Sports pictures at night

mroe

I have a Canon Rebel EOS DS6041. In the sports mode, in the day time it freezes action just fine. But at night, the pictures are bluring. I know there must be some settings in the manual mode that I must change. Can someone reccommend some settings to use?

HarveyMushman

mroe wrote:

I have a Canon Rebel EOS DS6041. In the sports mode, in the day time it freezes action just fine. But at night, the pictures are bluring. I know there must be some settings in the manual mode that I must change. Can someone reccommend some settings to use?

There is less light to work with at night ( ). When you set your camera to "Sports" mode you are telling it to favor faster shutter speeds, in order to capture action. To do that the camera has to open the lens aperture wider in order to compensate for the abbreviated shutter speeds. The aperture will only open so far, so eventually the camera has to slow the shutter speeds to get the right exposure. As the shutter speeds slow down, you'll have more trouble capturing action. This is especially a problem when using a zoom lens, as the lens' magnifying effect makes it harder to capture a clear image.

So, we need more info from you. Which lens are you using? What is the ISO setting? Is the object of your pictures close? Can you use a flash?

Hope this helps.

mroe

I'm using a 75-300m zoom lens, to far for a flash, and in the "auto-sports mode" i believe it picks it's own iso setting.

HarveyMushman wrote:

There is less light to work with at night ( ). When you set your camera to "Sports" mode you are telling it to favor faster shutter speeds, in order to capture action. To do that the camera has to open the lens aperture wider in order to compensate for the abbreviated shutter speeds. The aperture will only open so far, so eventually the camera has to slow the shutter speeds to get the right exposure. As the shutter speeds slow down, you'll have more trouble capturing action. This is especially a problem when using a zoom lens, as the lens' magnifying effect makes it harder to capture a clear image.

So, we need more info from you. Which lens are you using? What is the ISO setting? Is the object of your pictures close? Can you use a flash?

Hope this helps.

pathfinder

mroe wrote:

I'm using a 75-300m zoom lens, to far for a flash, and in the "auto-sports mode" i believe it picks it's own iso setting.

You always need to know what your aperature and shutter speed are - Only YOU - not the camera- can evaluate whether the shutter speed and aperature are what you need
Your maximum aperature with this the 70-300 zoom is probably f5.6 at 300mm. Not very fast. What is the light like? Are you indoors? CAN you usea flash - that is, is flash PROHIBITED?

Your choices include 1. increase your ISO to 1600
2. buy a faster lens
3. increase the ambient lighting or use flash - Like a "Better Beamer" see google
4. Use a tripod and shoot when the action is not moving....
5. Get closer to the action and use a lower telephoto that has a larger aperature.

Anyone else have any other suggestions?

cletus

pathfinder wrote:

You always need to know what your aperature and shutter speed are - Only YOU - not the camera- can evaluate whether the shutter speed and aperature are what you need
Your maximum aperature with this the 70-300 zoom is probably f5.6 at 300mm. Not very fast. What is the light like? Are you indoors? CAN you usea flash - that is, is flash PROHIBITED?

Your choices include 1. increase your ISO to 1600
2. buy a faster lens
3. increase the ambient lighting or use flash - Like a "Better Beamer" see google
4. Use a tripod and shoot when the action is not moving....
5. Get closer to the action and use a lower telephoto that has a larger aperature.

Anyone else have any other suggestions?

Nope, I think you covered everything.

I did want to add a funny story though. I shot college hoops a couple times when SI had a photographer at the game. I was shooting ambient light on T-Max 3200 at f2.8. He was shooting with strobes on Fujichrome at ISO 200 at f2.8. I've got a couple negs where my shutter was open when his strobes fired. Needless to say, those negatives aren't usable