Canon 40D sports help - night football & gym sports

[BBPhoto]

D - I'll have to go with the majority here and say that 1/100 would not be fast enough. A car is one object where all the parts are moving at the same speed and in the same direction. Panning at relatively slow shutter speeds is great for those scenarios. In sports, you will have players making passes all around them and limbs and equipment will be flying everywhere in different directions and at different velocities, not to mention the other players. 1/100 will get you nothing more than a CF full of shots that could have been good. There will be exceptions where the chemistry will be right and you'll get a nice shot but I think 1/100 or even 1/125 is cutting it way too close. Anyway, just my 2 cents. Nice car shots, BTW! CW always does great stuff.

[JTL]

I guess my original typo was leaving the panning part off.

Any photographer worth their salt KNOWS that panning requires slower...not faster shutter speeds...so leaving the panning part out of your statement was a VERY BIG deal!

But (and what a big but it is)...the OP wasn't asking about panning situations. The question was specifically about "night football" and "gym sports". Show me an available light gym or field shot of action...such as a someone taking a jump shot...or multiple players moving in DIFFERENT directions taken at 1/100 that doesn't have motion blur. Wait, don't bother...because you won't be able to. It is simply not possible. Using the panned car shots as an example is mixing apples and oranges and substituting a specific photographic technique that's appropriate in a specific situation for another. Sorry if this sounds harsh...its not meant to be. I just want to make sure that the OP (and anyone else who happens to be reading this ) understands the difference in the techniques and their application and does not have unreasonable expectations that will lead to missed shots and needless dissatisfaction...

Really...try it yourself...set your shutter speed to 1/100...have two people you know run hard in different directions (flailing their limbs for dramatic effect)...take the shot...post the (guaranteed unsatisfactory) results here...(you know the rest! ). Panning will not help at all in this situation, which is the very type of situation the the OP was asking about. So, CW's car shots (while lovely) and the panning technique (while very accomplished) used to produce them are irrelevant regarding the OP's question (sorry...I know it sounds harsh once again...but it's true). A discussion of panning technique is an interesting and informative asside...but one that is more than likely to confuse the OP given the nature of the question.

So...to the OP: A stutter speed of 1/500 or faster...but, as Rich stated earlier...you still risk motion blur even at 1/500. If, even at ISO 1600 and your widest aperture, you can't get the shutter speed at least that high given the available light, then your fast action shots WILL have motion blur...guaranteed. If there's a little less light than you need and you are underexposing a little when setting the shutter speed fast enough, shoot RAW and you can probably get back an extra stop or two of light/brightness in post-processing, but that's a crap shoot (literally and figuratively).

C-Dub, if you're out there...care to comment?

I think the practical experience of CW's shots will save me from the crowfeast.

Would you like a glass of white wine with that?

[Honest Gaza]

Sorry Dennis....put me in the other camp too.

I've shot a lot of Tennis shots and there is no way that 1/100secs would be satisfactory. As previously mentioned, shots of cars is not the same as shots of people. All you have to do is look at the wheels of CW's shots....blurry as hell, but fortunately, they are uniform and moving in a constant arc around a specific point which gives a beautiful implied motion even though the car body is as sharp as a tack.....and let's not even mention the great lighting conditions in the full sunlight (unlike the lighting conditions that the OP alluded to)

A sportsman has hands and arms that move in several directions and will not be in sharp focus.

Eat the pie

[tobes11519]

tobes,

can you tell us if you have any other lenes or just the one that came on your 40D?

Thanks

Tim

I have two Sigma DG lenses - one is 28-70mm 1:2.8-4 and the
other is 70-300mm 1:4-5.6

[adam75south]

some of the best action shots are at slower shutter speeds(and i wish i wasn't too lazy to go find some), it's cool when you get motion blur on the arms and legs and sharp helmet.

i'd say crank it up to ISO1600 or 3200 and take what you can get. f/2.8 is as small as i'd go on aperture though.

[JTL]

some of the best action shots are at slower shutter speeds(and i wish i wasn't too lazy to go find some), it's cool when you get motion blur on the arms and legs and sharp helmet.

True...if you know what the heck you're doing and that's the effect you're going for...'cause if done wrong, it just looks like a crappy blurry image. Anyway, its just another sidetrack, because no one is doing those kind of shots in poorly lit gyms or poorly lit fields at night. Show us some quallity shots using that effect taken under those conditions and we'll all be really impressed.

The OP didn't ask "How do I get cool motion effects?"

Lest we forget the OP's original question, here it is once again...

"What settings will help me stay focused and keep my image still and sharp instead of blurry."

I do not hesitate to say that given the question, the the only answer is the faster the shutter speed the better. How you get there requires some good photographic knowledge and maybe some creative thinking. And, depending on how poor the actual lighting conditions are, the answer could be no "settings" are capable of achieving the goal. Does anyone really disagree with this? 'Cause if so, then I'm on a different site than I thought I was on or some of you have become pod people...

It's when settings don't get the job done that "technique" takes over...but that's an entirely different subject...

[D Thompson]

Well, gee, if everybody feels that strongly . I'm glad at least I said "or faster". Like I said, I haven't shot sports in a long time (22 years or so) so (a) my memory on my settings may be off or (b) in those 22 years high school athletes have progressed so much that they are so much faster that 1/125th won't do it anymore . I guess my thinking was that anything slower would definately be blurred. I did find a few college basketball shots at 1/250 & 1/320th that looked pretty good, but then maybe my eyes ain't what they used to be either , but I'll concede and agree on 1/500th or faster freezing the action.

To RichNY - I offer my apology for saying BS and being disagreeable.

To JTL - I'm off to chomp down the crow and wash it down with a Miller Lite. I hope you don't mind, I'm just not a white wine type of person .

To Adam75south - thanks for trying.

To all others - I will keep my views to myself concerning things I haven't shot in a period long enough to where I can't look at the exif and know what the hell I'm talking about.

[NewTekBuzz]

Well, gee, if everybody feels that strongly . I'm glad at least I said "or faster". Like I said, I haven't shot sports in a long time (22 years or so) so (a) my memory on my settings may be off or (b) in those 22 years high school athletes have progressed so much that they are so much faster that 1/125th won't do it anymore . I guess my thinking was that anything slower would definately be blurred. I did find a few college basketball shots at 1/250 & 1/320th that looked pretty good, but then maybe my eyes ain't what they used to be either , but I'll concede and agree on 1/500th or faster freezing the action.

To RichNY - I offer my apology for saying BS and being disagreeable.

To JTL - I'm off to chomp down the crow and wash it down with a Miller Lite. I hope you don't mind, I'm just not a white wine type of person .

To Adam75south - thanks for trying.

To all others - I will keep my views to myself concerning things I haven't shot in a period long enough to where I can't look at the exif and know what the hell I'm talking about.

Hey Dennis,
at least your big enough to step forward and apologize, good man you are!! If it wasnt for our views... all of us would have the same camera/lens/bags.. that would be NO FUN

Tim

[JTL]

To JTL - I'm off to chomp down the crow and wash it down with a Miller Lite. I hope you don't mind, I'm just not a white wine type of person .

I knew you had a keen sense of humor! .

Yeah, the white wine bit was just to be extra pretentious on my part! . I'm a big cranky PITA, I know...sorry...I know it comes across bad sometimes...but if people get a chuckle, well at least I can rationalize my behavior!

I don't think I've had a Miller Lite...this is a Bud Lite house...but if Miller Lite it is, then I'm buying (next time you're in NYC ).

[BBPhoto]

Hey Dennis,
at least your big enough to step forward and apologize, good man you are!!
Tim

No kidding! We may have been right on the technicalities of the issue but Dennis definitely showed us who the real wise one was in the end.