Looking for a few suggestions...

Tsunami1981 · Jul 7, 2003

Currently I have been shooting alot of sporting events ( i.e. hockey games) for my husbands' hockey team... I am having a problem with graininess with some of my pics. I am shooting with a Nikon N80 most of the time and using a tamron 70-300mm. I contacted the photographer for the Star Tribune and he suggested using faster speed film, so I bumped up to 1600 and that helped a bit, considering the lighting in these arenas is kind of crappy. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I have gotten some great shots but it is really depressing when the pic doesn't turn out as well as it should.

metroshane · Jul 7, 2003

I think the new photographer misunderstood you. A faster film would be the obvious recommendation if your pics were blurry....but faster usually = grainer.

If you have enough light, try going down to 400 or so film.

Tsunami1981 · Jul 7, 2003

thanks for the suggestion.. i will try it and see what happens.
**crosses fingers**

e_ · Jul 8, 2003

...metroshane is correct in that faster film "usually" equals more grain

However, in and of itself, faster film (or film that's pushed) should not be grainier to the extent you are "having a problem with graininess"

I suspect something else(*) is the reason - more likely incorrect exposure of the film, maybe combined with faulty development (times and/or chemicals)

You might like to post details of the following:

What film/s are you using? What speed are you rating it at? How are you metering your scene? When shooting, what 'mode' do you use (or, what aperture do you use)? How is the film developed?

e_

(*) EDIT: what i suspect - although it's only speculation, you haven't answered back as yet

- is exposure technique

If you are metering through your lens (TTL) onto an ice rink, the meter will be reading all of that white ice and "underexposing" (possibly by up to 2 f-stops!)

Should that be the case, your lab will be correcting for this when printing and a common result with colour film when that happens is an unacceptable "graininess"

If so, it's easy to adjust for in camera

Look forward to your post...