Delores ungs

Ok I'm taking pictures for a friend and I've never done this sport before. I have my camera set on 500 but I was wondering my ISO, what should I put that on? Sometimes it's in the afternoon and sometimes it's at night. They do have the lights on when it's night but I honestly don't know what the ISO should be on. Thank You.http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/compose_topic.jsp?sectnum=1# :?

Erv Loc: Medina Ohio

We need to know your gear. Camera, lenses. Then we can try to help you from there.
Erv

Soccershooter Loc: Indiana

Hi Delores.
If you are very new to photography, start by using your "sports" mode on your camera. That will work 80% of the time for outdoors in daylight. Night pics under lights will require a faster lens. Indoor has it's own issues with light. Most cameras are capable of taking great pics in all conditions but restricted by the lens.

As you learn more about the relationships of ISO - Shutter Speed - Aperture, you can start using other mode settings. Eventually "Manual" setting. I used Sports mode for 4 years and was happy with that until I wanted to learn more. There are books and web sites to help. Check out local library. It is all about capturing light and that frustrates all of us.

Soccer is difficult because large field, players and ball all over the place, distance and light always changing. I don't remember who said it here on UHH, but it was something like: The only thing worse that shooting soccer, is shooting soccer at night in the rain...

It helps to know the sport so you can anticipate player moves. I follow a local HS girls team in the Summer and Fall for 7 years now, love it.


These older posts on UHH may help.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-24526-1.html

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-10990-1.html

photoguy

I shoot a lot of high school soccer. Even with lights I have to boost my ISO up to at least 2500 sometines higher. F-stop is as open as you have and my shutter speed is at 320.
Good luch its not an easy sport to shoot.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

The answer?

The ISO that allows your desired shutter speed and aperture to get the desired depth of field while obtaining a properly exposed photo.

idrabefi Loc: Michigan

I shoot a lot of HS soccer. I use 1/500 to stop action, but leave a little ball/leg blur. I also use lens wide open, which depends on the lens, to isolate player as much as possible. That leaves ISO. I use whatever light conditions will allow, look at LCD images/histogram between shots, and adjust if needed. This is all done in manual mode. The only challenge is when light conditions change (passing clouds). When this occurs, I simply change ISO to auto, or change to shutter/aperature priority.

beverett Loc: los angeles

Use aperture priority, select the widest f-stop and boost the ISO when the shutter speed falls below 1/1000

TTKBJR Loc: Kansas

Hi Delores, I too shoot soccer photos and have for the last 10 years for both my sons high school teams and club teams year round. Knowing what lens you are using would be helpful but as far as settings go, they really depend on the time of day, cloudy or sunny, night, etc... In general for the day with good lighting, I set my ISO to 200-400 depending on the brightness. I take test shots and adjust accordingly to what I see. Need more light, then up the ISO to 400. I shot at speeds from 1/640 to 1/1600 but usually settle for 1/1000 to 1/1250 most of the time. I do not like the blurred legs, I like crisp frozen action shots. I also adjust the shutter speed and the ISO together if its too dark or light. I use a canon F4-5.6 300mm lens during the day so I don't worry about my aperture so much since it changes when I zoom in and out.
Night under the lights is a whole different animal. It is very hard to get good photos under these conditions regardless of the stadium lights. It would be very difficult unless you have the right equipment to do these photos. They will either be too dark or too blurred even if you bump up the ISO and lower your shutter speed. I use a Canon 200mm f2.8 lens for these kinds of shots so without knowing if you have that type of lens, I would not even try night photography as I don't think you will like the photos and I would never recommend using flash photography at any sports event as to not momentarily blind an athelete. Your name would be mud if it caused a bad play due to the flash.
Hope this helps some.