S5200 settings for action photos?

[smithkt]

I am in the process of evaluating an S5200 so I am trying to take as many photos as I can in the typical situations I expect to use it. Let me be clear that I am am absolute neophite when it comes to photography in general. My prior experience has been limited to your cheap 35mm point and shoot and I also have an Olympus Stylus 300 which can only take decent outdoor photos on sunny days. I have spent the better part of the last month reading several of the more popular digicam sites and forums trying to educate myself on the terminology. I'd like to think of myself as a fairly bright guy, but the concept of aperature, shutter speed and ISO is just still a little out of my grasp. I'm hoping someone here can give me that final push into clarity. :)

Here is what I think I understand:

Aperature relates to the size of the opening on the lense. A lower F number translates into a larger opening. The larger the opening, the more light allowed to pass to the sensor. Aperature size also determines depth of field with a larger aperature meaning a more shallow depth of field, though to be honest, I don't know why.

ISO is a rating system which defines the light sensitivity of the sensor. The higher the number, the more sensitive to light meaning less light is needed.

Shutter speed is the amount of time the sensor is exposed to light. Defined by seconds or fractions of a second. The faster the shutter speed the less time the sensor is exposed to the lightsource. Faster shutter speeds provide the ability to stop action.

So, assuming I have this understood properly, if I want to take an "action" photo in a setting which does not permit flash photography what would you suggest as a starting point for experimentation.

Is one of these three more heavily weighted than the others? Is there any rule of thumb I could use as a guide when trying to detemine the correct setup?

Here is a hypothetical situation to see if I understand this properly.

It would seem that as long as the shallow depth of field is acceptable, the first thing I would want to do is set the aperature to F3.2 as this will allow the most light to pass. Let's assume that I next set the ISO to 400 and the shutter speed to 1/250. Given these settings, if I take a picture which appears to correctly stop the motion, but the resulting photo is very dark, what is the correct setting to adjust? Do I try adjusting the shutter speed to a lower value exposing the sensor for a longer period (assuming it is still fast enough to stop the action) or do I increase the ISO speed to make the sensor more light sensitive? How would you approach the situation. Remember that flash is prohibited so you must rely on available light only. Typically this would be flouresent lighting in a gym.

[Balrog]

You've got the basics down pretty well.
ISO you can look at as simply 'amplification' .. it's like turning up the volume on the sensor. If you double the ISO, then the camera produces a twice-brighter picture, leaving everything else constant. Of course, just as you get more hiss when you turn up speaker volume, higher ISO leads to 'image noise', which is basically tiny specks (possibly colored - depends on the sensor) all throughout your picture.

In your situation, instead of directly setting everything I'd suggest using Aperture Priority mode, setting the aperture to as large as it goes (F3.2, as you said), and setting the ISO as high as possible (or as high as you're comfortable with without the noise bothering you too much .. though the S5200 is better than other cameras in this respect, and you can get ISO1600, right?). This will make the camera pick as fast a shutter speed as it can and still get a proper exposure. So maybe it won't be able to get 1/250th of a second .. but even 1/100th or 1/60th would probably get you a (not great, but hopefully usable) picture.

If that still results in too much motion blur (athletes move FAST) .. the next thing you could try is dialing in some negative Exposure Compensation. This basically tells the camera that you want a darker picture. Since you've already set ISO and aperture, the only thing the camera can do is increase the shutter speed. -1 EC will double your shutter speed, but the picture will only be half as bright. -2 EC will quadruple shutter speed, but your picture will be 1/4th as bright. Still you can brighten them back up again in photoshop; note that this will increase the image noise even more. There are always tradeoffs.

[smithkt]

Thanks Balrog. For both the advice and the validation that I am not a moron. :D I'll try these suggestions out.