Noob with D3100 & angry wife...HELP!

[Buckster]

I found one... From the NYC camera expo a couple years ago. SOC JPG (resized only)

GH1. f5.6 (kit lens, widest available across full zoom). APERTURE PRIORITY. 1/100s. ISO 800. 41mm (82mm FX, or 61mm DX)

Sounds like I did EXACTLY what I recommended as a starting point. Bump the ISO, A mode wide open.

Here's the shot.


View attachment 31967

Sports Illistrated? Nope. Good enough for a scrapbook? I'd think so.

So yall can just sit down and STFU already.

Looks like a camera convention of some sort and Sony's got a setup with a spotlight on the biker, who's stopped right there on the edge, so basically any shutter speed would have worked.

Show the typical high school gym basketball game ACTION shot @ 200mm @1/125 with NO tripod or monopod support at any aperture and ISO you want - then we'll be getting to the bottom of it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[nycphotography]

Finally, I did find a shot, one I actually took, that shows it is possible to get usable shots using the settings I proposed. I showed that it is possible to hand hold at 1/100 and not get camera shake, and to get a shot when the subject is not blazing across the frame at th speed of light. In most youth sports, there will be plenty of "action" moments that don't necessarily involve fast motion.

I found an example that speaks to the context of the original post... getting usable shots of a kid at a basketball game. Not all the kids, one kid. Not every shot of the entire game in every possible situation, some usable shots to show grandma and post on facebook.

It's a very simple concept, really. You can either apply the suggestions made to the context in which they were intended... or you can cook up a whole other more stringent set of requirements tht were never present in the original context and then declare that the suggestions were broken because they didn't meet your artifical requirements of creating world peace and fixing the carburetor on the lawnmower too.

To recap, not all successful photography of one's kid at a sports event has to include the tracking of a fast moving object and the nailing a perfect sports illustrated quality stop action shot of a slam dunk in progress. There will be plenty of circumstances that DO lend themselves to the limitations of the OP's equipment, and those will result in a nice scrapbook full of decent pictures.

Considering the example the OP presented, having some motion blur on the hands and ball could have added to the action of the shot in fact.

 

[Buckster]

One kid, in a spotlight, who's not moving, at 1/100 @ 41mm.

 

[nycphotography]

82mm in 35mm terms. But whatever.

 

[Buckster]

82mm in 35mm terms. But whatever.

It's still less than 1/100, and that's a big part of the point, not that you get it, obviously.

 

[terri]

Okay all, I think this thread is done. The OP has gotten more than enough comments.