Indoor sports photography- what settings?

Twizzel

Twizzel

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Rach
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I have quite a bit of experience of photographing sports outside, mainly equestrian sports such as show jumping, eventing, showing etc etc. I use a Canon 350D with Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 and this works perfectly outside with a shutter speed of 1/1250, ISO of 800, camera on shutter priority.

However next week I'm off to watch a friend showjumping indoors, and am not sure whether to alter those above settings or not? No option for a flash as it will put horses off, spook them etc, so any ideas as to what settings to use, or shall I stick with the above set up? :thinking:
 
My advice FWIW is to shoot RAW + JPG, that way you stand best chance of rescuing any photographs which turn out underexposed because of your need for high shutter speed. Turn up the ISO to as high as it will go without imparting unacceptable noise to the picture - do some test shots before hand at different ISO values so that you can see how your camera performs at various ISO values.

Look for the type of shots which you may otherwise ignore - those which do not necessarily demand high shutter speeds. Can't comment on this sport but I would have thought that there are some situations which don't necessarily involve fast action.

Shoot in Av - aperture priority mode and make a decision on how low you want to go in terms of shutter speed - again, you know your sport but I would have thought that something like 1/320th is around the mark ... and open up that lens but be mindful that you may not get the depth of field you are usually expecting.

Alan
 
You are about to learn exactly how much less light to a bright sunny day is enough to cause you problems.

You won't get anything like 1/1250th at ISO800, not even at f2.8. On the 350D isn't ISO800 as high as it goes? I can't remember now... but certainly its going to get pretty dreadful if it does go higher.

If you want to experience a taste of what is to come, try pointing your camera around in your house with the normal room lighting turned on... and you'll see what I mean about how what you would consider to be not light levels that give your eyesight a problem are a problem with photography.

You will need something that can cope with high ISO (3200) and some decent glass and maybe flash to carry this off with any success. Nikon D700 seems to work quite well for arena sports... but a D3 would do :D
 
Have a look at this.... this was one of my mates shots from the O2 arena the other week:

http://flickr.com/photos/gribbsy/3228659943/meta/

1/200, f4 and ISO 3200....

What is the minimum speed you need to freeze a horse in motion? 1/400? 1/500?
 
A lot can depend on the indoor arena. I was at Talland in Gloucestershire last year where the arena was so well lit I was getting good speeds at ISO 400 @ f2.8. Here is an example, shot at f4, 1/320th and ISO 400:

2898291776_0529f43bef_o.jpg


Conversely, I was at College EC in Bedfordshire a couple of months later and I was barely able to get 1/200th at ISO 1600 @ f2.8.

The only advice really is to open the lens as wide as possible and push the ISO as high as you dare.
 
"On the 350D isn't ISO800 as high as it goes? I can't remember now... "

Its actually 1600, but lots of noise above 1000!


I have a photographic memory that was never developed
 
Cheers folks, it's not a big competition, just going to watch the horse I share and our yard owner's daughter ride in the inter schools comp so there's really no need (or money!) to buy new kit. As I said nearly all of the sports photography I do is outside during the summer.

desantnik aside from the fact that I don't have a flashgun, I wouldn't ever use it when photographing horses. IMO it's quite unprofessional and selfish, as it not only puts the horse off but will also put the rider off.

My friends are expecting fantastic photos- I'm going to have to either prep them before hand on how cr*p they may be, or get some decent pics outside in the practise arena!!
 
Twizzel,

I have no idea whats acceptable for horses to be honest... in some sports its ok to use flash, in others its not. Those that you can't use flash require some very expensive gear to get the shot - eg most of the US indoor sports...

Some motorsport its accepted, others its not...

Oh well, failing that at least you have had some warning of how its going to pan out :D
 
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