Need advice for indoor sports

Pete405

I been taking a ton of pictures at cheerleading competitions and I'm wondering what a suitable lens would be to get better quality pics.

These competitions are always indoors with very high "warehouse style" lighting and that seems to be my biggest obstical.(besides skill) LOL

right now I am using a 40-150 1:3.5-4.5



here a re a few I have taken.

zavalacv

lenses
first, that brand are you shooting with? it also depends on how close you are able to get to the action. When shooting sports my bread and butter lens is a 70-200mm f2.8 i believe both canon and nikon have a similar lens. also if you can get very close a fixed lens such as a 50mm f1.2(or 1.4 depending on how much money you have to spend) or a 85mm f1.4

the key is the bigger apeture, it will cost a lot more but it is needed to stop the action in a dark room. you can also raise your ISO, try not to go above 1600 and keep your shutter speed as high as possible

KMCC

I'd recommend investing in an f/2.8 lens, something like a 70-200. Sigma has a f/2.8 120-300mm lens that is very sharp.

With anything less than f/2.8 you're going to have trouble capturing enough light to freeze the action.

Ann McRae

Indoor sports are really tough, because you are dealing with poor light, fast action and usually a color cast from the lighting and the gym floor.

I started indoor soccer shooting with a Canon 20d and the 85mmf1.8. Fantastic lens, as it grabs focus so much quicker than others.

I have used the 135mmf2 at soccer as well.

I recently tried the 50mmf1.4 for badminton and the 70 - 200mmf2.8 (plus the others) for Highland dance.

They all have pluses and minuses, but the bottom line is still big aperture, high ISO to get fast shutter speed.

The ISO is a big factor. With my 1dMkII, for both badminton and indoor soccer, I have found it necessary to use ISO 3200. Shots are noisy and that limits print sizes from them.

I don't know cheerleading so cannot comment on how to position yourself for good shots. That is knowledge that comes with knowing your sport!

ian408

Folks. Let's keep the remarks confined to the topic at hand please.

If you cannot, then don't comment.

Pete405

Would like to start off by saying thanks for removing the useless comment made earlier(there's one in every forum)

I think i should have gave a little more info but you guys seemed to already answered the question.

I am shooting with an Olympus E-500 (working on getting a Canon 40D) The E isn't the greatest camera but it has been getting the job done for now, and I have learned alot with this camera.. I usually have to keep the iso at 1000 for indoor but as you can see , the feet and/or hands still get a blur with the fast moving action. (which is why i posted the shots that i did.)
I think the 70-200 2.8 is also what another person that takes cheer pics referred me to.

Bad part is that Olympus lenses are expensive and hard to come by used....which is another reason i'm switching to canon.

In the meantime, I will keep my eyes open on ebay for a 70-200 for my Olympus.

(I should of got my daughters into tennis instead......Much easier to shoot outdoors)

Thanks for all your help and input, I'm sure I will be asking for more in the future

Pete

ian408

Looking at these, they are all a bit soft. A faster lens would allow you to increase the shutter speed which should help with sharpness. There's not much else you can do in low light--you're already pushing your camera with respect to ISO.

If you're shooting from a raked floor, you might want to take a few steps up so as to not have to shoot up at the stage--it'd also allow you to capture more of the team in your shots.

Rocketman766

also takes a ton of cheerleading pics indoors..
I have posted a few threads here in the sports forum about indoor cheerleading and taking the photos. I know what you mean about the lighting and it stinks. My daughter has been doing this for the last 5 yrs and I just started taking photos seriously.

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=121784

Take a look at this posting and see if you can use anything from it. I learned alot from the people here, even some that don't shoot cheerleading, but they know their stuff....
There is a link to my first thread inside this thread (first post). You can take a look at my smug mug site (link in the sig) to see if I have made any progress. Good luck and maybe we will end up shooting the same event some day ( so far I have not seen anyone else with a smugmug strap at the cheer events...)

by the way, I am using a Canon Xsi with no flash (you know the cheer rules...) and have used a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM (with the IS turned off), a 100mm f/2.0 USM, and a 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM. Depending on where I could position myself.

b08rsa

KMCC wrote:

I'd recommend investing in an f/2.8 lens, something like a 70-200. Sigma has a f/2.8 120-300mm lens that is very sharp.

With anything less than f/2.8 you're going to have trouble capturing enough light to freeze the action.

For what it is worth... Here are some samples of my shots. This is with a Sigma 70-200 f.2.8 HSM. I use an Oly E-510 body.

1. Indoor Soccer Bad lighting ISO 1600 I believe


2. Outdoor Soccer. Picture taken about 6:30 pm EDT. 3/13/09

Pete405

Thanks...All your replys have helped out a bunch... I was about to invest in a 7--200 2.8 but i decided to wait because i am making the switch over to a Canon 40D and i will buy the lens for the canon instead... Passing this Olympus E-500 down to my daughter as it still takes amazing pictures (especially outdoors)

polyya

Hi Pete, i use to work with sharpen lenses like 2,8 or 1,4 trying to shoot under 800 iso and using point metering on the highest lights on this shot i was using a D1H, long time ago but if you see the exiff will tell you the same of the above details. I don´t know what kind of lenses Olympus offer but maybe they´re cheaper than Nikon or Cannon, make a search on ebay or anything like. Have a nice shooting next time hope to see the good results next time buddy.