Indoor Rodeo Action.

[colgra]

Hi all, I have a Nikon 300s with a Nikon AF VR 80mm-4000mm. I am having trouble with taking indoor rodeo action, I do not have the savvy to work out the camera. I get blurred images and would really like to get some good shots this week..any help will be appreciative...Colin

[SmartWombat]

Welcome Colin.
How about posting some of the images so we can see the problems you're facing?

The 80-400 is quite a small aperture lens for indoors, f/4 at best and f/5.6 at worst. That lets in less light than my favourite (but expensive) f/2.8 lenses. But not too much, you can compensate for that by turning up the ISO speed.

There is no free lunch though, as you turn up the ISO you get more noise in the image.
But the good news is that your D300s is pretty good at high ISO speed, so you can afford to turn it up to 800 or maybe 1600 and still get good images.

With your lens, and no examples, that's my first suggestion.
Turning up the ISO lets you use higher shutter speeds which give less blur.

[Photo-John]

I do not have the savvy to work out the camera. I get blurred images and would really like to get some good shots this week..any help will be appreciative...Colin

Indoor rodeo shooting is a pretty big technical challenge. What shooting mode do you usually use? SmartWombat is right - bumping up the ISO manually is a good start. I'd shoot at a minimum of ISO 1600. What you need is a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. I don't shoot rodeo but I'm guessing 1/1000th of a second would be the minimum. I recommend you dig into your camera manual and play with the "S" or shutter priority mode. It allows you to set the shutter speed and then does everything else for you. If your camera has an auto ISO setting you could also use that - one less thing to worry about. But you're going to have to make sure the shutter speed is fast enough to freeze the action.

[colgra]

Thanks guys so much...will try what you said and post the outcome..thankyou both!! Colin

[Photo-John]

Thanks guys so much...will try what you said and post the outcome..thankyou both!! Colin

Make sure to practice before the event, too! You want to figure out as much as possible before the actual event. If you can go to the venue a day or so early to shoot some tests, that would be the best. If you can't do that, try to find a place with similar lighting to test in. Make all your mistakes before the real shoot so your final photos will be as good as possible