hi to all sports photographers....just curious as to what settings you use for the following sports:
1. basketball
2. car racing
3. tennis
4. track and field
5. other sports....

i usually shoot beach volleyball with settings at f/5.6 or f/4 at 1/400 to 1/800. iso 200 to 400, depending on the skies. i try as much to do manual focusing but since most of the time the action is so fast i miss out on some focus. so if pressed for time, i just put it on auto focus...problem is it's not a full proof solution either...:Sick:....so like they say, practice...practice...practice

would love to hear about settings for other types of sports. would also love to hear some inputs / experiences on obstscles you've encountered in your photo assignments.

cheers!

Leni, for basketball it would be very much dependent on the gym's lighting. Take Araneta for example. I try as much to keep my shutter speed at 1/400. In the big dome, I need ISO 1600 and F/2.8 to fix my shutter on 1/400. But in Ninoy, I can shoot F/2.8 1/400 using ISO 800 - the downside here is the lights aren't uniform in temperature in Ninoy whereas in Araneta, they are pretty much uniform.

For track and field I prefer to use the widest aperture available to me while keeping my shutter speeds in between 1/400 and 1/800.

Baseball is quite tricky. I have tried time and again to freeze the ball coming from the pitcher. Believe me, even at 1/8000 there's still motion blur. I try to get the max shutter speed when shooting baseball.

I'm a one-shot focus person regardless of what sport I'm shooting.

Obstables I have encountered:

1) I HATE THIS: newspaper photographers firing their flashes in the midst of a great layup or dunk. I have tons of images utterly destroyed by this

2) being pulled from the collar by bodyguards of VIPs then shoving me to get out of the way

3) uncivilized photographers who try to fit themselves in the two inches of space between you and the person sitting next to you. ANO BA, WAG KANG SUMIKSIK DITO!

nono, i know what you mean about the lighting conditions. luckily beach volleyball is outdoor...duh....

about those rude photographers trying to grab the last inch of your space...i encountered that during the track events of sea games....what's worse...some foreign photographers who smell funky....hahaha....you know what i mean...and yes whenever the first gentleman is around, they set a 50meter radius perimeter for photographers...i wonder why???

but thanks for the info! i'm trying my luck at getting a pass for the upcoming pba and the tips you gave will truly help!

For the PBA games try securing a pass through one of the teams. If you have any friends or relatives who works for one of the companies behind any of the teams, that would be a good start.

nono, i know what you mean about the lighting conditions. luckily beach volleyball is outdoor...duh....

about those rude photographers trying to grab the last inch of your space...i encountered that during the track events of sea games....what's worse...some foreign photographers who smell funky....hahaha....you know what i mean...and yes whenever the first gentleman is around, they set a 50meter radius perimeter for photographers...i wonder why???

but thanks for the info! i'm trying my luck at getting a pass for the upcoming pba and the tips you gave will truly help!

leni, they have to put a 50-meter radius around him because he is so big he end bumping you destroying your equipment...or steal it :Grin:

leni,

it's really difficult to give you the 'usual settings' because they will depend on what kind of photograph you are trying to make.

generally, however, if you want simple straightforward sports images, you just try to keep your shutter speed as high as the lighting allows. maintain a relatively big aperture to blur out the background and simply to achieve, as i have said, a fast shutter speed.

regarding 'rude photographers':

it's the nature of the profession to grapple for the best position. this is especially true for news photographers.

remember, pro photographers are being paid to capture the image.

so if you're content with shooting from a bad angle just so you don't come off as 'rude'...i don't know how that might work out for you. maybe landscapes? kidding!

however, i agree that jockeying for the best position to shoot from must be done politely.


btw, i checked out your multiply link. very good volleyball images!

hochi: yeah you're right! hahaha...never thought of it that way

scott: thanks for viewing my multiply site! you're right. pro photographers are paid to get THE right shot...so i shouldn't be complaining, right?? i do the same sometimes..hahaha

regarding usual settings? yeah a straightforward shot would be to just keep shutter speeds as high as lighting will allow. thanks for the input!