Basketball Shots

[Plattinum3000]

I am currently at a double-header basketball tournament where my sister is playing. I am posting this from the iPhone app to see if I can get some quick help. What kind of aperture/ss/iso combos should I be using. My Len is the Nikkor 55-300 f/5.6 there is no natural light and I'm trying manual mode with 1/500 f/5.6 400 ISO and the shots are very dark. The body is a d3100 if it helps. Thanks in advance.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

The highest ISO that your body can handle and the slowest shutter possible to freeze the action. Looks like you're shooting at the widest aperture your lens allows already, so try 1/250 or 1/125 and ISO 800. Snap a couple test shots, review on site, look closely for motion blur/etc. Zoom in to look at the noise as well. 800 might be starting to push the D3100. find the sweet spot that you're happy with.

If you do this a lot, consider getting a zoom 2.8.

 

[Plattinum3000]

The highest ISO that your body can handle and the slowest shutter possible to freeze the action. Looks like you're shooting at the widest aperture your lens allows already, so try 1/250 or 1/125 and ISO 800. Snap a couple test shots, review on site, look closely for motion blur/etc. Zoom in to look at the noise as well. 800 might be starting to push the D3100. find the sweet spot that you're happy with.

Thank you so much, it's still a little dark(I can touch it up after on photoshop), and as far as I can tell, no noise.

 

[greybeard35 8]

I would max out the iso, set the lens to wide open and go with aperture priority.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

The highest ISO that your body can handle and the slowest shutter possible to freeze the action. Looks like you're shooting at the widest aperture your lens allows already, so try 1/250 or 1/125 and ISO 800. Snap a couple test shots, review on site, look closely for motion blur/etc. Zoom in to look at the noise as well. 800 might be starting to push the D3100. find the sweet spot that you're happy with.

Thank you so much, it's still a little dark(I can touch it up after on photoshop), and as far as I can tell, no noise.

You're welcome. Good luck.

 

[gsgary]

Don't worry there will be loads of noise if you are under exposing, basically your lens is not up to shooting low light

 

[12sndsgood]

Not sure how different the D3000 is from the D3100 but poor low light performance was one of the main reasons I ended up upgrading.

 

[KmH]

Don't worry there will be loads of noise if you are under exposing, basically your lens is not up to shooting low light

True, but noise beats blurry.