New to photography

[shadow1983]

Hi,

I just got into photography about year ago and I a job with my high school (I am a freshman) newspaper to take pictures of my school's ice hockey team. I went to our teams practice to do some practice shoots and they came out blurry. I used the sports setting on my camera and I was trying to pan. The plexiglass also makes it hard for me to shoot the team. Should I buy a new lens or can I take good pictures with what I have? My camera is a Canon Rebel XS.

Any tips or tricks would be so helpful.

 

[kacielynch]

First, give manual mode a shoot, and try (without making the photos to dark) using the highest shutter speed possible. That should get rid of your blur.

Hope that helps!

 

[Buckster]

Open the aperture nice and wide (biggest number you can get out of your lens). Boost the ISO up as much as you can without thinking the results look too bad to use.

This will allow you to use the fastest shutter speed you can squeeze out of whatever lens you're using, which will help you freeze the action and not have blurry shots.

 

[Gaerek]

First, take your camera off the automatic modes. Use aperture priority, shutter priority, or manual. Open your aperture all the way. Crank your ISO as far as you're willing to take it, and try again. You need fast shutter speeds for sports. You can try to pan, but you're still going to need relatively fast speeds (1/15-1/30, I would imagine). If you're using a slow lens, you need to do everything you can to get your shutter speed as high as possible.

EDIT: Bah, Buckster beat me by a minute! :greenpbl:

 

[sierramister]

I suspect that the "sports" setting that you use would try to maximize our recommendations (fast shutter speed, open aperture, high ISO). Therefore, if you go back to shoot, you might find that you get the same results.

You probably need lenses that can open up to f/2.8 or faster (1.8, 1.4, etc).

 

[Gaerek]

I suspect that the "sports" setting that you use would try to maximize our recommendations (fast shutter speed, open aperture, high ISO). Therefore, if you go back to shoot, you might find that you get the same results.

You probably need lenses that can open up to f/2.8 or faster (1.8, 1.4, etc).

That's doubtful, because most times, those settings will also try to keep the ISO low. So it might have you shooting at ISO 400, when you could be getting an extra 3 or 4 stops at ISO 1600 or 3200. Also, in my experiences using those modes (which was, almost never) the camera wouldn't maximize the settings. It would still try to strike a balance, without ever pegging a setting out.

However, I will agree that using a faster lens will certainly help, and might still be needed, depending.

 

[shadow1983]

The highest ISO my camera has is 1600...

 

[Forkie]

Open the aperture nice and wide (biggest number you can get out of your lens). Boost the ISO up as much as you can without thinking the results look too bad to use.

This will allow you to use the fastest shutter speed you can squeeze out of whatever lens you're using, which will help you freeze the action and not have blurry shots.

Might I just say that since the OP is new to photography and in case they are not familiar with the illogical aperture numbering system, this should read:

Open the aperture nice and wide (smallest number you can get out of your lens)...

 

[Buckster]

Open the aperture nice and wide (biggest number you can get out of your lens). Boost the ISO up as much as you can without thinking the results look too bad to use.

This will allow you to use the fastest shutter speed you can squeeze out of whatever lens you're using, which will help you freeze the action and not have blurry shots.

Might I just say that since the OP is new to photography and in case they are not familiar with the illogical aperture numbering system, this should read:

Open the aperture nice and wide (smallest number you can get out of your lens)...

Quite right! Hey, I only missed it by a mile! LOL!

 

[Forkie]

 

[shadow1983]

Open the aperture nice and wide (biggest number you can get out of your lens). Boost the ISO up as much as you can without thinking the results look too bad to use.

This will allow you to use the fastest shutter speed you can squeeze out of whatever lens you're using, which will help you freeze the action and not have blurry shots.

Might I just say that since the OP is new to photography and in case they are not familiar with the illogical aperture numbering system, this should read:

Open the aperture nice and wide (smallest number you can get out of your lens)...

I knew what he meant, I went and looked it up. Being new doesn't mean I am ignorant. Everyone has been very helpful, I will give these suggestion a try and see what happens.

Thank You

 

[DigitalxDream]

They are just trying to help not treat you like you are ignorant

But everyone is right. Just keep practicing and you will get the hang of it.

 

[KmH]

Might I just say that since the OP is new to photography and in case they are not familiar with the illogical aperture numbering system, this should read:
Open the aperture nice and wide (smallest number you can get out of your lens)...

The only trouble with that is f/2 is a bigger number than f/8 is.

Lens aperture number is decidedly logical, within the context of having a solid basic understanding of math and numbers.

 

[Forkie]

I knew what he meant, I went and looked it up. Being new doesn't mean I am ignorant...

Sorry, I didn't intend to sound patronising or accuse you of ignorance :blushing:

I just thought when you said "New to Photography", you meant really new!

The only trouble with that is f/2 is a bigger number than f/8 is.

Lens aperture number is decidedly logical, within the context of having a solid basic understanding of math and numbers.

No. F/2 is a bigger aperture than F/8 is. I misunderstood quite how new to photography the OP was and thought I'd make the concept easier to understand for them. It now turns out that he already knew the concept of smaller numbers meaning bigger aperture.

I'm fairly sure I have a basic understanding of the numbers 1 to 8. And have a basic enough knowledge of maths to know that 8 is more than 2.

Thanks for the sarcasm lesson!

 

[KmH]

I'm not sure I like your tone.

:lmao: