Shooting Indoor Basketball

[Suzann]

Ok, I'm going to a playoff basketball game tonight, and wanted to get the best shots, but don't know what settings I need to achieve that...

I own a Canon XTI, have the standard lens it came with, and also have a EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens (I think that's the one.. it's telephoto)

Any suggestions???

 

[KrazyPete]

Indoor sports are tough.

I set my camera in manual. I open the aperture all the way up, set my ISO at 800 and then I set my shutter so that I'm underexposing by two stops. That usually gets me fast enough that not all of the action is blurred. I have to go back in fix the underexposure in Lightroom later. I end up with some grain in the photos but it's better than not getting anything at all.

I have a Nikon lens similar to the one you have and I'm sorry to say, it's not very good for indoor sports. It's just too slow. Maybe basketball has better light than competition cheerleading. Let me know how it comes out.

Edited to add: If you are underexposing as much as I do you probably want to shoot in RAW. You have more headroom later for fixing the shot. RAW is slower than shooting JPG and that can be problem if you plan shoot in burst mode (a pretty good idea for sports). If you want your speed and you're going to shoot JPG, maybe only underexpose by one stop. Chimp a lot to make sure that all the motion on the floor isn't blurring.

 

[Snurk71]

Pete, I have a question about underexposing in the low light situation. Maybe I have my terms backwards, but if you're in low light and you can only have the shutter so slow to catch the action, aperature so open, and ISO so high and you still get dark pictures (because you can't coutneract how low of light you have to work with) - is that not the same as saying your pics are underexposed? So why are you taking it a step further and creating even darker pictures?

I'm a little confused on how overcompensating the picture to darker will end up with a better picture in the end.

Thanks

 

[Master Mason]

The idea is to have a darker picture so you can have a faster shutter speed and then lightening the photo aftewords.

When I am shooting indoors, I shoot in AV open all the way, and ISO 1600. I also bought f/2.8 lenses because of these situations.

One other key note for basketball is the lights tend to be very strange, so it plays havoc with your white balance. Either set your own custom white balance, or be sure your shooting raw so you can adjust it later.

 

[Snurk71]

I might be dense on this one.

I'm probably not going to use the correct terminology. But are you saying you set the exposure compensation down two stops? If so, I guess I don't get how making your picture darker through the exposure comp will give you a faster shutter. I thought the shutter would be the same, regardless of whether you over or under exposed on the exposure compensation - you would just end up with a darker or lighter picture out of the camera.

 

[KrazyPete]

Mason had it exactly right. I underexpose on purpose so I can get the fastest shutter speed possible. I can correct the exposure to some extent. But if my shutter is too slow and I get motion blur then I can't do anything about it.

Basically I'm pushing the ISO as far as I want to in low light. At 1600 the noise becomes noticeable. I'm fine with it at 800. If the aperture is wide open then the only thing I have left to adjust is the shutter. If the camera's light meter indicates a correct exposure at 1/25 of a second then I'm going to move two stops down to 1/100 of a second (still slow but this is just an example). The faster shutter speed means I'll have a better chance of stopping the motion (no blur).

It may make more sense to push the ISO to 1600 and underexpose by one stop. Theoretically that's the same exposure as my settings. The end result may be the same or better because you have to do less to correct the exposure in post processing. I might test that theory out. Since the OP is shooting a Canon she may want to start at 1600 anyway. They are supposed to be better in low light/high ISO situations.

Edit: I don't think exposure compensation applies in manual mode. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Master Mason]

I might be dense on this one.

I'm probably not going to use the correct terminology. But are you saying you set the exposure compensation down two stops? If so, I guess I don't get how making your picture darker through the exposure comp will give you a faster shutter. I thought the shutter would be the same, regardless of whether you over or under exposed on the exposure compensation - you would just end up with a darker or lighter picture out of the camera.

There are 3 parts to the puzzle on Exposure. ISO, Shutter Speed, and Apeture. To get proper exposure all three must be in balance.

So for example ISO 800 Shutter speed 1/100 and Apeture f5.6 would give you the same exposure as ISO 1600 shutter 1/250 and apeture f/5.6 and would be the same as ISO 800 shutter 1/250 and apeture f/4.

One stop up in one must cause a one stop down on another.

So if you under expose by two stops in our example you could set your camera at ISO 800 shutter 1/500 and f/5.6 in the lighting example above. You have underexposed your shot by 2 stops but you have gained 2 stops in shutter speed, which will allow you to freeze the action better, but you end up with a darker picture. You then post process some of the light back into the picture.

Will this result in perfect shots, no, but it is a better solution than having no shots because the motion blur ruins the picture.

hope that helps.

 

[Anewman]

There are 3 parts to the puzzle on Exposure. ISO, Shutter Speed, and Apeture. To get proper exposure all three must be in balance.

I guess it depends on what book one reads, I always considered it 4 parts...

 

[Master Mason]

I guess it depends on what book one reads, I always considered it 4 parts...

what part did I miss?

 

[Steve's Girl]

Edit: I don't think exposure compensation applies in manual mode. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm pretty sure ex. comp. applies in manual mode. It does not apply in auto mode. At least, I've used it in manaual and I am assuming the camera is adjusting the exposure

 

[KrazyPete]

Regarding Exposure Compensation in manual mode, my manual says:

Exposure compensation is available in modes P, S, and A (in mode M, only the information shown in the electronic analog exposure display is affected; shutter speed and aperture do not change).

So I guess in manual mode it does apply, sort of. All it's doing is adjusting the display so that what reads as a "correct" exposure is actually off by whatever you've set your exposure compensation at. I never use it in manual mode.

 

[Anewman]

what part did I miss?

Oh you did not miss anything, you addressed available light. Just that I always considered available light to be the most important piece of the exposure puzzle while others don't. My middle school photo teacher(like 1981) went on for a semester about it b4 even allowing us to touch our cameras(AE-1 program), every time I am shooting outdoors and the clouds cover the sun I remember him.

 

[Anewman]

I'm pretty sure ex. comp. applies in manual mode. It does not apply in auto mode. At least, I've used it in manaual and I am assuming the camera is adjusting the exposure

Exposure compensation is just the photographer telling the camera to under/over expose the image.
The way the camera under/over exposes depends on the mode the camera is in, IE: if you are in Aperture priority mode the camera will over expose by slowing the shutter and if in Shutter priority it will adjust aperture.

In manual you are setting the exposure and can under/over expose by manually adjusting any of the them. In other words if you are setting the exposure settings yourself, just set your own exposure compensation.

 

[seashoreCM]

Almost all zoom lenses have a larger maximum aperture (are faster) at the widest angle compared with at the maximum telephoto. So you have more flexibility with the exposure in low light and/or fast action situations when you can sit closer to the action and not have to zoom in.

Exposure compensation can work in auto mode also.

If the same scene has both very bright and very dark areas, you can use exposure compensation (plus) to bring out the shadows at the expense of washing out the highlights, or (minus) to clarify the highlights at the expense of burying the shadows.

Exposure compensation also works for the topic at hand by (minus) making the camera take the picture (underexposed) despite the shutter speed and aperture and ISO not reaching far enough and where hopefully the compensation speeds up the shutter.

If you want to take the same picture with and without exposure compensation, you must point the camera precisely the same way for each shot. Otherwise you get an apples to oranges comparison. The base exposure and therefore the compensated exposure will differ slightly to profoundly depending on the scene content actually contained in the specific shot.

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[Snurk71]

I finally looked up what I was talking about in my XT manual and now realize that I didn't fully know what I was talking about. I didn't realize what the exposure compensation function was actually doing. I finally looked through the manual tonight and read where the exposure comp function isn't available in Manual mode. So when I've used the function in tV to overexpose/lighten a picture a bit, I didn't put 2 and 2 together to figure out that the function was just opening up the aperatue further - same thing I could control in Manual mode if I wanted.

 

[rtphokie]

ISO, crank it all the way, you can fix the grain later
Aperture, open it all the way
shutter speed, as you can and still get a decent photo.
flash, dont bother, it wont reach.

I've used ISO 1200, aperture f3.5 and between 800 and 1000 shutter speed and gotten some decent results.

Shoot a couple of test shots before the game and as long as you can make things out, don't worry that they are a bit dark.

If you've got Photoshop, rather than just crank up the brightness and hope for the best, try using layers in screen mode to bring out detail lost in the darkness. more info here

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