How are my settings?

[sascha]

I was at my husband's soccer game the other night and decided what the heck, I'll try some action shots. I had no idea where to set things other than shutter priority and just changed the speed until it started to look alright.
So any suggestions on my settings would be great so I can try again next week.

Thanks!





Camera: Olympus E-410
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/16.0
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: -0.3 EV

[mikedugganphotography]

Depending on the glass I like to have the aperture around the f2.8 to f4 area. This allows the background to blur enough not to distract. With shitter priority push it to the point that you have the appropriate aperture and still have enough light. Make sure to check the histogram to see the highlights and shadows. Since it was a sunny day decrease your ISO to 200 or 400. A shutter speed of 1/1000 normally ensures that you are stopping the action.

Your shot is nice and I like the stop action. Look forward to seeing what you do at the next game.

[sascha]

Thanks mike, I'll try all this next time. Looks like my shutter speed was way off! So do you typically shoot in manual? I was in shutter priority so then the camera decided the aperture for me. And does shooting in vivid make a difference?
Thanks again!

[Unipsychle]

My rule of thumb for sports: Compensate around shutterspeed, whilst avoiding noise.

This means (I have an OLY e510) keep the ISO below 400 for anytime, below 200 should suffice outside.

Use a low F#. With the kit lens (14-42) I keep it from 3.5-5.6 aka, unzoomed-zoomed.

Other than that, shoot in raw and fix whatever else in pp.

Look below for a few of my shots.

[Jim Bryant]

why are you shooting ISO 1600 in the evening light? That's unless you're using the 70-300mm f5.6 lens. Your f-stops should be lower like 5.6 so that you have a shallow depth of field. when using f16 the background is pretty distracting.

[sascha]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

why are you shooting ISO 1600 in the evening light? That's unless you're using the 70-300mm f5.6 lens. Your f-stops should be lower like 5.6 so that you have a shallow depth of field. when using f16 the background is pretty distracting.

I was using the 70-300 lens, pictures turn up shaky if I don't have it at iso 800 without a tripod for just regular shots, so like I said I'm not too familiar with shooting action and was just messing around. I took about 100 shots at different settings. Tomight he has another game so we'l see how they turn out. Thanks to everyone's input.

[Jim Bryant]

You could always go out and get a monopod. But you might have to get an attachment for that lens. There's not a monopod/tripod ring build in for that particular lens like the 70-200, 300mm and above lenses.

The monopod would fit underneath the camera body but it would be hard to take vert. pictures.

[mikedugganphotography]

Originally Posted by sascha

Thanks mike, I'll try all this next time. Looks like my shutter speed was way off! So do you typically shoot in manual? I was in shutter priority so then the camera decided the aperture for me. And does shooting in vivid make a difference?
Thanks again!

I normally shoot in Aperture Priority. I tend to shoot many shoots in vivid and sometimes the photos come out a bit over saturated.