Struggling With Focus And noise

[SadlerX]

Hello, I have been taking pictures for awhile but never strayed too far from auto everything. The last few months I'm taking things more serious and trying to learn more. My daughter is in competitive soccer and I'm doing my best to figure things out with M,A,S,P on my Nikon D5100 with my newly acquired Nikon Dx Vr AF-S 18-300 3.5-6.3G ED Lens. I sometimes get lucky and get a good picture but this is what they normally turn out like. Usually blurry, noisy, just not a picture I'm proud of.

Any help would be appreciated, Thank you in advance.

Jason

 

[Underdog]

It would help if you posted some pictures.
Then members could see the EXIF information at the bottom of the photographs and evaluate. (Circled in red.)
When you see photos you like, check out their info.
You can then get tips like chimping, where you look at each shot in the LCD view finder and make quick adjustments on the fly.
Manuals and Google are your friend.

 

[Jeff15]

Hello Jason and welcome .. Let's see some of your images ...

 

[AlanKlein]

Auto mode is probably snapping the shutter at too low a speed for what your daughter is doing. What does the EXIF data say the speed was? Try switching to Shutter priority and set the shutter at 1/500 or 1/1000.

 

[21limited]

The more motion, the less chance of an optimal exposure. Id’ comment futher, but I can’t read the exif.
Wish I could put you in touch with cowgirlrightup, I’m an unknown fan, along with a thousand others.


You might bring up some of her horse action images and check out the camera settings.

 

[SadlerX]

Hello Jason and welcome .. Let's see some of your images ...

Can i post a raw image in .nef format? I will post some today when I get home from work. Thanks
I was able to post a jpeg, but im not sure the exif data is on it.