What am I doing wrong now? (Page 3): Shooting manual is fine if your light is consistent enough you can set and forget. But your settings can change just by zooming into your subject...

DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

Shooting manual is fine if your light is consistent enough you can set and forget. But your settings can change just by zooming into your subject or panning from shadow to light and when you have to shoot fast in sports why take the chance of missing something. I shoot sports quit a bit and what it boils down to is the affect you want to achieve and/or how much light is available to shoot with. I shoot AV wide open with my 70-200 f2.8L IS II and adjust the ISO based on available light. If there is lots of light then low ISO (200-400), Not so much then bump it up (400-800). I like the shallow But if there is plenty of light I'll shoot a lower ISO. and set my shutter speed to 1/1000th or more - whatever it takes to freeze the action. I guess in a nut shell what I'm trying to say is you do not want to be futzing around with settings while trying to shoot a sporting event you will loose too many shots in the process. I'll post back with some samples when I get a chance.

Cookie223 wrote:

Thanks Daniel.
I guess besides being an amateur, not have much time to play with my gear, and trying different ways to achieve a decent result I'm not grasping this to well. Past suggestion made were to avoid AV at all cost especially for sports shooting. Maybe manual mode isn't what I should be using, at least not yet.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Thanks again Daniel,
Besides that fact that I don’t get enough chance to practice, I do have the problem you describe using manual mode. Between trying to follow the action, staying in focus, and zooming in and out, has been a challenge.

ejones0310 Loc: Tulsa, OK

Cookie223 wrote:

I recently got the Tamron 150-600 G2 and I'm start... (show quote)

I shoot a lot of little league on my 80D with my Canon 55-250mm. I set the shutter speed to 1000 as that is plenty fast enough to freeze the action. The aperture is wide open because I don't want a deep depth of field. I set the ISO to auto. So far the only noise I've seen in my shots is when the sun goes down and the lights come on. But the noise is no worse than Ektachrome pushed to 400 was.

Push your 7D to the extremes and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

jwn Loc: SOUTHEAST GEORGIA USA

When in situation of light and dark like a sporting event or birds in flight. Pick your shutter and F stop (based on the sweet spot of your lens) then put ISO on A automatic and let the camera adjust so you can move from light to dark and get it right not fumble with wheels and knobs. The metering choice make some difference I use the whole scene not spot but your choice.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

ejones0310 wrote:

I shoot a lot of little league on my 80D with my Canon 55-250mm. I set the shutter speed to 1000 as that is plenty fast enough to freeze the action. The aperture is wide open because I don't want a deep depth of field. I set the ISO to auto. So far the only noise I've seen in my shots is when the sun goes down and the lights come on. But the noise is no worse than Ektachrome pushed to 400 was.

Push your 7D to the extremes and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks ejones. I took some pictures of my grandsons lacrosse came yesterday and will post in a few min.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

jwn wrote:

When in situation of light and dark like a sporting event or birds in flight. Pick your shutter and F stop (based on the sweet spot of your lens) then put ISO on A automatic and let the camera adjust so you can move from light to dark and get it right not fumble with wheels and knobs. The metering choice make some difference I use the whole scene not spot but your choice.

JWN, the fumbling with the knobs is exactly one of my problems.
Thanks.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Ok folks here are my most recent pictures that I took yesterday. Following your suggestions, and especially with the help of Jules Karney who was very gracious to share his techniques, I consider these to be the best I have taken. I know to many of you these will be below your standards, and I still need to learn more, but they are just great for me. The problems I did have was trying get get a clear focus while following the kids around the field. I tried AF continuous while panning (that didn't work well at all) trying to manual focus wasn't easy especially while trying to follow the action.

The Tamron 150-600 G2 is new for me and I'm learning how to use it. I did notice that some of the pictures had a higher ISO than I wanted but the pics came out ok.

Big thanks to all of you and to Linda who provided the link that pointed me to Jules.

(Download)

Toby

I'll bet you are spot metering and the spot is on the girl witch is the only bright thing in the view which makes the auto ISO think there is enough light. I would increase ISO, increase speed to reduce blur, set aperture to about 5.6 and change compensation to bring in more light and maybe add more metering spots.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Toby wrote:

I'll bet you are spot metering and the spot is on the girl witch is the only bright thing in the view which makes the auto ISO think there is enough light. I would increase ISO, increase speed to reduce blur, set aperture to about 5.6 and change compensation to bring in more light and maybe add more metering spots.

Thanks Toby,
Since this posting and following the great suggestions the members have made, some of my shots are coming out much better. I'm still playing around with the camera and lens, and eventually will get this right.

Take care,
Cookie

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

In the first two photos it looks like you metered the players. The proof of this is that the white uniform is gray. Don't meter the white uniforms. As to what to meter, that would require some time ... an old film day trick was to meter your hand (if the light hitting your hand was the same light hitting your subject) and then open 1 1/2 to 2 stops. It all has to do with the camera's meter thinking that what you metered should be produced as gray. Understanding this will allow you to know why metering your hand trick works.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Howard5252 wrote:

In the first two photos it looks like you metered the players. The proof of this is that the white uniform is gray.

Thanks Howard, my old eyes see the uniforms as being white. I’ll change the metering at my granddaughters next softball game.

Pixeldawg Loc: Suzhou, China

These simply look underexposed to me. I've shot sports for nearly 30 years now, and I always meter on the grass. It is close to a middle gray and will give you a fairly accurate reading. I also use an Expodisc to ensure that the color is accurate. The Expodisc allows you to make a custom white balance. The third shot looks pretty good and I'd say your post work is working pretty well. If you have troubles with this consistently, make sure you are exposing correctly and if it continues, get a repair shop or the manufacturer to double check the meter and shutter for accuracy. Also make sure your exposure compensation is set to "0" when you make these tests.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Pixeldawg wrote:

These simply look underexposed to me. I've shot sp... (show quote)

Sorry I didn't respond sooner. I'm in the middle of moving and it has been nuts around. Thanks for the tips, and has soon as I get a chance I'll try all the great advice you folks have provided.