Express Action Sports

I have a Nikon D40 and would like to take action shots of snowboarders in the snow. Which settings should I put for the best results? Please also tell me for both sunny or cloudy because I don’t know what the conditions will be.

This is a difficult question to answer in a brief manner with a blanket solution. I am assuming that whether cloudy or sunny, you will be shooting during the day.

You MUST learn how to change the exposure and read the exposure light meter. Do lots of reading (the manual). This will help you get the best shots possible.

But for a quick answer, try this:

For moving targets try Dynamic Area Auto-Focus (AF)
Here is a link discussing AF use shooting sports: http://www.sportsshooter.com/message_display.html?tid=25922

You will likely want to use "Shutter-Priority" mode when shooting.
Use shutter speeds longer than 1/100th of a second to get some motion blur. Shutter speeds shorter than 1/250th of a second will freeze the action and make the subjects look less motion blurred.

If you pan the camera with the snowboarder and use a shutter speed longer than 1/100th of a second, you may get the snowboarder to appear crisply and the whole background to be motion blurred.

When shooting pictures of air, the lower the camera is, the higher the air will look… and ideally the camera is on the peak-side, facing down the hill (if the camera is facing up the hill to look at a jump, there will not be any visual reference for height.

For a very bright, sunny day – try ISO100 first. The lower the ISO, the less digital noise your images will have and the crisper they will be. If ISO100 makes the shutter too slow or images two dark, adjust it up to 200 or 400. When you exceed 400, the noise will drastically increase. It is unlikely that you will need to go that high in daylight conditions.

800 and 1600 should be reserved for dark or indoor shots only, when you would not otherwise get the shot… or when you want a noisy grainy shot (sometimes people like noisy black and white shots).

These ideas should work in most cases; but seriously… it is all about trial and error with exposure settings… and nobody can tell you precise settings without being there and metering the light.

If you know how to, meter your shots every step between -1 to 0 to +1 EV… and when you find the most appealing setting, use that.

If you shoot in RAW, you can adjust brightness and contrast a little bit without image degradation… when you get home and put them on your computer. This only gives you a little bit of wiggle room though, not a lot.

Good luck

Tomorrow I will be taking pictures of high school wrestling indoors in a gym and soccer on an outdoor field. I have the Nikon D40 with18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses and I was wondering what settings I should use to take the best pictures for both sports.

Wrestling.

You’ll want to position yourself so you can shoot from a low angle, particularly when the wrestlers are on the mat. Frame your subject tightly and just keep shooting. What you are looking for is facial expressions which convey the stress of the struggle to those that view your images. I would suggest you use the telephoto lens. I would also suggest you use a flash as well; most gyms are poorly lit using florescent tubes, creating flat top lighting conditions.

Soccer

That will definitely require the use of the telephoto lens and to tell you the truth, 200 mm isn’t big enough. It can be done. You’ll want to move along the sidelines with the motion of the game, shooting only the action on the side from which you are standing. Action on the other side of the field will be too far way for a 200 mm to capture with good resolution.

Look for action where two players are battling for the ball. You can also position yourself to get shots of the goalie making saves. The key thing is to anticipate the action. If you see the image you want through the viewfinder, you’ve missed the shot.

I love taking pictures and my brother has the nikon D40. I’ve taken lots of pictures and I really would like a Canon instead of a Nikon, I know the T1i has HD video taking option, but what is the big difference between the XS and XSi? Aswell I would like the cheaper one but I want one that can take good close up’s and I love taking action shots, like sports (hockey, skiing) What would you recommend? Pro’s and Con’s.

Real simple: Except for slight speed difference;
The XS is a base model with a 10.1MP CMOS sensor (better for low-light than Nikon D40/D40x/D60/D3000 – which all have a CCD)
The XSi adds live view ( but focus is much slower in LV mode) and 2.2MP more.
The T1i adds HD video but won’t AF in video mode, so you must focus before recording & hope your subject doesn’t change distance or manually focus. It also ups the resolution to 15.1MP.

The lens matters more than the camera (all three should work for you). I’d recommend getting it at a camera store as they will help if you have any problems (try getting photo help @ Walmart).

My main area of intrest is taking action shots and sports photos. Can anyone help or give me some suggestions to what I should be looking at? I’m planning to buy, but I don’t have an unlimited amount of funds, if you know what I mean. As a matter of fact, I’m kind of strapped. Any suggestions on the best deal with greatest performance?

The main things you want to look for in cameras for sports photography are;
Frames per second – lower end Nikons and Canons have around 2-5 FPS. It all depends on what you need for the speed.
Lens selection – You may be strapped for cash now, but what about a year from now? You want to get a camera that has a huge selection of compatible lenses so next year you can get that 600mm lens if you want.
Zoom or telephoto lens – These are nessecary in sports photography! Personally, I’d go for the zoom as it’s more versital.
A steady tripod – stay away from those aluminum pieces of junk. You will need something that isn’t going to break anytime soon. The more you zoom with a camera, the more chance for camera shake. I got a great carbon fiber one from amvona on ebay $40. (don’t buy direct from their website.)

I don’t know what your actual cash situation is but if I needed to stay on a tight budget, I would go for this setup:
Nikon D40 – $533.28 from Amazon
Nikon 70-300mm zoom lens – $483.54 Amazon
Amvona carbon fiber tripod – Around $40 from ebay.
SanDisk 2 GB, Extreme III SD card – $34.99 on sale at Adorama

If you have a little more in your budget, I would upgrade the camera body to a D80 or D200. The D300 was just announced so the D200 price should drop quite a bit (most likely in October or November)

If you’re more of a Canon type, you can find similar setups in the same price range from them as well.

Good Luck!

I have to do action photography for my art project. I chose to do lacrosse. Would you reccommend me using a nikon d40 or a fujifilm.

Of course. The D40 has a 1/4000th second shutter speed. I shot sports and action using cameras with a 1/1000th shutter speed for years with manually focusing lenses. The D40 shutter is four times faster and auto-focus.

I have been reading a lot of reviews on the D40 and one of them said that it is not a good choice for action sport shots. I was just wondering if others thought this to be true as well? If you believe it is a good choice, what accessories do you think would be useful for me to have? If you believe it is a bad choice, what camera and accessories would you recommend? Thanks for any help.

I don’t know were you read that … can you give us a link?

Here is a good review of the D40
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40.htm

You will want to look for AF-I and AF-S lenses that are long enough to shoot sports

You will see it is one of the recommended cameras (in the entry level DSLR").

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm

The Nikon D80 may be a good choice, but it is nearly twice the cost.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d80.htm

I use D200’s with 400mm f/2.8 and 600mm f/4.0 lenses, but if you look at the cost of that equipment, it will make your toes curl

I’m getting engaged in extreme sports photography, i want to know a good camera in the 600-700$ price range, i already own a gopro, so thats out of the question. I already plan on picking a couple more up. I just need something with clear footage and relative zoom so i can get that perfect shot!

Thanks

You can use a good entry level dSLR like the Nikon D3200 or Canon T3/1100D, but what you need is a lens like the 18-200 mm so you can get tight shots at different parts of the track or good wide shots on nearby corners.

That means that your budget is rather small for what you need for shooting any motor sports, which includes extreme sports.

I have a colleague who shoots X-Games and he uses an inexpensive Nikon D40 with a 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens and flash. With the D40, he can shoot at high shutter speeds, higher than the standard 1/200th or 1/250th second restriction of CMOS sensored cameras.

Cost wise this is the break down. A good used Nikon D40, about $350. A AF-S Nikkor 70-200 mm f/2.8, about $2,400 and the SB 800 flash, about $400

If you are planning on shooting video, then you can probably use consumer grade video camera like those made by Canon, Panasonic, JVC or Sony

I am a real novice. Only used a point and shoot before, so please don’t get too technical on me. I’m trying to shoot indoor volleyball. I bought the camera to eliminate the shutter lag, but now what?

You should find yourself using the 55-200mm lens more often than the 18-55mm. The 18-55 is useful for wide shots of the game and the crowd but will do little to bring in any action.

Since the lenses you have aren’t very fast (open the aperture as wide as possible) and the games are indoor you’ll either need to use a flash or a higher ISO (ISO 800+ should be adequate). Keep the shutter speed as fast as possible to minimize blur. The pop-up flash is nice but will not help you at a distance. I’d suggest buying a Speedlight or a cheap slave at the very least.

If you have no idea what I’ve just said, just use the sports scene mode and the camera should automate everything for you to the best of its ability.

I’m going to my niece’s cheer leading competition and am most likely shooting from the stands. I have a Nikon D40 with a 18-55mm lens and a 55-200mm lens. What would be the best settings to capture great action shots? I normally get blurry, ghost-like shots when shooting in the sport mode. Any suggestions?

The problem may be the lighting. If it’s indoors, the shutter speed may be too low to get good freeze-the-frame shots.

Work in shutter-priority mode and set to 1/250 of a second. If the camera can’t set your aperture low enough for that to work, adjust your ISO higher. The danger in this is that with a higher ISO you’ll get grainier pictures and lose clarity, but it may be the only option you’ve got. I’d try to go no higher than ISO 800.

ISO + Speed + Aperture = Exposure.

A good exposure calculator is linked to below.

Ok, first off I have the basic Nikon D40 starter kit. I would like to do some Action Sports photography (bmx, skateboarding ect) as a hobby and maybe some freelancing in the future. Id like to be a photographer for a magazine company such as Transworld or Dig BMX, but I dont even know where to start besides the park or street taking pictures of locals working on my skills and what not. A photographer talked at my schools career day my senior year and he said that photography schools arent really needed so I dont know how I feel about schooling. I need all the tips and hints possible, what kind of lens should I get and along with other accesories. How do I get my photos out there, Im not looking for pay, I just want to fallow a passion and see where it takes me.
Thanks. 🙂 (Sorry for the randomness in my structure of typing, running on no sleep haha)

I think that you should photograph your friend the skateboarder, or the bmx’er so that you have someone that feels comfortable while you take their pictures. WHY?? So that you get a hang of what pictures you like taking, I know they might look weird because they will all be of the same person, but once you get down what style you have and what kinds of pictures you like taking, then you can start meeting other people at the skate park and taking their pictures and start building your portfolio. Try using the receding lines of the ledges and rails in order to make a little bit more interesting pictures. Also, get down and take pictures from the ground looking up so you will have different colors on your pictures (sky, etc) and it will look like whoever is doing the trick is flying. There are a couple of other tricks, for example try to set the camera so that you have a semi slow shutter speed -1/30 or 1/40 (and isn’t overexposed) and follow your subject as it moves – so that the picture has this effect: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/images/2008/02/20/nyc_taxi_3.jpg

Anyway…most of all, have fun! See you later!!