Indoor sports and flash

candyman44256

I'm shooting our HS volleyball action pics for a banner and wanted great clarity so I thought using flash would be the best avenue.

I typically shoot VB action with my 85mm f/1.8 on the sidelines but have shoot at 3200 ISO to keep my shutter above 800 and then I run them through noise ninja to cleam them up a bit. I was trying to get ultra clear close ups for the banner.

I have a Canon 7D and a 580EXII and set up a dressed practice with the coach and shot many pics that looked great in the camera but turned fuzzy when zoomed in on.

I was using my 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM at 2.8 and 3.5 and don't understand what I did wrong or if I have another problem.

AV Mode, shutter speed of 250 and 400 ISO, auto white balance, evaluative metering....

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

cecilc

candyman44256 wrote: »

I have a Canon 7D and a 580EXII and set up a dressed practice with the coach and shot many pics that looked great in the camera but turned fuzzy when zoomed in on.

Scott

Post a sample if you can .... it would be good to see what you've described as "fuzzy" .....

I've got some ideas, but seeing one of your images would help ....

candyman44256

Cecilc,

Please go to my site and use DG (all caps) to get into this gallery.

http://yourkidsinaction.smugmug.com/Special/DG-Help/13465398_3DS4X#980339680_3LbMa

Thank you for your reply. I'm heading into work right now and won't see your reply til morning.

Thanks!

Scott

nipprdog

candyman44256 wrote: »

AV Mode, shutter speed of 250 and 400 ISO, auto white balance, evaluative metering....

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

Even with a flash, ISO 400 is too low for indoors.

candyman44256

I'm pretty flash illiterate, I admit! Do you think that is the problem all together?

Scott

Mr. 2H2O

Scott,
From my view I think I see two issues you may consider to compensate for:

1. Focus area
2. Subject movement

For item 1, I would recommend setting up F4.0 or F5.6 and prefocus or manual focus on the subject. It appears to me that sometimes the camera focuses on maybe a girl's arm while she is preparing to hit the ball so when you press the shutter button, the action is OOF.

For the second one, your camera has some max shutter speed that it can record flash synch. I personally use manual flashes so I can free my shutter speed up to 1/320 (normally my camera sync is 1/180 on my Olympus E-510). Higher than that, the mirror doesn't get back down it time. Perhaps getting the flash off-camera can help you. I have used the cheap Ebay triggers for years with multiple flashes and they work just fine.

ISO400 is not your issue - the ISO in summary sets the sensitivity to light and if your composition is entirely lit by your flash, you can create as much or as little light as you want from the flash. The gym lights are generally a totally different color from the flash so there will be some discrepancy in the reflected light. The closer you move the subject to the background, the less effect from the awful gym lights.

I think item 1 above may be the primary issue for the fuzzy pics.

Mike

donek

I shoot Nikon. Nikon provides a focus setting that only permits the shutter to release if I have focus lock. It would appear that your camera is firing whenever you press the shutter release. Setting up to only allow it to fire when it has your subject in focus can be annoying initially as you think you keep missing shots. But as long as you realize it would have been garbage anyway you learn to work with the camera. Instead of throwing it away in post, you never got it so you don't have to. I think this is your biggest issue. Read your manual and get it set to save you time in post.

The on camera flash is casting shadows. It's adequately illuminating your subject, but leaving the BG underexposed. Off camera or bounce is far better. If you can get more than one, that will help. Cheap e-bay/cactus triggers are great.