Local JV Game

[dirtracer1]

Nikon D3000
Shutter Priority Auto
VR 55-200mm F/4-5.6G
86mm
ISO-1600
shutter speed 1/80s F/4.2
jpeg-normal

[dirtracer1]

I forgot to add this to the first post. The photo above is one of the first action photos with the new camera. I would like some input on what to do with the lighting. The lighting in the local stadium, as you can see, is not very good. Thanks

[Doug Sundseth]

Spend money.

There are lots of things in photography where money really doesn't help you much to get the shot. Action in bad light is one place where you need good equipment.

The following assumes that you can't use flash from the sidelines, which is usually the case.

IME, football really needs 1/500 second or faster shutter speeds (ideally 1/1000 or faster). Since the light you had gave you an underexposed photo at 1/80 second, you really need at least three stops and probably should have four.

An fast lens like the 70-200 f2.8 ($many) will get you one stop (and a bit).

Since we're assuming you can't add light, the rest is going to have to come from ISO, which means that you need to push into the ISO 6400 - ISO 12800 range. I'm not sure what the max is on the D3000, but you're getting pretty close to the functional max right now, IIRC. If you're willing to live with some softness from noise reduction, you can just about get to that range with a D7000, but you really want a D3S ($even more) for that sort of light.

You might be able to get an image using a 50mm f/1.4 lens, but IIRC they're manual focus on the D3000 and you would need to crop very tightly (that is, throw away most of your pixels) to get a reasonably well-composed image.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[dirtracer1]

Thanks for your advice.

[Jim Bryant]

For starters, the image is too blurry! Not high enough shutter speed to stop the action with the lens you currently own.