Blurry Basketball Pictures (with example photo)

[sean_mcclellan]

Hello, I have a problem with shooting indoor basketball photos. I am

the staff photographer of my local high school yearbook and i

recently took some basketball pictures and i got them back and most

all of them were blurry in spots. I am using my Nikon N80 with a

Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 zoom lens with 800 speed film and no flash.

My problem is that i am getting really blurry pictures and most of

them are just in spots. I believe the reason why is because when i am

zoomed in, my aperature gets cut down and my shutter speed is

decreased, shortening my depth-of-field. I need to correct this

probem fast and im not sure how to go about it. I cant spend any

money on any zoom lenses with a 1:2-2.8, which by the way would by

very nice, but I dont know what to do. Maybe use my flash to try and

freeze some of the action that way? I also have a Nikkor 28-100 1:3.5-

5.6 lens. If you could help me out, that would be awesome.<div></div>

[j_autey]

Others will have other opinions but here are mine:

 

A: Without a flash, set your camera to shutter priority mode and set you shutter to 1/200 a second. With 800 speed film you should still be able to get good DoF. I don't know how bright the lights are in the gym but it should be enough. Make sure you meter on something like the back of your hand or a gray card.

 

B: Use a flash the drawbacks are that players/coaches may complain, you'll get some ugly shadows and depending on the light in the gym you might only light up part of the court. Set the camera shutter to the flashes fastest sinc speed and shoot again from shutter priority mode. Do not use the little on-camera flash, its worthless for this stuff. Use a mounted flash like an SB 800.

 

Stick with the 70-300, the 28-100 isn't suited for sports. Unless you plan on doing all the shooting from under the basket. Any ways you're not gaining any significant speed with the 28-100 lens over the 70-300.

 

Bracket like crazy, one stop up, one stop down and metered.

[jairy hunter]

See my answer to the other post here:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00E8b6

[Jerry_]

Find or borrow: one AF 85mm f1.8D Nikkor lens. Then you will have something that can handle indoor basketball. (A rough example would be 1/125th second at F2.8, and if you use your 'flash,' you may get better results.) The lenses you have are most of the problem, the indoor gym lights are another.

[g.richardson]

<p>Use **Aperture Priority** and set your lens to its maximum aperture. This is

what the **pro sports photographers** do. This enables the camera to use the

fastest shutter speed for the lighting conditions, and blurs the background. Say you used shutter priority

set to 1/250th and the light would only allow 1/160 at maximum aperture, the only warning

that your shots would be dull and underexposed you would get is the LCD starts

blinking. Don't bother bracketing, it really does not work for sports. You have framed

the shot very well, so no work needed there.</p>

 

<p>The real problem is the lenses. You Nikon users are very lucky because you can get a second-hand 80-200

2.8 for (relativly) little money. Its not a D lens and doesn't have Silent Wave, but it

is a 2.8 and the most useful investment you can make. Cheapest I've seen one in the

UK was 450GBP. </p><div></div>

[armando_roldan]

That 70-300mm is basically useless in a gym. You might get some *acceptable* shots at 70-100mm at f4 at 1/125 of sec but one you zoom out, you bring the aperture to f5.6 and 300mm is almost impossible to hold still at less than 1/250 of sec. A flash would help big time but with the 28-100mm lens. I haven't shot in gym in years but I remember using a 50mm f2 Pentax lens at 1/125 to 1/250 at Tri-x asa 400 and still got quite a few blurry shots.

[j_autey]

Gee Gary, your advice is a real surprise to the 14 sports/news photographers I work with. Hmmmmmmmm

[g.richardson]

I am merly passing on the advice that has worked for me and every other sports photographer I have met through my work in photography retail and at various events, some of whom contribute to major tabloids and sports mags.

[russ_orr]

I have to agree with Gary on this one, it's always good practise to shoot in Aperture priority mode, it may seem a little wrong on the surface, but stop and think for a moment and you should realise why. Even indoors light levels can vary, should you set your shutter speed using a meter reading from a darker area, you may find that it is only just fast enough to keep the subject sharp, 125th is just fast enough for this, but peoples heads, arms and legs can still be blurred, sometimes this is what you want, but with a long lens the chance of camera shake is high, which will ruin any photo.

Aperture priority will allow you to use the fastest available shutter speed the lighting allows, while you control your DoF, shooting wide open will seperate your subject from the background- as the aperture controls depth of field, the smaller that is, the greater the DoF. Should lighting conditions improve for any reason you will still have the benefit of seperating your subject from the background and for reducing the chance of shake.

 

There is no need to bracket- you'll go through film 3 times faster, and may miss the shot that you want while changing film.

 

My advice to you is:

 

Use Fuji 1600 speed film, this although gives poorer quality images, they will still be usable and give you an extra stop, this will sharpen up your photo's and remove the problem of not being able to afford an expensive lens or flash.

 

If this isn't an option use your 800 and underexpose one stop, when developing ask the lab to if possible push process the film by 1 stop. Or if not negative film has about 2 stops latitude, by using this you can ask the lab to print the photo's a stop lighter, with a little extra contrast- this again lowers the quality but should still give usable images.

 

Also while in Aperture priority mode, use spot metering, crowds are often unlit, and even skin colour and strip colours can fool metering, by using spot you meter for your subject, using two of these together will give you the very best chance of getting your shots without spending (much) money

[carl_auer2]

Av mode may by the standard for "Pro's" on the other side of the pond, but the top pros in the US use M mode and a handheld meter mate. Thanks for the laugh though.

[lex_jenkins]

C'mon, is that necessary? If the photographer gets the goods who cares what mode is used? Metering preference is a pretty lame excuse for a pissing contest.