Need a little help!

[CAG76]

I think I may know what my solution is to this problem. I also know a while back someone had the same issue of shooting moving objects in a gym. I was in my gym at church and was shootting pictures of kids playing and many of them turned out blurry. When I set the sutter speed to a faster spead the pictures come out darker. If I set the ISO too low it turns out grainy as ever and still dark.

I am guessing I need a speed light of some sort? Any help in this area? I know nothing about speed lights and have never had one. Using the built in flash just does not make pictures look good. I never like to use that. I'd rather have blurry kids than to use that flash unless there is something I don't know about using even the built in flash.

-Christopher

 

[gsgary]

You have to use high ISO if you don't use flash you also need fast lenses F2.8 or lower, if you overexpose the shot a touch there will be less noise, unexpose and it will be awful
What lenses do you have ?

 

[CAG76]

I was using my telephoto which is not a fast lens and also my XSi kit lens. Neither of those are fast lenses. The highest ISO I have is 1600. So fast lens and high ISO huh? I will try that next time. When I get a faster lense.

 

[gsgary]

I was using my telephoto which is not a fast lens and also my XSi kit lens. Neither of those are fast lenses. The highest ISO I have is 1600. So fast lens and high ISO huh? I will try that next time. When I get a faster lense.

I use the 50mmF1.4 and thinking about getting 85F1.8 now i have the 5D, 85F1.8 would be a nice lens on your camera

 

[Big Mike]

You can't just set a faster shutter speed...or you will underexpose the shot, as you have seen.

Shutter speed, aperture and ISO work together to give you an exposure. The camera has a built-in light meter which can tell you the combination of settings you need or if the combination you have chosen is going to over or under expose. If you change one of the settings, then you one (or both) of the others will have to change to compensate for that...if you want to keep the same exposure.

In this scenario, you are limited by the max aperture of your lenses...so the only option is to crank up the ISO. Digital noise/grain is often better than blurry...and there are ways to reduce noise.

Of course, the problem is a lack of light...so you could solve the problem by adding light...with a flash for example. Using flash to get pleasing results, is a skill all on it's own...so you may need to do some reading a some practicing...but it can certainly help in a situation like this.

 

[nikki2291]

What I do for action shots if I dont have the time to sit there and set everything is set the camera either to Tv (Time Value) which is shutter speed priority or Av (Aperture value) which is Aperture priority. It means that on Tv if you change the shutter speed then the camera will set the aperture and vice versa. Then boost your ISO accordingly. I also use a program called Neat Image to get rid of noise in a picture without ruining it. That seems to work pretty well, mind you I use thoes settings for wildlife photography. Usually in pretty low light because I used to do it in the morning. Hope that helps a bit. =)

~Nikki~

 

[CAG76]

GREAT! These are all great tips! I will try some of these and when I get more money saved up to buy more things I can experiment with flashes and or a faster lense as well. These things I am sure will help reduce grain. But like you said, grain is better than blur.

 

[Samanax]

GREAT! These are all great tips! I will try some of these and when I get more money saved up to buy more things I can experiment with flashes and or a faster lense as well.

Get a faster lens first. You may want to look at prime lenses (fixed focal length) as they usually have larger aperture openings. Depending on how big the gym is and how far away you have to shoot from you might be able to get away with a 85mm, 100mm, 135mm or 200mm. If you want a zoom lens, there's the 70-200mm f/2.8 (or the IS version).