Please help me capture indoor track events

[eastpt]

My son is an accomplished college track multi eventer, (heptathlon and decathlon), and I would love to get some pictures of his events. I bought a Sony A200 and added a promaster edo 70-300mm lens 1:4 - 5.6 to get some shots from the stands. Indoor track meets are usually seen from far away and in not great lighting. I have read through many threads looking for help, but my limited knowledge of aperture and f-stops keeps me in the dark. What I would love to do is to get some information like what iso to set to and what f-stop and exactly what settings to use, and then I could use that as a baseline to learn more as I gain an insight as to what settings produce what results. I would love to take a photography class, but I travel a lot and can not be sure I could make al the classes. So, if anyone with knowledge of my camera can help me with some starting settings and basics, it would get me going in the right direction. Thanks for your anticipated help.

[jacobovs]

My son is an accomplished college track multi eventer, (heptathlon and decathlon), and I would love to get some pictures of his events. I bought a Sony A200 and added a promaster edo 70-300mm lens 1:4 - 5.6 to get some shots from the stands. Indoor track meets are usually seen from far away and in not great lighting. I have read through many threads looking for help, but my limited knowledge of aperture and f-stops keeps me in the dark. What I would love to do is to get some information like what iso to set to and what f-stop and exactly what settings to use, and then I could use that as a baseline to learn more as I gain an insight as to what settings produce what results. I would love to take a photography class, but I travel a lot and can not be sure I could make al the classes. So, if anyone with knowledge of my camera can help me with some starting settings and basics, it would get me going in the right direction. Thanks for your anticipated help.

IMHO, you have the wrong lens for indoor sports. You need a faster lens, like a 70 - 200 f2.8 or you need to use a flash. Flash does not seem practical if the athletes are far away.

[eastpt]

Thanks for the reply. The man at the camera store had the same setup and he said he covers basketball games and wrestling meets, so I thought it would be perfect for indoor track. Maybe I should ask him what settings he uses.

[eastpt]

Thanks for the reply. The man at the camera store had the same setup and he said he covers basketball games and wrestling meets, so I thought it would be perfect for indoor track. Maybe I should ask him what settings he uses.

[mattbikeboy]

Pop you ISO up as high as you can (1600 at least). Does your Promaster have manual focus? You'll have to pre-focus or manually focus with your aperture opened up as wide as it will go (smallest number). Good luck, the guy at the camera store wasn't exactly telling you the truth. Like it was mentioned above, if you want to to get good results you need fast glass (f 2.8 or faster f 2, f 1.8, ect) and a DSLR that will shoot high ISO with little noise.

Good luck.
mbb

[sgriggs2006]

Hello,
I am not familiar w/ your camera, but will give some thoughts regardless.
Is there any way you can get down on the floor where the athletes are competing? Even if its down on the floor of the bleachers, right on the track? I am assuming some of the events are running....and I would try to get as close as possible to the action. This will allow you to take advantage of a flash at closer distances. Do not worry about "distracting"" the athletes...if the kids are looking directly into your flash, then they are NOT paying attention to what they are doing....

Pump up your ISO as others suggested, and perhaps utilize some of the software that you can use to reduce the noise that you'll get w/ the higher ISO's....
My first thought would be to take back the camera you purchased, but it might be too late for that...in that case, you'll just have to make what you have, work! YOu will defintely need an external flash, if you can put one on the Sony.
cheers,
sue.

[sgriggs2006]

One other thought is to observe the indoor arena lighting....Quite often I find there are sweet spots of light that I try to shoot athletes in....This may be brighter light, or the type of light (I think that when they replace bulbs they don't always use the same type of bulb- or at least thats what I think in this one gym that I shoot).
cheers,
sue.

[OldClicker]

My first thought would be to take back the camera you purchased, but it might be too late for that...in that case, you'll just have to make what you have, work! YOu will defintely need an external flash, if you can put one on the Sony.

What??? - TF

[SmartWombat]

His settings wouldn't be much use unless you are at the same events.
Lighting is different, the action is different.
I would ask to see his work, examples of what he's done.

After all, I can cover an indoor go-kart event but my pictures could suck.