIF data. (shutter speed, iso, aperture etc) however I can make a few suggestions regardless.

Sports in dimly lit gyms is a real pain for a f/4 lens and more than likely you are using the long end of the lens so your aperture would effectively be f/5.6. Not good for low light situations. It is very hard to shoot high speed photography in low light. You need a telephoto lens that can get down to f/2.8. That helps make things a bit less difficult. I don't own a f/2.8 lens yet either but it is on my wish list. They can be quite expensive.

First off use Tv mode. Get out of Auto if you are using Auto.

Secondly, get your ISO as high as possible. 1600 or higher

Then get your shutter speed as high as possible and your Aperture as wide as possible.
If the Aperture starts blinking when you are raising your shutter speed, back it off until it stops blinking.

Since you have the non IS (image stabilization) version of this lens I would suggest a tripod or a monopod to avoid as much camera shake as possible. Or maybe stabilize your camera by leaning against a wall.

Another tidbit you might want to consider - Switch your focus mode from "One Shot" to "AI Servo". This will continuously focus moving subjects as long as you have your lens set to "AF"

Try all the above and see what you come up with. I hope all this makes sense.

Good luck!

[73rocks]

Originally Posted by ljame

I cant seem to get this right..im in doors at a basket ball game. I am using a Canon Rebel XS. ef 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III

some times i get alot of blur...then at times its too dark...please help
ohhh i did not use a tripod either

Sorry I’m late with this but a couple of weeks ago I had a thread on this very subject:
Action Shots In High School Gyms

In a nutshell it comes down to 2 issues – (1) The lens (2) The lighting conditions in the gyms.

Your zoom lens is OK for outdoor sports shots but it is not very good in poorly lit gyms . . . it just doesn’t let in enough light . . . f5.6. I have terrific results with a couple of f1.8 prime lens, one a 50mm and the other an 85mm (the smaller the f# the bigger the lens . . . lets in more light) AND I don’t need to use my flash unit. The 50mm cost me $70 off of eBay and my 85mm cost me $430 off eBay. Sure you can’t do any “zooming” with a prime lens BUT (1) “zooming” is just another function that you and the camera has to continue to adjust on the fly (2) with a 10meg image you can do your “zooming” later with your crop function on your editing software (3) anything beyond half court is beyond your flash’s range anyway.

In the real small gyms I use my 50mm . . . there just isn’t enough room under the basket for anything bigger that a 50mm. In the gyms where I have more room I go to my 85mm.

On Thursday night I had the pleasure of shooting 2 games in a small gym that had (1) real good lighting in a bright gym (2) a lot of room under one of the baskets. Here is one of my shots using my 85mm f1.8 / No flash / 125sec shutter speed / 500 ISO:


To sum up my critique – scrape together $100 and get a Canon 50mm f1.8 prime lens and save your 70-300 zoom for track season.