Bonds: no HR, Me: no good pics. HELP!

jennifer

I'm still struggling with shooting nighttime baseball. I have no choice but to crank the ISO up to 800 which yields ridiculously poor results on my 300D. But even at 800 I'm only shooting between 1/500s-1/800s. Is there any hope?? :dunno

This one was taken with the 1.4xTC so granted it's at f/4 (1/800s) and very soft


Here we are with no TC, f/2.8, 1/800s but still unacceptable (so was the intentional walk)


1/640s, f/2.8


1/640s


At this point I started underexposing but ultimately got nothing out of it
1/800s


1/800s


Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I love shooting baseball but at night it's just maddening! I have been thinking about upgrading to a 30D for a while. Is its ISO 800 more usable?

Thanks for looking.

thegridrunner

are you using a tripod or monopod?

jennifer

thegridrunner wrote:

are you using a tripod or monopod?

No, no mono- or tripods are allowed in the stadium. Which is why a press pass wouldn't hurt

DRGSin

Have you tried using any noise reduction on the images? The unfortanate truth is that the lighting situation you encountered will necessitate a true 2.8 f stop. The speed of the game, at that level, will necessitate shutter speeds in access of 1500-2000 in order to stop the action, and your ISO values will most likely always be 800 and above. When faced with these scenarios heres what I try to do.
#1 Proper exposure- a properly exposed photo will keep some of the noise that higher ISOs introduce to a minimum. Be vigilante about checking your histogram. Ive seen some incredible shots at 1600 and 3200 with proper exposure.
#2 Try to fill at least 2/3 of the viewfinder with the subject matter. Either use long fast lenses or move close to the action. Having to Crop away the dead space after the fact will accentuate the noise.
#3 Judicious use of a noise reduction software.

Theres a reason the guys getting paid for their work are found up close to the action with $10,000+ lenses and $8,000 cameras. The rest of us have to play the game within our boundaries and achieve less than perfect results...not to say that we cant turn out some nice work, but we just have to know ,understand and accept our limits.

My biggest distraction from your photos was that darn net!!:D

Art Scott

thegridrunner wrote:

are you using a tripod or monopod?

Due to most fire/safety codes most venues do not allow the gen. [uvlic to have pods of any sort.....trip hazards.......just one of the reasons they site.....