YEAH DIDI IT!

After numorous tries with my old Minolta Dimage 7i to take some

baskeball pics of my teams (I am president of a bball club for

women, men and boys) I got myself a christmas present and bought the

olympus e 500! I unpacked it and went out to the girls game last

night!<br>

<br>

Not knowing what I am doing - it think the results are pretty ok.<br>

<br>

The gym light (away game) was horrible! <br>

<br>

Here are samples:<br>

<a

href="http://www.eye.de/foren_nfac/pcoctus_ext/uploads/u1829/nina.jpg

">pic1</a><br>

<a

href="http://www.eye.de/foren_nfac/pcoctus_ext/uploads/u1829/manu.jpg

">pic2</a><br>

<a

href="http://www.eye.de/foren_nfac/pcoctus_ext/uploads/u1829/manu2.jp

g">pic3</a><br>

<br>

Advise and tipps are more than welcome! How can I lighten them up?

<br>

Not these but for the next time!<br>

<br>

Greets from snowy Austria<br>

Martin Allinger

Wish I were in Austria - or anywhere more scenic than in holiday traffic. My first thought

would be you should read some of the posts/answers. Not that this question hasn't

already been asked but a lot of the q's in the sports forum deal with exactly this scenario.

 

Photography is about many different things for different people. For me photography is

about exposure. Proper exposure shows when all of the pieces come together right.

Those pieces include ISO, Aperture, and Shutter speed. Some are directly proportional and

others are inversely proportional to each other. When I take pics at a hockey rink I know I

need to do some basic things. I need to get my white balance set just right so that the

colors look like they should. I need to set my ISO high enough so that I can get my shutter

speed fast enough. I also know I need to open my aperture up as much as possible, again

to bring ISO down and avoid noise.

 

In the 35mm and SLR/DSLR world I believe most sports photography shots are done at ISO

800 or higher. If they are done at ISO 400 then they are probably using overhead strobes.

Most digicams or P&S (point and shoot) cannot exceed ISO 400 so you're limited there.

Most action shots are at aperture f/2.8 or so but thats very lens dependant. With a DSLR

or SLR I'd want at least an f/2.8 or lower say an f/1.8. Many photography/exposure books

will explain that aperture is like the spigot in your sink. The more you open it up the more

light comes through. Shutter speed is sort of a gate on that spigot. The faster the shutter

speed, the easier it is to stop the action. However these two are not independant of one

another. The more I open my aperture, sure I get a higher shutter speed, BUT I also get a

smaller or narrower depth of field. That means my focus NEEDS to be right on target. Or

else the wall or the referee or coach will be in focus and the player/ball/puck/whatever

isn't. Shooting sports is tough to get right and I don't believe it can be done "on the

cheap" as many people ask in here. It takes time and understanding of the principles of

exposure and trial and error. Just reading it here or in a book is only 1/2 way. Trying it

and doing it and seeing how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO or film speed affect the shot

is your best learning tool. Its a digital camera, its 'free' to try it out.

 

White balance is a tough one to describe in here and auto might be as good a place to

start as any. While my focus in on a DSLR/SLR environment I believe you can get good

results with yor P&S, not magazine quality results but good enough for the family. If your

camera has a Av or Tv, aperture priority and/or shutter priority then try shooting in one of

those modes. Set your ISO as high as you can, your aperture as low as you can, f/2.8 or

lower, and let the camera choose the shutter speed. Pay attention to what shutter speeds

it selects too. Its good to know for during a game that directly under a light I can get a

shutter speed of 1/500 but in the dark corners I only get a shutterspeed of say 1/200 -

not enough to stop the action in many cases.

Well put, Andrew. Martin, what I mentioned in your <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00EQmR&tag=">last post</a> is mainly still valid, IMO.

BTW, you should be able to get something like <a href="http://success.shoreline.edu/athletics/photo_gallery.htm">this</a> with Andrew's advice above.

First of all thank you so much for all the great comments!

 

Tomorrow i will go to our home gym and practise and try to use your great comments!

 

And if you guys don't mind i will post some again!

 

As for the pics i posted so far:

1st pic + 2nd pic:

 

f3,5 - 1/250 - ISO 640 - automatic white balance - no flash

 

3rd pic:

 

f3,5 - 1/160 - ISO 640 - automatic white balance - with flash

 

Well maybe now you can tell me even more - I did wrong!

 

Happy Christmas to y'all

 

Martin

Martin, pic 1 & 2 are under exposed, I feel. Was there a meter that tells you if your exposure was over or under (usually a bar with "-" and "+")? I'm not sure what lens you're using, but for non-flash, I would set it at maximum aperture (smallest f-number,) set your shutter speed to around 1/250 to start with, and crank your ISO up to 800, or even 1600 if there isn't excessive noise.

You need a faster lens and try shooting at ISO 800. By faster lens, I mean, you need a lens with a wider aperture: At least f/2.8. Olympus makes a couple f/2.8 and f/2.0 lenses for the E-500 but your selection, and therefore price-range, is rather limited.

 

http://olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1192&fl=16

Not sure about Olympus, but my D70 class autofocus can't keep up with the action as well as a pro level film or digital camera.

 

The trick is prefocus at a certain point around the basket and lock the AF and you are set to go! It can be limiting but effective because you can get a great number of shots this way. If your school has real basketball goals like you see in college and pro mounted on the ground in stead of hanging fro the rafters... sometimes you can stand directly behind the goal nearly at eye level rim level and get great closeups.

 

Also fast lense, preferably F/1.4, and an ISO of 800 will do the trick.

 

The images in my gallery were shot with a F6 in a well lit gym at f/1.4 with shutter speeds of 400 using 800 speed film.

 

The best value for amateur money in getting real action shots in a gym is a F100/50mm f/1.4 combo. I rarely missed with it and it does a comparable job to the F6 I recieved yesterday, but at a fraction of the price.