Do you shoot?

Also one rule some of my photographer colleagues told me years ago: Don't use a flash indoors even in a horribly lit gym, it's distracting to the players and probably will overexpose your shots. Is that (still) a commonly held belief?

 

If I couldn't use a flash, I wouldn't have any pictures, other than the ones you could get while the action was stopped. Enough parents and kids are using flashes when they snap for thier own personal use or for the annual . I don't see where one more can hurt. Especially, when I can get my shots out of the way and back to the game. I can do write or snap pics well, but not both at the same time.

 

Wicked,
I'm not trying to judge here, but your side gig isn't at a paper, is it? Because I don't think one of those photos are usable.
It's the quality. They're dark and grainy looking at them here and based on what I've shot, if they look bad on my computer they look worse in print.
It has nothing to do with your capabilities as a photog; it's everything to do with the equipment.

 

You're right, Rhody, it's not for print.

 

wicked, can you tell me a little more about the lenses you have available to you?

Also, if you don't mind, I'd like to offer some thoughts on your images.

 

AD, it's why I posted 'em.

Only shooting now with a 50mm f1.8. Yes, I know I need something better. Pilot recommended a 70-300mm zoom for outdoor sports, and I have a flash somewhere. (I believe it has a light meter on it, too.) It's on the to-purchase list.

P.S. Really glad this thread has shown up. I know there is not enough demand for a photographer's workshop-style board, but at the very least we should have a running thread.

 

Obviously, the first thing that has to happen is that you HAVE to get a longer lens. I've shot some basketball passably with a 50mm, but for sports played on a field, it's a virtual non-starter.

Outside of that very easily identifiable issue, I noticed something really, really troubling in your two soccer photos. You are shooting at 1/60th of a second at f/22. This means you're not able to stop action, plus your depth of field is out of control, which is why you're seeing dust and threads in your image. You should be shooting at the largest possible aperture your lens can give you. This means setting your aperture to a far smaller number. If you can shoot sharply at 1.8, go for it. Most fairly inexpensive lenses that go down to 1.8 tend to get a bit soft at that aperture, so you might try 2.8.

If you had shot at 2.8 instead of 22, you could have shot at around 1/800th of a second and gotten the same exposure.
Or, you could have shot at 2.8 and 1/400th and been a bit better exposed.
Alternatively, you could have shot at 2.8 and 400 and lowered your ISO from 6400 to 3200, which would have been to your benefit with a camera of that age.

On a sidenote, for buying gear, I always recommend keh.com. A tremendous amount of the gear at the j-school at UT was purchased there.

 

Thanks for the tips, AD. To be honest, I haven't the foggiest clue about settings...I thought setting at a higher aperture would help my images out. I'm not a genius.

I'll probably be picking your brain some more via PM, if it's OK.

 

No. Do it here. You're not the only one who wants to learn

 

Bring on the PMs. Also feel free to email me (addy's on my site, linked in my sig).

Smaller aperture (higher number) does help with focusing sometimes, since it increases the depth of field (the amount of the picture that's in acceptable focus). There's a phrase you'll hear photographers use sometimes (especially in street photography) -- f/8 and be there. Basically, it means put it on f/8, focus well but quickly and your DoF will (mostly) cover you. It's a reminder that it's more important to be there for something than it is to have the perfect settings/technical answers.

Remind me tomorrow and I'll offer up some tips for using flash effectively.

 

Oh, I like this.

Also, I hope this is useful for you guys, and that I'm not either talking over people's heads or talking down to you. It's hard for me to gauge where everyone is.

 

Fair enough, slaps. Just didn't want to overwhelm everyone with dumb questions.

AD, thanks for the advice you've imparted thus far. You're talking over my head a tiny bit now, but that's not your fault -- I'm literally starting at ground zero with no one to turn to for advice.