Going to see Lebron James I need some advice

[fatcat0911]

Hello all,

I have floor level seats for a upcoming Cleveland Cavs NBA game and I want to make sure I get some great shots of the players. I have a Olympus C-8080 which I absolutly love. Considering the fact that these NBA players can move about as fast as the speed of light, how should I take my pictures. Should I put the camera in sports mode? I am a little nervous of doing this because sometines when I shoot my 2 year old daughter running around at home in sports mode the pictures come out blurred like sports mode didn't default a fast enough shutter speed. Should I put the camera in manual mode and use a really fast shutter speed. If so what speed should I use. Please help. These will be the best seats I will ever get to a sporting event in my life and I want to make sure I get the best possible pictures. Two all who reply to this, thank you in advance.

fatcat0911

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

I'd make sure that you are allowed to take photos at the game...you don't want your camera taken away.

If the action is right in front of you, less than 15-20 feet, you may be able to use your flash to freeze the action...that might make the players mad though...and you don't want them coming into the stands after you. :roll: If you are shooting farther than that...you should probably disable the flash.

You will want shutter speeds of at least 1/250. Maybe 1/125 if the player is not moving too fast. The problem with speeding up the shutter is that you are letting in less light...so your aperture has to open up farther. That not a problem until it gets dark enough that your maximum aperture is just not big enough to shoot at a fast enough shutter speed. I'm guessing that's what happened with the shots of your daughter.

Rather than sports mode. I would suggest that you set your camera to shutter priority mode (if you can). You set the shutter speed and the camera adjust the aperture to get the proper exposure. If it's too dark the number might flash or something to let you know that it can't open the aperture any farther. Check your manual.

If you can't set your shutter to 1/250 or even 1/125...you might still be able to get some good shots when the players are standing relatively still. You might get some motion blur in their hands or the ball...but that might just make for more interesting shots.

Have Fun.

 

[surfingfireman]

FatCat,

I went to a Raptors-Wizards game a couple years ago when Jordan was playing for Washington. I had decent seats (about 20 rows up) but not even close to as good as yours. Using a pretty slow 70-210 zoom lense, I sitll managed to get some decent shots as long as I factored in the speed of the game. I would try to get players at the peak of a jump shot , standing dribbling, high fiving each other, and of course, any shot of Jordan possible.

Along the lines of what BigMike said about using shutter priority, I often select aperture priority instead. Choose the largest aperture you can, then the camera will automatically choose the fastest possible shutter speed.

I took about 20 shots and was happy enough with around 8 of them and 100% happy with 2. My usual % of shots per roll that I am happy with.

Good luck and try to enjoy the game despite the photo attempts. I did, the Raptors won on a last second shot....

C-YA

Mike