Stop action sports indoors

[marion1060]

Hi:

I have been trying to do take stop acton shots at daughters volleyball games and of course can not use a flash and im getting very frustrated.. Have the canon 20d.. and the following lens: canon 50mm f/1.4, canon 70-200 f/2.8 and a canon 28-135 f/3.5-5.6.

I have been trying eveything I can imagine. sports mode, manual, using a monopod, tv,av with no luck.. does anyone have any suggestions?? i am not getting the shots i want.. can anyone help me??

any help is soooooooooooo greatly appreciated..

thanks,
marion

[BFiredup]

Can you post some shots, so we can see what is going on?

The pro's here will be able to help you, for sure, but easier when they can see what you have....

[livin4lax09]

try using your 20d and 50mm f/1.4, stop it down to f/1.8, push your ISO to 1600, then shoot in manual mode using your f/1.8 as your aperture, and whatever shutter speed gets a correct exposure for your shutter speed. The beauty about shooting indoor sports is that the lighting never changes, so you can shoot manual without thinking about the sun/clouds, etc.

[JSPhoto]

Welcome to the forum Marion1060.

Shooting volleyball is tough, getting the action stopped is tougher in a gym, especially if it's a dungeon. Contrary to what some believe lighting in a gym does change, as bulbs age they become weaker, in some cases flickering, or even turning on and off as the ballast dies (went through that last week at a basketball game) worse yet it affected another light as well, so I'd have great light or no light. Some gyms have dark areas where lights just don't do much, and then there is that pesky WB, if you move it changes.
I have shot with a 50mm f1.4 and the only way it work is if you prefocus, it will not focus fast enough no matter how good the light is, especially on the 5D and under camera bodies, but the 20D is tougher as it's AF is the same used in the 300D Digital Rebel, both constantly search in gym gym lightingSo set your AF to Manual mode, open up the aperature to f1.4 and the ISO as high as it will goes (the noise will be bad , use NeatImage or similar to work the noise to managable levels in PP) and set your shutter to get correct exposure. Even at that you probably wont get the ball stopped completly. You'll need at least a shutter speed of 200.
Another thing to get more light is to to shoot down towards the floor as you will get addition light from the floors reflection. That won't work with the 50mm as you'd be too far away. You can also up the exposure compensation to a max of +3 to help you out.
Personally I'd use the 70-200, you still would probably have to use prefocus due to the 20D's lack of response in AF, and use it for shooting down towards the floor.
The attached photos were all shot using the 70-200 f2.8 @ shutter of 200 and ISO 1600 in the two worst lit gyms in our county.
1-3: All shot looking down from a balcony that circles the gym
4 &5 from floor level at another gym, the bottom shot appears as if flash was used, thats actually caused by a flickering light!

If you post some examples we can help you out more as to what the problem(s) are and give you some other ideas on what to do. The sports and other modes (AV/TV) won't work for most sports shooting though.
JS

[marion1060]

hi:

thanks for all of the advice that was sent my way... as soon a i figure out ( ) how to post pictures i certainly will. i have a chance this saturday (1/20/08) to shoot more pictures at daughters volleyball game. going to take this advice and put it to good use.

thanks again
marion

[JSPhoto]

Marion,
Posting images is fairly easy once you get the hang of resizing them. If you have Photoshop Elements use the "Save For Web" and resize the photo so the long side is 640, then go up top and select "maximum file size", then where it says "100" move the slider left to get the file size under 240.1 KB and then save it and upload it.
Good luck Saturday. Our volleyball season ended back in November, none till September now.
JS

[marion1060]

JS
Thanks for all your help... Going to try your suggestions Saturday... Keep your fingers crossed.. Thanks again... Marion
P.S. Going to wait to post after Saturday's game.. Our season ends in March..

[JSPhoto]

Good luck tomorrow Marion1060 Don't make it harder than it is! ie: don't overthink things, go by your meter (one step over center is good) and use your histogram too (if your camera has one)!

JS