Shutter speeds for sharp eyes, but a little sense of motion.

<p>OK, so I am a "junkie" for razor sharp subject eye results and soft backgrounds from fast lenses, but it is nice to see a little sense of motion in hands, fingers, balls, and so on in sports photos.</p>

<p>Mostly, I shoot high school basketball, and some other sports and venues. I have convinced myself that I need 1/640 sec to freeze the face during a layup, for example, with an 85mm lens on FF camera from the baseline. But I sure don't get much of a sense of motion at 1/640. I am usually at f2.2 or 2.5 using a prime lens, mix it up a bit with 50 and 28mm lenses.</p>

<p>Of course, if the subject's head does not have a lot of motion in a photo, a lower shutter speed would be fine. But, I can't yell at the player to hold his head still (haha). Looking at many images over the course of a season, very few have optimal plane of focus, low head motion blur, and good face/composition, but many are good (enough). Just thinking I might want to try some different combinations for the next events.</p>

<p>What shutter speeds do you guys use for your events?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I think the ball is actually moving relatively slowly in comparison to other times during a BB game. I try to catch the ball just leaving the finger tips - still moving pretty slowly as well as face of shooter, if any. So...there is not much motion going on with the ball or the face/eyes. And 1/640 is much too fast to get some subject motion blur.<br>

Minimize your DOF to get just players face sharp and the ball out of that DOF distance....use a wider aperture, slower SS and lower ISO probably also to get a good exposure.</p>

<p>Try 1/250-1/320 sec. to start getting motion blur in limbs and follow focus the face to keep eyes sharp. The motion blur will be easier to achieve with the longer focal length. For the 28mm, you will not see much motion blur or not at all especially if subject-to-camera distance is great and/or action coming straight on toward you. </p>