I Just Got Asked.....

jdjen · Oct 27, 2010

I just got asked if I would take some pictures one of my daughters teammate tonight at their volleyball game. She wants to send them home to her parents and her old high school coach. Why me? I don't know since they have a photography department on campus. Maybe because I have the biggest camera of all the parents, or because I'm not afraid to use it. Anyway I said sure, but no guarantees, I really don't have a proper lens for shooting in the gym, or the funds to get a nice f2.8 at this time, so I make due with what I have. And I can't use a flash during the game.

Up to this point I have been wingin' it for my own satisfaction.

This is my gear:
Sony Alpha a200
Sony 3.5-5.6, 18-70mm (Kit Lens)
Sigma Aspherical DL 3.5-5.6, 28-80mm
Sigma DL 3.5-5.6, 70-300mm

Any thoughts or suggestions on proper settings would be VERY helpful.

Thank you in advance.
JD

SrBiscuit · Oct 27, 2010

do you HAVE to shoot in the gym?
well i guess thats a dumb question if the shots will be taken during the game. lol

hows the iso on that a200?

tirediron · Oct 27, 2010

It's going to be tough, but here's what I would do: Crank up the ISO as high as it can go and produce usable images, and shoot in shutter priority at the lowest shutter speed you can (1/250 would be my starting point - you might need to drop to 1/125; I know nothing about the high-ISO characteristics of your camera).

MohaimenK · Oct 27, 2010

Can you perhaps rent gears? You can sell the photos to the parents and make money back? But then again, it could be a very lit up gym if its indoor or even outdoor. I'd shoot in RAW if your camera supports it. That way you can raise exposure if needed during PP easily vs w/ JEPG

memento · Oct 27, 2010

^ maybe you could lend the op your 10-800 1.2

MohaimenK · Oct 27, 2010

memento said:
^ maybe you could lend the op your 10-800 1.2

Hey now, I never said it was 1.2 :lmao:
But yeah, if he was local to me, I'm nice enough to go w/ him and help him out since I got nothing to do in the evening except fight traffic on 495 :grumpy:

(yes I'm local to you)

memento · Oct 27, 2010

you got nothing to do? maybe you could go use your camera instead of posting in every thread on the internet.

SrBiscuit · Oct 27, 2010

oh snap!

MohaimenK · Oct 27, 2010

memento said:
you got nothing to do? maybe you could go use your camera instead of posting in every thread on the internet.

LOL have you checked how many pix I've posted??? Not blind are you? I haven't seen much from you here

jdjen · Oct 27, 2010

SrBiscuit said:
do you HAVE to shoot in the gym?
well i guess thats a dumb question if the shots will be taken during the game. lol

hows the iso on that a200?

ISO on the a200 goes to 3200 but gets pretty grainy in my opinion. 1600 seems to be considerably better.

KmH · Oct 27, 2010

What it goes to, and what is usable are different numbers. ISO 3200 to ISO 1600 is only one stop. Having 2 stops to work with would be better.

However having images with noise is better than having images with motion blurred main subjects.

I would also start at 1/250, but hope for 1/500 on the shutter speed. I don't think there would be much hope for using 1/125 unless you are really good at timing your shots to when subject movement is minimal. Moving arms and legs will be problematic.

cnutco · Oct 27, 2010

Is there any sports of any kind taking place in that gym that you can try some different settings? Test the waters would be your best bet.

I have plenty of fast glass and I still hate taking photos in gyms!

Good luck!

kassad · Oct 27, 2010

Your in a tough spot. Shoot at iso 1600 and in raw mode. Underexpose your shots as much as 1 full stop. The raw file might have enough data in it to get usable pictures.

phiya · Oct 27, 2010

If you think you'll need reach, use the Sigma 70-300. Try to keep it at 70mm so as to keep your aperture at F/3.5 (you're largest choice of all of your lenses). If there's too much dead space at 70mm you can always crop and probably still print up to 8x10 just fine.

Shutter priority is likely a must in this situation. You may be able to freeze some stuff (bumps, sets) at 1/125. If she plays front net and can get up and spike 1/125 is probably going to blur the holy junk out of her hitting arm. In that case, hopefully your ISO performance is good. Good luck!