Outdoor Sports & D7100...what settings...

<p>Given equipment: --Nikon d7100 & AFS 70-300 VR<br />Given Outdoor usually sunny:<br />Given soccer or football:</p>

<p>I usually set to aperture priority of like 8. <br>

I usually set ISO to about 200<br>

Shutter usually ends up around 1/1200 or faster, so plenty there<br>

AF continuous and I usually pick the 9 point<br>

I use the weighted center metering<br>

WB set to direct sunlight.</p>

<p>Should i adjust something or would you say looks good?<br>

Thanks,</p>

<p>That is very close to what I use with my D4. I tend to use f/3.5 instead of f/8 but I am using a Sigma 120-300 f/2.8. I also tend to run the WB in Auto and if I need to I can correct it in post.</p>

<p>And honestly if the files look good to you it doesn't really matter what other people think. Every one needs to develop their own work flow.</p>

<p>Steve, the beauty about digital is no cost per shot: just try. See if it works for you, if not, try different settings. On a whole, I'd say your settings should work. For sports, the main thing is getting AF configuration right, and 9-points dynamic AF with continuous AF should work.<br /> But by all means, DO try all other settings, to learn what they do, how they react. Some settings (i.e. shooting in Aperture-priority mode) are down to preference. I can imagine WB is set "manually" to be able to shoot JPEG in long bursts as the D7100 cannot do very long bursts of RAW? If you shoot RAW, no need to bother with WB at all.<br>

The point is: you can only learn about <em>your</em> preferences by experience. There are no miracle-settings-recipes. So, enjoy shooting a lot and experiment!</p>

<p>Thanks,<br /> I have played around, just not sure if it would be better to go with a larger aperture or if spot focus is better or if 51 point and say f11 would be better for clearer shots.</p>

<p>Plus wanted to be sure I wasn't making an obvious mistake to those more experienced!</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I tend to use f/3.5 instead of f/8</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I would pay attention to what Michael pointed out earlier.</p>

<p>While this example is a girls dash instead of soccer or American football, the point is that you want a shallower depth of field to isolate your subject(s). In this case I also used a D7100 but the lens was a 200-400mm/f4. As far as I am concerned, at 400mm, even f4 does not provide a shallow enough depth of field. That is why a lot of professional sports photographers use the 400mm/f2.8.</p>

<p>BTW, if your ISO is 200, sunny 16 indicates that your shutter speed should be 1/200 sec at f16, or 1/800 sec at f8. If you are using 1/1200 sec and f8, you could potentially be under-exposing a bit. f5.6 will also let you use a faster shutter speed.</p><div></div>

<p>The camera is automatically adjusting shutter speed. I figure best to put the aperture in a sweet spot for this lens as well since i get plenty of shutter speed to freeze the action.... Which I believe if ~f/8?</p>

<p>Right thought??</p>

<p>On the D800, diffraction begins to creep in at f8. The D7100 has even denser pixels; I would try to stay away from f8. That is why we have reached a point that pixel density is so high, it is getting meaningless because for a lot of lenses, only 1 or 2 apertures can give you really great results. If you go any denser, no available aperture will give you good results so that all those extra pixels become meaningless.</p>

<p>What you need to think about is subject isolation. Take a look at my imiage above. At 400mm, f4, the background is still too distracting.</p>

<p>More focus points is not going to be better. It may cause the camera to have a harder time telling what should be in focus. </p>

<p>One other thing I forgot to mention is I dial in +.03 to +.07 in exposure compensation. Again this is what works for me. But I would much rather be bringing my exposure down a little in post then be having to bring it up.</p>

<p>This is an example shot with a D300 and the Sigma 120-300 f/2.8 at f/3.5</p>

<p>

<p>Shun, you kind of lost me.<br>

Are you saying don't worry about the sweet spot aperture. Just go with what works for the situation. So maybe more like f/5.6 with this lens.<br>

Thanks again Michael, great pic too!</p>

<p>Steve,<br /> Concerns about diffraction should be dismissed unless the prints you are making from these photos are very, very large. Depth of field, shutter speeds, framing, and producing compelling images by understanding and anticipating the action will far, far, far, outstrip any sort of subtle effect using f/8 with your equipment would produce.</p>

<p>Steve, to make a long story short, for sports, I would indeed not worry about the sweet spot of the lens at all. Unless you are panning with a slow shutter speed to show action, it is about using a fast shutter speed to freeze the action, a wide aperture to isolate the subject, and minimize the ISO.</p>

<p>Beyond that, you probably want to read about diffraction, e.g. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-diffraction.shtml<br>

I may want a lot of depth of field when I shoot landscape or a group of people. For sports, it is the other way around.</p>

<p>Perfect! Makes sense now<br>

Thanks again</p>

<p>I have this exact combination and when I shoot sports, I use shutter priority as that is really important. I set the shutter to 1/500 or faster. For sports, I typically don't have the luxury to think about DOF as I am more concerned about freezing the action.</p>

<p>One more thing: you should consider picking up a monopod as this will a big help and will give you an extra f/stop. You don't need to spend a lot of money on a monopod - $100 is typically enough. </p>

<p>Another option is to try auto ISO. You can set the minimum shutter speed to 1/1000 or faster; I typically use 1/1600 sec for action photography, but it varies depending on what type of action. You can set the ISO range up to 3200, which is still decent for the D7100. Minimum could be ISO 100 or 200. When it gets dim, I may sacrifice some shutter speed to keep the ISO within a reasonable range.</p>