Indoor Basketball photos

[wes2112]

I have been trying to take photos of my nephew playing basketball without much luck, exposure and picture easily blur. I have a canon digital rebel slr. I need help with setting either one of the preset or manual and what might be best. I know I need to understand these betters but have not had much time to research it.

[talleyfamilyphotography]

First of all, let me say that you'll be hard-pressed to get settings that work well without resorting to flash and/or a fairly expensive lens. Not knowing what lens or lenses you own, I'll assume you have something like the kit lens that it probably came with.

The best you will probably be able to do is the following:

1. Turn on camera, turn dial to Av (Aperture Priority).

2. On the rear of the camera, press the button marked ISO. Looking at the rear display just below the viewfinder, turn the roller on the front of the camera until you get to 800. Press the ISO button again.

3. Looking at the same display, you'll see the current aperture setting on the display. It will probably be some number such as 5.6, etc. Turn the roller to make the number smaller until it won't go any smaller. For example, if you ahve the kit lens mounted and it is zoomed to its widest setting (18mm), you should be able to roll the aperture down to 3.5.

4. Focus on a player on the court or other similar object and half-press the shutter button. In the display, it should show the shutter speed that the camera calculated for the given conditions and other settings.

If you are fortunate that it is high enough to be in the 250 (1/250th second) range or larger, you'll get some pretty decent shots. If it is still a low number like 60, 30, or lower, then the basketball court is simply not well-lit enough to get decent shots with your current equipment. Alternatives at this point are a faster lens (one rated for a maximum aperture of f/2.8 or larger - smaller number, such as f/1.8 or f/1.4 ) and/or resorting to the use of flash.

Also, if you are panning with the moving players and trying to click off a frame while moving with them, you'll more than likely blur everything. Try waiting until the players move into the frame and firing off a fast shot or two.

[pathfindar]

If you can get at least a Canon 430EX flash- and get fairly close to the floor- you could probably get some shots with it.

You can also get a hack for the camera's firmware and jump up the ISO to 1600 or 3200. A lot of grain, but cheaper than a flash. Just do a search on Canon firmware hack.

[jdepould]

Flash isn't allowed at most athletic events, so that's probably out. Max the ISO, and try to do the rest in post-processing. You'd be surprised what kind of shots you can pull out. Also, I usually set the AF to dynamic area and continuous focus, that way it has the best chance of being in focus. Shutter speeds below 1/125 are probably going to get motion blur.

Here's my sports gallery (same environment), right now it just has volleyball, but I'll be posting basketball this weekend. These shots are a bit noisy, but they were for the school paper, so I had a little bit more latitude since the print quality isn't all that high.

http://www.pbase.com/jdepould/sports

[talleyfamilyphotography]

All the other responses reminded me, too. If you can shoot in RAW mode, you can get a couple more stops out of the shots in post-processing. That will let you actually shoot a little darker (roll the EV to -1, for example) and brighten up the final images with little loss. Two stops in post-processing gives you 4x the shutter speed for essentially the same results.

[jdepould]

All the other responses reminded me, too. If you can shoot in RAW mode, you can get a couple more stops out of the shots in post-processing. That will let you actually shoot a little darker (roll the EV to -1, for example) and brighten up the final images with little loss. Two stops in post-processing gives you 4x the shutter speed for essentially the same results.

I don't know if I'd go a full stop under at high ISO because of noise, -.5 or -.7 depending on how your camera counts. I totally forgot about RAW, I just assume everyone shoots RAW then converts to JPEG later like I do.

[talleyfamilyphotography]

True. With an original DRebel (300D), ISO 800 is pretty noisy even when well exposed. Maybe at ISO 400, but then, you've lost the stop you gained via RAW.

[jdepould]

True. With an original DRebel (300D), ISO 800 is pretty noisy even when well exposed. Maybe at ISO 400, but then, you've lost the stop you gained via RAW.

Might be a net gain though, because you'll have less noise to worry about in the first place, therefore you'll have more latitude.

[wes2112]

has some luck, iso 800 and adjusted the aperature. Not all pictures turned out but a lot better success and a lot better color. Thanks for the help. have another game with him Saturday Morning. I will let you know how it turns out. Thanks

[jdepould]

has some luck, iso 800 and adjusted the aperature. Not all pictures turned out but a lot better success and a lot better color. Thanks for the help. have another game with him Saturday Morning. I will let you know how it turns out. Thanks

Glad to hear that! Regardless of what you're shooting some pictures just aren't going to turn out and athletic events aren't exactly easy, so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

[jdepould]

My indoor bball shots:










Apologies for the lack of EXIF, but I email them in and try to minimize file size. All shots were taken with my 70-300VR @ 1/125 and wide open.