im getting movement blur in my pics

Ragz67 · Oct 9, 2009

Hi all, I have just got a new Sony a200 with a 18-70 mm lens. I do martial arts and in the last tournament I tried to get some pics of the kids in action but they nearly all come out blurred.
The hall has decent lighting but has no natural lighting. When I increase the shutter speed to catch pics of them when fighting the pics are too dark and when I decrease the shutter speed I have too much blur movement in the pics.
I was thinking that a light for the top of the camera may help, but as a total newbie to the dslr's I thought you guys may be able to put me on the right track.
I could use the flash but when I've tried it, it does not allow me the continuous shooting.

Any responses or advice will be truly appreciated ......Ragz

flyin-lowe · Oct 9, 2009

I am not sure about the Sony camera but a lot of cameras won't sinc the flash with shutter speeds faster then 1/200. You are kind of limited with indoor sports unless you have a fast lens. If you read some threads on here you will see that indoor sports are hard to really capture great shots with slow glass. If you haven't tried yet you can crank up the ISO, this will help with light. The higher ISO will cause more noise in the photo, but some noise in my opinion is better then a photo that is way to dark. Also the lower the light you need to use a larger aperture (lower f number). When shooting in aperture priority mode the camera will select the shutter speed. Get the f number down, the ISO up, and the shutter speed as high as you need to freeze the action. Also are you shooting in RAW? You can use photoshop or some editing software to brighten it up a little.

Big Mike · Oct 9, 2009

Welcome to the forum.

What our eyes see as 'decent lighting', is often pretty dark actually. We adjust to it, without even thinking about it....but a camera doesn't.

The problem is that you don't have enough light to get the fast shutter speeds that you need to freeze the action. The problem is that your lens has a maximum aperture (all lenses do)...and once that maximum is reached, the shutter speed has to get slower, to get enough light for the exposure.

You didn't mention what lens you have, so I'll guess that it's a 'kit' lens, with a maximum aperture of F4 to F5.6 (or there about). (lower F number is a bigger aperture, b.t.w.)

So what most sports shooter do, is to use a 'fast' lens....a lens with a larger maximum. This lets in more light, thus allowing you to get a faster shutter speed.

The other option is to turn up the ISO setting. This allows you to get faster shutter speed, but at the cost of added digital noise. Still, noise is usually better than blurry shots.

IgsEMT · Oct 9, 2009

For sports, you'd need faster shutterspeeds. As Mike said, boost up your ISO (to acceptable NON-NOISE level). On Nikons and Canons, there's a option to allow you to shoot above camera's sync speed with the flash. See if there's a way to do the same on your body.
Good Luck

bhphotography · Oct 9, 2009

You may have to try using the manual settings. I'm not sure why when you put your iso up that the photos get darker.

Try a minimum shutter speed of 250, put your iso as high as you can and your aperature as low as it will go (probably a f3.5 on that lens). You may need a faster lens however (f1.4, or f2.8)