How can I get good action photos indoors?

[Tailgunner]

This article might be of interest. Probably not the type of advice you were hoping for, but it provides some perspective on the challenges faced in this particular scenario.

Strobist: On Assignment: Prep Basketball

How interesting, this person is placing Strobes and remote SB's all over a gym and bleachers during a basketball game. Their braver than me. So is a flash fast enough for indoor sports?

 

[robbins.photo]

This article might be of interest. Probably not the type of advice you were hoping for, but it provides some perspective on the challenges faced in this particular scenario.

Strobist: On Assignment: Prep Basketball

How interesting, this person is placing Strobes and remote SB's all over a gym and bleachers during a basketball game. Their braver than me. So is a flash fast enough for indoor sports?

My guess is he's some sort of official team photographer that works with the school - you try something like that at one of my daughters games and you'd never make it through the front door with all that crap.. lol

 

[Tailgunner]

This article might be of interest. Probably not the type of advice you were hoping for, but it provides some perspective on the challenges faced in this particular scenario.

Strobist: On Assignment: Prep Basketball

How interesting, this person is placing Strobes and remote SB's all over a gym and bleachers during a basketball game. Their braver than me. So is a flash fast enough for indoor sports?

My guess is he's some sort of official team photographer that works with the school - you try something like that at one of my daughters games and you'd never make it through the front door with all that crap.. lol

Ya, I couldn't imagine carrying all that gear to our son's basketball game. I'm doing good just to carry my D7100 & 70-200mm 2.8 lol

 

[table1349]

To the OP. You may not want to hear but there is a simple formula for taking sports shots, especially indoors. It is simple. Fast glass, Fast glass, Fast Glass, plus a good understanding of the body you are using and the trade offs you are going to have to accept to get photos from indoors events.

Fast glass is not cheap, but is allows you to get the required shutter speed of at least 1/250th a second to begin to freeze motion. 1/320th to 1/500th would be better. To do this you need to shoot pretty close to if not wide open with fast glass. To do this it is going to cost money. I shoot sports and I easily have $25,000 + tied up in bodies and lenses. Mostly in lenses.

For shooting you own kid you don't need to spend that much, but you will need to get away from that whole "one lens to do it all" idea. This is photography not some J.R.R. Tolkien novel about the one ring and middle earth.

For volleyball you would be best served with something in the 50mm to 85mm f1.8 range that is sharp and had a fast focus motor. You might get away with a 35mm lens if the conditions are right. I shoot Canon so I can't speak to the better Nikon lenses in that range. The other alternative is a 70-200 f2.8. For my tastes f2.8 is a little slow for school gyms be it Jr. High or High School. Most are dark dungeons. I will use a 200 mm f2 for indoor basketball and such with Division 1 colleges on a second body, but I am generally shooting shorter glass from the end I want to capture the action.

If you can get something in that 50 to 85mm range get down on the floor court side or sit on the floor in front of the bottom bleacher. Shot low and anticipate your shots. For greater detail on shooting indoor sports try the search function. There are several threads that have detailed explanations for shooting both indoors and out.

 

[robbins.photo]

This is photography not some J.R.R. Tolkien novel about the one ring and middle earth.

Wait, so that kid with the big feet selling those $700 screw on wide angle lenses door to door..

Arggh.. Damn...

 

[weepete]

Simple problem, your shutter speed is too low to capture the movvementvwithout motion blur. The simplest way to fix it is to up your shutter speed and seeing as it's kids your shooting you could probably get away with 1/250 sec or 1/320 sec, but you might need more. This'll mean you need to bump up your ISO to get a proper exposure however a grainy photograph is better than a blurry one. Noise reduction software is pretty decent at removing it in post.

I've shot a bit of basketball following my local team where I usually take my camera. In a well lit arena I can get away with the consumer grade zoom shooting at 1/800 sec @ f4.5, auto ISO (which usually ends up around the 2000-5000 mark), CWA metering, sindle focus point and AI servo mode. In the other arena they play in isn't as well lit and I'm maxed out with my ISO either on 6400 or H (12800) to get the action shots.

Of course you can bring your shutter speed down if you shoot off the action, you might get away with a slower shutter speed (but not below 1/125th) for set peices, team talks and that kinda thing which will mean you can lower your ISO a wee bit.

The thing is that the light in most gyms is awful and simply not bright enough to use even modern day consumer camera gear without flash. If you are determined you want noise free optimal picture quality pics then you're into the pro gear to get the extra performance, but that comes at a hefty price.

 

[weepete]

I'll also add that I shoot jpegs for this kind of sports shots, raw takes longer to process and slows down your burst speed and I'd rather get a couple more frames that the little bit of extra editing headroom that RAW gives you, especially since dynamic range issues are rare under these lighting conditions.

 

[centauro74]

One more thing, you should try to shoot only manual, instead of aperture. The lighting in the gym is pretty consistent. If the clothes of the players is dark or black it can rise your ISO pretty high or lower your speed to compensent. So if you use M the camera won't go down and avoid getting blur.

 

[robbins.photo]

How interesting, this person is placing Strobes and remote SB's all over a gym and bleachers during a basketball game. Their braver than me. So is a flash fast enough for indoor sports?

My guess is he's some sort of official team photographer that works with the school - you try something like that at one of my daughters games and you'd never make it through the front door with all that crap.. lol

Ya, I couldn't imagine carrying all that gear to our son's basketball game. I'm doing good just to carry my D7100 & 70-200mm 2.8 lol

Lol.. everytime I walk in I get at least a 5 minute lecture if not longer on how I am absolutely not allowed to use the flash and that should I dare even attempt it I'll be ejected from the game and then possibly marked for death. I guess they had an incident a few years ago where some parent fired off a pretty good sized flash unit and it supposedly caused a kid to miss a free throw at a basketball game.

 

[1hawaii50]

I'm in my 3rd year of shooting volleyball and basketball at my daughter's school. I started with a D7000 and Nikon 70-200VRII, and I now shoot with a D600/Nikon 70-200VRII. I've found that to stop action for junior high volleyball, you'll need around 1/500SS to stop ball movement...this is for junior high. If I'm shooting JV or varsity VB, I need 1/800 or 1/1000 to stop action...the ball moves too quickly. 1/250 will stop most body movement, but you will get motion blur in the hands/arms and ball.
For basketball, I can make do with 1/320SS for girls basketball. For the guys, I need to be upwards of 1/500SS...the guys move more quickly than the girls do. I shoot mostly at f/2.8, in manual mode. I'll switch between spot and matrix metering...depending on the sunlight coming through the windows of the home gym...My ISO's are typically anywhere from 1/2000 up to 1/6400.

Lastly, flash photography is a BIG no-no in the gyms that our teams play in...both home and away.

 

[EIngerson]

Here's a couple from the worst lighted gym I've ever been in. Shooting with a 5D MK III and a 70-200 F4L

1/200, F4, ISO 2000

Thunder-17 by Ingerson Photo, on Flickr


1/200, F4, ISO 2000

Thunder-15 by Ingerson Photo, on Flickr



I also track the subject with the back button focus. You miss less shots that way. The normal shutter button will grab the subject, but in low light action will lose it before the shutter releases. Don't get too worried about noise, it's going to be there. Full size images look completely acceptable with it. Many times people pixel peep and get upset at the results. It's expectation management really.

I could have used a higher ISO and froze the hands and legs also, but I'm not too worried about it. These aren't great shots, but they are acceptable in horrible conditions.