Outdoor Action Photography

[Kristi Stevens]

I shoot a lot of soccer games during daylight hours. I recently bought an Olympus 510. I have tried different settings such as Manual with shutter at 1000-1250, iso automatic, continuous focus, aperature low to high, and then Shutter priority, shutter at 1000-1250, continuous focus, aperarure is automatic with shutter priority and is usually pretty low, iso automatic. Whenever my aperature is high with a greater field depth, my pictures are too dark, almost black. When my aperature is low I can't get the crisp clear look on faces that I would like. They seem out of focus. I think that is the reason atleast. Does anyone have any advice for me to get crisp clear pictures?

[bob_r]

Hi again,

When I shoot daytime sporting events, I normally use aperture priority. I adjust the aperture setting to get the depth of field I want and allow the camera to set the shutter speed. If the shutter speed is too low (getting blurred shots), then I first try adjusting the ISO setting. If I can't keep the ISO setting at 400 or below, I have to open the aperture setting a little more.

You really don't need a shutter speed of 1000-1250 to capture most athletic events. By setting your speed so high, you are forcing the camera to set your aperture at the widest setting and probably your ISO at too high of a setting to get usable images.

Hope this helps.

Bob R

[bob_r]

Kristi,

I thought I'd give you a couple of examples showing some sporting events taken with slower speeds.

This was taken at 1/500s - less than 1/2 the speed you used.
Canon 30D - Canon 70-300mm - 1/500s f/5.0 at 200.0mm iso400


This one was taken without a flash I did bump the ISO and set the aperture wide open.
Canon 30D - Sigma 50-150mm - 1/200s f/2.8 at 54.0mm iso500


Not exactly a sporting event, but running was involved and this was taken on a very cloudy afternoon. 1/250s was fast enough to stop the action.
Canon 30D - Canon 100-400mm - 1/250s f/4.5 at 105.0mm iso400


I thought maybe the examples would help more than the explanations.

Bob R