NH: Digital SLR Camera Settings

Just bought a camera and was messing around with it on the weekend taking pictures during the ABL basketball games and was wanting to ask a few questions.

For a basketball game, what settings work best.

Recently I have been using S 1/125, Av 4.5 ISO 3200. I have been finding these pictures come out a bit dark and do not capture the player/s quick enough.

I know if I increase the shutter speed this will become darker so what setting can/do I adjust to get more light in.

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Avid Camera Guy
Years ago

And yes I know I can not spell avid (advid)

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Anonymous
Years ago

i use:
ISO1600
s 1/160sec and
I am usually in shutter priority mode which means that the aperature is set automatically, that is the setting that i have found the best so far. However that was at the dome for the 36ers quarter final this year, and the lighting may have been a little better than an aba game.

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Avid Camera Guy
Years ago

Thanks will try that setting this weekend

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Anonymous
Years ago

hey contact me off board if you want

[email protected]

just remove the spam bit

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billo
Years ago

As luck would have it I've just done a photography course this weekend on exactly this type of stuff!!

If you use an ISO of 3200 your photots will come back grainy but it will allow you to use a faster shutter speed.

For sports you'd want to use a shutter speed of around 1/250th of a second so in order to let in the correct amount of light for a good exposure the apeture will need to quite wide (low F stop)as there's generally not a lot of light inside a stadium.

I think you probably need to have a high ISO and 1600 or 3200 is about right, you can run your photos through 'noise' reducing software (apparently noise ninja is good but I've not used it - perhaps it would be appropriate for photos of Darren Ng) to reduce the graininess. As the person above wrote you'd want to be in shutter priority mode (unless you've got a tripod and want to get the effect of movement of players), try 1/250th. The camera will automatically calculate the correct aperture.

Your best bet is to take a bunch of photos and take note of your settings and determine what works best. A good flash gun can be used from a long way away so if you're serious about good shots in low light (such as a suburban stadium) you make want to invest.

Hope this helps and happy snapping!!

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Fish22
Years ago

We use a Nikon D1 and D70 and find the D1 is a lot better for basketball shots than the D70 which has a built in flash.
Not sure what you have, but to get the best out of it you might need a external flash such as a Nikon Speedlight.
I find some basketball stadiums are really dodgy and the lighting doesn't help your pics, but you'll need a decent flash and having the setting on continuous/ sport, will mean you keep taking snaps rather than trying to anticipate the play. On this setting the shutter speed should be fairly fast, otherwise the faster the better.
Kneeling at the baseline, without getting in the way of the ref, is a good idea as you can get loads of action shots under the ring.
Its also good to have the setting on high resolution and then you can always reduce it on your computer later on.

Hope that helps
If you need more info, let me know.

Fish

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Sixers33
Years ago

wtf are you guys talking about?

technology these days...

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Hoops

NH: Digital SLR Camera Settings

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