Help with action shots

[peony2]

I am trying to improve shots I take at my children's soccer games. So far I just use my sports mode and cross my fingers. Without a faster lens is there any way to get the blurry background I see in professional sports photographs? thanks for your help.



Focal Length 80.0mm
Exposure time 1/640
Aperture f/5.6
Metering mode: Matrix

[Jim Bryant]

Nope, you need a faster lens or try gaussian blur filter in photoshop to blur out the background somewhat.

[GSter]

Go for a longer shutter time in shutter priority mode. Slow the exposure down and pan around the shot
I tried it today and it worked quite well taking photos of horses at an equestrian event and just posted some for critique.

It was quite difficult to do at first, but ended up taking about 300 pics to get a decent deck of 80, so almost happy with a couple

[BillClark]

What lens are you using?

Best tip I got when starting to do sport photography is to use Aperature mode and set it to the largest (smallest number) your lens allow. It will then get you the fastest shutter speed based on your lighting.

[Jim Bryant]

Because of the nature of soccer, kids kicking and using a slow shutter speed method wouldn't work well to take out the background. A slow shutter, panning method wouldn't work well here, you could give it a try, and it might turn out a very creative picture. You wouldn't have the ball in the frame and in focus.

[Mandy]

What other lenses do you have peony?

[mikedugganphotography]

The glass is very important in obtaining quaility shots. I went from an inexpensive ($300 or so) lens in the 200mm range to the Nikon 80-200 f2,8 and found a tremendous improvement in what I could and could not control. Also sooting in aperture priority for sports I find to be a plus. What type of camera and lens are you using?