advice about settings action shots with a 100mm f/2 lens

[socmoe]

Hi all! I just bought a 100mm f/2 used off of the Bay and am excited to use it. I have been using my 50mm f/1.4 with my Canon T2i for my daughter's color guard competitions (think dance with rifles, sabres and flags being thrown around). The photos are okay but I really wanted some sharper, more up close photos so I went with this lens. Any advice on settings? The scenario is this:

typical HS gym for lighting
I can get as close as the front row if necessary
no room for tripod and don't have a monopod
no flash

I read somewhere someone using settings f/2 1/800 sec iso3200....does that sound like it would work?

TIA!

Maureen

 

[D-B-J]

Maureen,
There's no such thing as idea settings... it all depends on what light is there. Typically, in my experience, HS gyms are horribly horribly lit, in which case you will be pushing your gear to the limit. Ideally you'll want a shutter speed as close to 1/500th or more as you can get it, but that may be highly difficult, depending on your light. You will want a high shutter speed, wide open aperture, and as low ISO as you can manage. There's a reason most indoor sports photographers have thousands and thousands of dollars worth of gear.. because the lighting sucks!

Best of luck, and please don't be discouraged!

Best,
Jake

P.S. I may also be completely wrong, and the lighting may be WONDERFUL. In which case, I hope I am wrong.

 

[robbins.photo]

Hi all! I just bought a 100mm f/2 used off of the Bay and am excited to use it. I have been using my 50mm f/1.4 with my Canon T2i for my daughter's color guard competitions (think dance with rifles, sabres and flags being thrown around). The photos are okay but I really wanted some sharper, more up close photos so I went with this lens. Any advice on settings? The scenario is this:

typical HS gym for lighting
I can get as close as the front row if necessary
no room for tripod and don't have a monopod
no flash

I read somewhere someone using settings f/2 1/800 sec iso3200....does that sound like it would work?

TIA!

Maureen

Dancing with rifles. Haven't done that since I left the Army. Oh wait.. I'm not supposed to discuss that.. lol.

Probably your best bet would be to use shutter priority mode, select your shutter speed and let the camera pick the ISO it needs to get proper exposure. I'd probably start at a shutter speed of 500 or so and take some shots and see if that's sufficient to stop the motion to your liking. If not increase the shutter speed to say 1/640 and try again, if need be go to 1/800. The lower you can get the shutter speed the lower the ISO will be and the less noise you'll have to deal with in post.

Remember if your going to be shooting at F/2 or a similarly wide aperture that you'll need to consider the angle of your shots more, if your subject is at an angle the DOF will become more important than if your subject is facing you straight on and most of what you want in focus is on the same horizontal plane relative to the camera's sensor. If you need to shoot at an angle try backing up a bit further, the more distance you can put between you and the subject the more DOF you'll have to work with to keep the subject in clear focus.

 

[socmoe]

Tx DBJ and Robbins Photo! Yes, the lighting is not great...fortunately, where she mostly performs seems to be a lot better than the gym where she practices - that lighting is horrible. I will try out what you both suggested tomorrow night at practice before the show on Saturday. Tx for the tip, Robbins Photo about facing the subject...fortunately, I can usually get a good seat, almost anywhere I want so I think I will be somewhere right in the middle, 1st or 2nd row...fingers crossed......

I attached a shot I took last night, again, horrible lighting at the practice gym-again, this is with the 100mm f/2 (the ones I took at competition on auto with the 50mm f/1.4 came out much better!)...also, I attached the screenshot of the settings I used...any thoughts/advice are much appreciated!

Maureen

 

[Railphotog]

Questions such as this from digital camera users always puzzles me. If I were doing the shooting, I'd try different combinations then check the image on the LCD, magnifying to see if I've stopped the action and gotten good DOF. That's one of the major benefits of digital shooting - instant results so one can make adjustments.

 

[socmoe]

Good point! Guess I am looking for some easy "formula" with guaranteed results that I know I cannot find...

 

[socmoe]

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[TD="class: alt1, bgcolor: #EEEEED"]Here is a photo I took at the competition last weekend and I am pretty pleased. I was in the 3rd row and my daughter was maybe, 20 feet away. Any critiques/thoughts are welcomed!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/6645023...n/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/6645023...n/photostream/

Maureen
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[TD="class: alt1, bgcolor: #EEEEED, align: right"][/TD]
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[table1349]

Maureen,
There's no such thing as idea settings... it all depends on what light is there. Typically, in my experience, HS gyms are horribly horribly lit, in which case you will be pushing your gear to the limit. Ideally you'll want a shutter speed as close to 1/500th or more as you can get it, but that may be highly difficult, depending on your light. You will want a high shutter speed, wide open aperture, and as low ISO as you can manage. There's a reason most indoor sports photographers have thousands and thousands of dollars worth of gear.. because the lighting sucks!

Best of luck, and please don't be discouraged!

Best,
Jake

P.S. I may also be completely wrong, and the lighting may be WONDERFUL. In which case, I hope I am wrong.

I must respectfully disagree. There is such a thing as the ideal setting. Those are the settings that work. You have done a good job of explaining how to get to those ideal settings.

 

[robbins.photo]

Went to peruse the result on flickr but looks like you have them set to private so I wasn't able to view them.

 

[grafxman]

Here's how I shoot wildlife...come to think of it, everything else for that matter. I hope you find it useful. I set the camera to manual. This will allow me to use the camera like a fully automatic point and shoot camera with a viewfinder. That way I can concentrate on getting the picture instead of messing about with camera settings. I set the shutter speed appropriately to prevent blurring. I normally use Sigma lenses which have an excellent stability system. I set the aperture to around 8 if there is sufficient light. I open it wider if the light is not very bright. I have the camera set to focus with the back focus button only. That way when the camera is focused on the target and if the target does come closer or move away, it won't try to find another focus point and perhaps lock on to the wrong thing when taking the shot. The camera will now automatically select the appropriate ISO for the photo. You should be able to set your camera's ISO to not exceed a certain level, such as 3200. You may need to use the Canon DPP software to brighten the image and reduce any noise. Hopefully using your camera as I have described will work for you and allow you to get acceptable photos.

 

[Derrel]

I looked at the attached image, shot at ISO 3,200, and I think the high-ISO noise is unacceptable...the image is just barely there. I think the 1/800 shutter speed is too fast, inasmuch as it "cost you ISO value". I think the tradeoff of a 1/400 second shutter speed at ISO 1600 would be worth it.

On head-on movement, it does not take too much speed to stop a distant, small-in-finder subject, as she was in that frame. I think a BIT or maybe even a LOT of motion blur on whatever they happen to be twirling or whatever, would be preferable IF THE IMAGE QUALITY, on a color- and ISO-noise level, were better.

Hey...I do not mind a bit of blurring on sports movement...if lowering the ISO to 800 brings about the type of Image QUality boost I think it will, I'd be tempted to shoot at 1/200 second at f/2.8 --OR--- wide-open at f/2 at 1/400 second.

THere is a balancing point, a tipping point, if you will, between rendering motion and objectionable ISO noise. At longer distances, where the subject is not HUGE in the frame, there is plenty of depth of field from one end of the gym, or from the sidelines to the other sideline, with a 100mm lens at f/2 or f/2.2 or f/2.5.

I myself think the ISO 3200 performance of that camera, under that type of light, and that light level, is the worst offender. I think 1/800 is too high of a shutter speed for this activity, shot in that manner, from that distance, with that degree of magnification. I'd strongly suggest lowering the shutter speed as a way to get back toward better color, and a lot less noise. That might be ISO 1600, or it might be ISO 1250 or ISO 1000; do not discount 1/3 stop lowerings like 1250 or 2/3 stop drops from 1600--that can often be THE difference. You have 1/800; 1/640, 1/500;1/400; 1/320;1/250 third-stop speed increments. If your ISO can be adjusted in third-stop values (MOST can these days), I'd work on getting ISO down to where the Image Quality is...higher.

 

[socmoe]

Sorry all! My settings were set on private. I changed the, so they should be able to be accessed them now. I now will read the other posts a little slower...

 

[socmoe]

Thank you Derrel - I attached the photo and the settings I took last weekend and I think you will agree- it is MUCH better!

IMG_5002 ed | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

info | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[Derrel]

Sorry all! My settings were set on private. I changed the, so they should be able to be accessed them now. I now will read the other posts a little slower...

The lighting in this photo appears to be much better than in the practice area. All sizes | IMG_5002 ed | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The ISO noise at 1600 looks a LOT better than the original photo did.

 

[socmoe]

Yes, the lighting at the gym they usually have comeptitions at is so MUCH better than where they practice, thank goodness! I thought the noise was acceptable as well! Yay! Off to regionals in NJ tomorrow - a whole new gym to practice settings with...yahoo!