Sports Phototgraphy

[KevinIsGlad]

I'm trying to shoot pictures for a volleyball game at school. It difficult with the lighting inside the gym. I don't have a flash system yet, so what can i do to get good pictures without flash. except for the flash on the camera, which isn't enough. BTW camera is Nikon D7000.

 

[Netskimmer]

Have you tried to shoot these games before or will this be your first attempt? If you have tried before, post some pics. I will be more difficult to give you accurate advice without knowing more about the lighting. Don't be afraid to crank up the ISO, the D7000 handles high ISO like a champ. your 18-200 3.5-5.6 is a little slow for indoor sports, especially at the long end. Widen your aperture as much as possible, this will reduce your depth of field but it will give you more light to work with.

 

[KmH]

I'm trying to shoot pictures for a volleyball game at school. It difficult with the lighting inside the gym. I don't have a flash system yet, so what can i do to get good pictures without flash. except for the flash on the camera, which isn't enough. BTW camera is Nikon D7000.

Turn up the ISO setting.

To really help we need to know the focal length (or zoom range) and maximum lens aperture (or range of max apertuere if a zoom lens) of the lens you are using.

 

[MLeeK]

Sports are my main subject for the high schools and colleges.
In most crappy school gyms you will need to shoot at f/2.8, ISO 6400-12800 and a shutter speed of 1/640 to stop the players, a shutter speed higher if you can, but most gyms have such crappy light that you can't. This is very helpful: If you can shoot at 6400 or 12800, f/2.8 AND BE OVEREXPOSED, then raise your Aperture as high as you can. KEEPING YOUR IMAGES SLIGHTLY OVEREXPOSED. The slightly over is the trick to not having a noise problem. Turn on highlight warnings. Push your exposure to overexposed JUST before something would blow out that you can't recover-like their faces.
Set a custom white balance if you are shooting in jpeg. Gym floors and cycling lights will throw your color balance totally crappy and in jpeg it's nearly impossible to fix. Not exactly easy to fix even in raw.
No matter what you do with white balance there will be every so often in your shots a very wonky colored one-that's from cycling lights. Better gyms have better lights, but the schools are so budget strapped these days that better lights are few and far between.

EDIT: An IS lens longer than about 100mm should have the IS turned off-it can actually cause vibration blur when you get into shutter speeds that high.
Vollyball is HARD. I think it's the hardest sport I shoot. You have to anticipate the hit and shoot just before as the girls are lining up.

 

[MLeeK]

I looked at your profile and you are shooting with a f/5.6 lens. Max your ISO out and pray! I don't know if Nikon you have to turn on the ISO expansion in the menu's but you will need it in the average gym.
Depending on the gym it'll be ok in some and not in others.
get your hands on the 50mm f/1.8. It's CHEAP and with vollyball you can pretty effectively use it. No zoom, but it'll give you the extra stops of light you need.

 

[KevinIsGlad]

im using a nikkor 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 V2 lens

 

[Patrice]

Kevin,

That lens is not the best one for the job, as you probably already know. Keep your eyes open for a second hand f/2.8 zoom or even a f/1.8 85 mm, you'll be glad you did.

 

[fotomanjack]

And use Shutter Priority to shoot anything fast moving.......as said before, 1/640 sec., or even better, at 1/1000th sec. And good advice on looking for a used f2.8 zoom.

 

[KevinIsGlad]

yeah i kno this isnt the right lens. just wanted to see if there was anything i can do with it. i will be getting a new lens soon. maybe a 50mm f1.8 this should do

 

[Patrice]

I'm going to pretend to be Keith for a bit: don't forget to pick up a shift key for your keyboard while you at the store for that 50mm lens. You'll like that lens, it's one of the best photographic values around.

 

[KevinIsGlad]

Who's Keith, and yeah either the 50 or a 35.

 

[Netskimmer]

Who's Keith...

Keith is KmH. He has a reputation for being a stickler for the written (and probably spoken) word, grammar, punctuation, ect. I assume she is referring to all the lower case I's in you responses. I don't have a 50mm yet but it's on my list, from all I've read they are pretty versital. I'll probably save up for the 1.4 because I've heard that it is a really great lens. Of coarse the 1.4 is a good bit more expensive, but that is to be expected.

 

[fotomanjack]

Who's Keith...

Keith is KmH. He has a reputation for being a stickler for the written (and probably spoken) word, grammar, punctuation, etc. I assume she is referring to all the lower case I's in your responses. I don't have a 50mm yet but it's on my list, from all I've read they are pretty versatile. I'll probably save up for the 1.4 because I've heard that it is a really great lens. Of coarse the 1.4 is a good bit more expensive, but that is to be expected.

Then Keith and I will get along great! I'm a stickler for proper spelling and punctuation, too. Much easier to read something that is properly written than to always be trying to decipher someone's spelling and grammar mistakes. What ever happened to SpellCheck, or just rereading what you wrote and correcting things before hitting the Post Reply button?
There you go.....end of rant.

 

[KevinIsGlad]

Okay guys I'm really sorry for my bad grammar and punctuation. So I'll just get a better lens like a 50mm f1.8, because the money isn't there. If i did then i would get the f1.4.

 

[Netskimmer]

Okay guys I'm really sorry for my bad grammar and punctuation. So I'll just get a better lens like a 50mm f1.8, because the money isn't there. If i did then i would get the f1.4.

Yeah, it isn't here either. Let me know if you find it!