Help with Nikon D3000

[bignosehead]

I am so new to all of this and I see the learning curve is pretty huge! My wife & I bought this camera mainly for our children's sports events. We have a daughter in gymnastics, son in football, and another daughter in soccer. Our point and shoot camera was just not getting the job done. I took some pictures at my daughter's soccer game the other night with the 55-200VR lens. The game was just before dusk on a mostly cloudy day. I used the "sports action" setting and the pictures turned out horribly. Any suggestions on what I did wrong? Please help! I attached a few pics to show how terrible of a photographer I really am.

[TheWengler]

First resize the pics so we can see them.

Higher ISO and larger aperture (lower f/stop) will help you increase your SS. You'll probably need a large aperture lens for night games and indoor sports

[bignosehead]

Thanks for the info! I resized the images, hopefully not too small now, so you can get a look at them. Thanks again and any further info would be great!

[jcon]

Now that you posted the correct size, how about removing the over sized ones in the first post so people dont have to scroll back and forth to read posts.

[bignosehead]

I can do that. Just now realized it puts them in the body of the post and not as a downloadable file. Any thoughts on improving my pictures?

[David Metsky]

Push the ISO higher and/or get a faster lens.

[britkev]

As mentioned above, open aperture wide and bump up your ISO to increase shutter speed... but you'll probably want to look at a faster (larger aperture) lens, since at 200mm your 55-200 is only f/5.6.

Be aware that fast long lenses are not cheap.

[RichNY]

The lens you bought will take great pictures on bright sunny days; with the amount of light you had when you took these images you would really have required a tripod just for taking sharp images of stationary objects.

For these type of pictures you want to be shooting at f/2.8 with a lens such as the Nikon 70-200 VR or an older 80-200. For action shots not having VR won't be an issue. In addition to getting non-blurred images a faster lens such as f/2.8 will allow you to take a picture of your child and have the background appear as sharp and distracting.

The prices for new lenses range from about $800 for a Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 to a bit over $5000 for a Nikon 200 f/2. There is a big market for used glass and I'm sure that people on this forum can point you to pre-owned glass that sells for about 25% less than new.

[bignosehead]

Thanks for all the great information!

[K1W1]

It's too dark and the subjects are too far away.

Your shutter speeds with the available lens aperture (5.6 on two photos and 4 in the other), and choice of iso (800) are simply too slow for anything moving. Your shutter speeds are 1/20 - 1/60 second, they need to be AT LEAST 1/250 for small children in Soccer, even then it's marginal but you will get usable images.

To follow on from Richs lens suggestion here is s cheaper option. Rather than lay out a huge amount for a lens at this stage accept the fact that you won't be able to capture all the action at night and buy yourself a 50mm f1.8 lens then stand somewhere near where your daughter plays and only take photos when she is reasonably close to you. To get a lens like this that will focus with your D3000 you will need to look at the new AF-S Nikon lens or a Sigma version unfortunately the cheaper $100 Nikon lens will not focus automatically on your camera. The 55-200 lens that you have will work fine for daylight games.
If your daughter is still playing in a year or two and you still want to take photos then at that stage look at investing in a fast zoom lens.

Edited to change the lens back to something more manageable. :-)

[eddie_dane]

...and buy yourself a 500mm f1.8 lens...

I think (hope) he means 50mm. :D

[rawpaw18]

Who knows with him anymore, he has been spending too much time with Rooz.;)

[AMDnut]

I agree with others here, the 55-200 is just to slow for these type of shots. I have a D40 and have used a friends 55-200 and these type of shots need faster glass.

You might want to look at the new 35mm AFS DX f/1.8 from Nikon. It will auto focus on your D3000 and will be fast enough to catch these type of pics. You will have to use your feet for zoom however! :D

This lens runs around $200 from Amazon but is hard to find in stock as it is in high demand right now.

[gubba]

Hi,

Can I get good phots of this kind with D3000 and the lens "18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens - Nikon"??

or can I get with D5000 and 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens - Nikon???

please suggest...

Thanks In Advance...
Gubba

[Screenclutter]

Hi,

Can I get good phots of this kind with D3000 and the lens "18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens - Nikon"??

or can I get with D5000 and 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens - Nikon???

please suggest...

Thanks In Advance...
Gubba

Sports photos as shown in earlier posts where you are at a distance-no
You need the lenses suggested in RichNY's response, which is partially quoted below.




For these type of pictures you want to be shooting at f/2.8 with a lens such as the Nikon 70-200 VR or an older 80-200.

The prices for new lenses range from about $800 for a Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 to a bit over $5000 for a Nikon 200 f/2.