Low light sports/action photography

[TrinityImages]

I got my new camera tonight, a Canon EOS Rebel T6 with the 18mm - 55mm and 75mm - 300mm lenses.

I plan to take a lot of low-light, fast action photos (sports and concerts, mainly), so slow shutter speeds and flash are out, leaving me with ISO and aperture. ISO seems pretty straight forward, 1600 and 3200 seem to work well enough, but it's aperture that has me confused and ISO only takes me so far. My camera's range seems to fluctuate and I generally get the lowest (largest aperture) at about 55 mm, and there it's about a 3.6 and that barely gets the job done at even 1/60. At other settings, I usually get 5.6, maybe a 4 now and then.
I know a lower number is a larger opening and obviously lets in more light, but why am I getting varying ranges? It seems to be related to the lens, but how and can I get a decent lens that will get down well below three? Or would I need to get that low?

Forgive me, I'm still much of a green stick on this.

 

[Ysarex]

You have a variable aperture zoom lens now. It's one aperture at the wide end of the range and a smaller aperture at the long end of the range. You're wishing you had a constant aperture say f/2.8 zoom lens which is no problem, they make those. Just dig deep into your wallet.

Amazon.com : Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras : Camera Lenses : Camera & Photo

Joe

 

[TrinityImages]

That's what I was afraid of. Assuming money being only somewhat of an object, what would you recommend? I plan to make this a side career so I may as well be prepared. Thanks for the reassurance that I didn't just buy another toy camera (like my old CyberShot)

 

[Derrel]

For indoor sports and concerts/plays, something that is a so-called fast aperture lens is useful. The most-affordable lenses are fast primes like the 50mm f/1.8 and the 85mm f/1.8. The 50mm and the 85mm lenbses are sharp, light, compact, and easy to handle for the length of a sporting contest. The idea with them is to get a crisp shot at a fast shutter speed, a shot that can be cropped in on later, at the computer.

Other fast lenses might be the Canon 35mm f/2, also a fairly low-cost prime lens, but also a "fast" lens, fast meaning f/2.0 maximum aperture.

Since a lot of sports/concert stuff is shot from 20,30,40,50,60,70 feet away, there is actually enough depth of field to allow the use of f/1.8 or f/2, in order to get the fastest possible shutter speed, while using ISO 1600 or 3200, and still keeping the majority of the scene in decent focus.

Until you get a faster lens, it's possible that you might want to under-expose by 1 full EV value, or by Minus 1.5 EV, in order to build shutter speed to stop subject motion blurring.

 

[Ysarex]

That's what I was afraid of. Assuming money being only somewhat of an object, what would you recommend? I plan to make this a side career so I may as well be prepared. Thanks for the reassurance that I didn't just buy another toy camera (like my old CyberShot)

You're budget isn't going to like this but if you're in fact serious about side career then you will live with what you have right now and use that to learn while you get very serious about saving enough cash. Then sell the Canon and lenses and get a Nikon D500 and the right glass to go with it. If you're going to hang your shingle out for hire then the right tools matter.

Joe

 

[table1349]

Or in the alternative get a Canon body better suited for action shooting and fast Canon glass. 7D MkII in a crop sensor or a 1Dx MkII full frame. One basic piece of glass would be the 70-200 f2.8 USM II. The 85mm f1.8 is good as is the 50mm f1.4 for primes. The 24-70mm f2.8 is also a good piece of glass for action. If you are going to shoot sports you will eventually end up with the 70-200 so it would be my suggestion as the first lens.

 

[chuasam]

You're trying to do a difficult genre with inadequate gear. 7D ii is the minimum required Canon for this. 70_200/2.8 is the basic lens.

 

[weepete]

70-200mm f2.8L and a 5Dmkiv would be my pick of canon's gear at the moment for low light action. You can always console yourself that you've not picked nature photography. Those big primes often run into the $$$$ instead of just $$$!

 

[ronlane]

70-200mm f2.8L and a 5Dmkiv would be my pick of canon's gear at the moment for low light action. You can always console yourself that you've not picked nature photography. Those big primes often run into the $$$$ instead of just $$$!

For sports those big primes new can run you $$$$$.

 

[astroNikon]

Primes are Primo-expensive

800mm ... $16,300 --> Nikon 800mm F/5.6

600mm .. $7,700 --> Nikon 600mm F/4

400mm .. $8,500 --> Nikon 400mm F/2.8

300mm .. $5,500 --> Nikon 300mm F/2.8

and then there's always used and older models which can be bought for less, sometimes much less.

 

[Derrel]

As a beginner, you need to 1) build sports and concert understanding 2) get at least one capable lens 3) build actual shooting skills and strategies. You need to understand the "what", the "how", and the "why and where".

The D500 was mentioned because of the huge autofocus improvement Nikon has managed in the D5 and D500 generation; this is a once-in-a-decade-and-a-half type of autofocusing leap, according to people who are heavily involved in equipment reviews and shooting action at a high level. Autofocusing began in the mid-1980's, and has been getting better and better, but as I understand it, the D5 and D500 cameras have managed to be the first AF systems that make almost no mistakes when used by a skilled user, which is something that has never been true of any AF camera I've ever used. (Four pro-level Nikon flagships, multiple consumer, and semi-pro d-slrs over 16 years.)

Still...you're new to the game, and if you want to have a competitive level of image capture capability, you ABSOLUTELY need to have at least one decent, fast lens. Good equipment will help you, tremendously.

When you move to the high-end cameras, things are better and easier than with entry-level gear, BUT if you have pro-level lenses with ultrasonic motor focusing (USM in canon, AF-S in Nikon), the lenses themselves have fast apertures, and good focusing motors inside the lenses, and they deliver very bright, discrete, clear information to the in-camera focusing computer system, which makes even the cheapest camera have a fighting chance.

Yesterday, I read an early review of the Tamron 70-200 G2, which is like $1299 US dollars; gryphonslair99 linked us to this review; the lens focused very well, and is a SUPER value. I would consider that lens to be the #1 equipment acquisition for the beginning sports shooter. The lens allegedly focused almost perfectly with Tamron's new teleconverter, barely slowing down with the TC attached. Again...this is a simple equipment decision.

Good,capable, fast-aperture, high-performance LENSES are really worth the money.

 

[Overread]

Right now I wouldn't spend ANY money at all.

You might have a larger potential budget, but at present you sound like you need way more practice and experience first. Some outdoors sports would give you more sports practice without making light as difficult an aspect as evening/night/indoor events. You can certainly start to hone your skills there and then progress toward deciding if you really do want to invest in better equipment to better extend the range of what you can shoot


If you do have money to spend, and its burning a hole on your pocket then I would say a 70-200mm f2.8 lens would be my choice of purchase. For this kind of work its a workhorse for many - offering a very good zoom range and wide aperture. It's also a solid choice in general; there are few lenses that can fit into any bag; but a good 70-200mm lens can work for most people.


From there you can start to consider getting better bodies for better high ISO performance - getting prime lense s- working toward a business etc.....

Note alongside this you want to get yourself some good editing software; lightroom and photoshop are easily bought now on subscription if you wish; then crack open books/websites and start to learn about editing. You want to focus on learning about noise reduction and sharpening as - in low light- they are going to go hand in hand with good equipment.



As for brands Nikon or Canon can do this without any problems. Nikon has the ISO/sensor edge at present; but there's no reason taht you can't do well with Canon.

 

[mdruziak]

You can get by with the camera you have for both indoor sports and concerts. I did both with a first generation Digital Rebel. But you will need at least a 70-200mm f2.8 lens.

However, you will most likely have a very low keeper rate. So don't be afraid to boost up your ISO, shoot RAW, use noise reduction in your post processing, shoot a lot and delete a lot!