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Posted on Jul 10, 2009
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When on sports setting, my camera shoots slow and blurry when indoors

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  • Expert 71 Answers
  • Posted on Jul 10, 2009
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More than likely, your exposure- specifically your shutter speed settings- are too low. When you have fast action, you must have a higher shutter speed (Higher, meaning that the DURATION of the exposure is less. So, an exposure of 1/250th of a second is more desirable than an exposure of 1/30th of a second when shooting indoor sports. (This difference equates to about 400% more exposure, duration-wise). When shooting sports indoors, a "Fast" lens, meaning that the front of the lens is bigger, which allows more light into the camera at one time. (This normally equates to "F-Stop" settings. So, a 50mm F1.4 lens will be a "faster" lens than a 50mm F2 lens. The lower the F number, the "faster" the lens. This also equates to higher prices...) Another consideration for shooting stop-action sports photography indoors is using higher ISO settings. When you double the ISO number, you cut the amount of light required to make a good exposure in half. So, ISO 200 requires half the light of ISO100, and 400 requires half the light of 200 and so on. Typically, I use a setting of ISO 800 or higher for indoor sports (Which, BTW is my speciality...). The trade-off for using higher ISO settings is that it introduces more noise into the image, which many people find less desirable. I also wrote a few articles for POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING about shooting sports. The "football" article will more than likely be the most help to you. Basically, ALL sports photography is shot the same way, and if you use these techniques, your work will greatly improve. Here is a link to those, and hope they help!

http://www.popphoto.com/Blogs/Sports-Photography

http://www.popphoto.com/Features/Shooting-Talladega-Superspeedway

http://www.popphoto.com/Features/How-to-Photograph-Football

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Related Questions:

1helpful
1answer

I am trying to take action pictures on my kids in sports, everything is blurry. The continuous shooting mode is slow. Do I just need a better camera or is there a setting fix for this?

Hi, If you find the continuous shooting mode and the sports mode just isn't cutting it I'd suggest a batter camera. Depending on your price range and size my suggestion would be a Canon S95 or moving up to a DSLR. If your need more help with choosing a camera let me know and I can give you a hand =)
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Shoot at speed

The sports mode on a DSLR just picks high ISO and fast shutter speeds for you. Go Karts are very fast subject to focus on, so there are two techniques you can try.

One is to set your focus to manual mode and pre focus a point where the car will pass through. Set the camera to multi shot mode and just before the kart gets to the pre-determined point, hit the shutter button. The camera will fire off a few shots, then review later on a computer to chooset the best one out of the sequence.

Another way is set your focus mode for AI-Servo or Focus Tracking mode, this will enable the lens to track moving subjects (as single shot mode is way to slow to keep up with karts). Go to the slowest part of the track to get more sucess.

One problem you maybe having is that the shutter speed is too slow for karts. Being indoors the lighting will be very poor, so a super high ISO rating will need to be used to get faster shutter speeds. Having a lens with a very wide aperture (like f2 of f2.8 or even less) will enable you to get faster shutter speeds because they let in more light.

Good luck.
0helpful
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When the camera is on sport mode all pictures are blurry

This rather odd as the "Sport" mode should cause the camera to use faster shutterspeeds in order to stop your subject from blurring.

I can think of two issues here: First, in order to get faster shutterspeeds the camera uses a larger lens open to let more light reach the sensor. This results in less depth of field and makes accurate focus even more important. It also may be that the "Sport" mode defaults to "Continuous" focus which will allow the camera to fire before the subject is in focus.

The other problem could be that you are using a low ISO setting which results in slow shutterspeeds. If you are shooting outdoors try setting the ISO to 400. Indoors, you will need to go to 800 or even higher.

The one that I really must stress is that you should read the manual. There is always some information on how each mode works and how each should be used.

If all else fails: Switch to A, "Aperture" mode and set the camera to use the lowest number f-stop (displayed as "Fn.n" on the camera's top LCD. This may work better for you in any case.
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I have the Nikon D60 - Ive taken sport/action pictures

The main difference between the two shooting conditions is the amount of light you have to work with. For the indoor action shots, set the ISO setting to the highest available through the menu (1600 ISO) to maximize the ability of the camera to work with the diminished light. The other (but more expensive) way to achieve better indoor shots is with the use of a "faster" lens, ie one with a lower maximum f stop number (f2.8 is faster than f3.5, for instance). Also ensure you are shooting with your lens at its widest f stop setting (lowest number).
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Nikon D40x flash will not go off

I have the D40x. Only thing i can think of is the little sensor thing on the front down and to the left of the release button. If you have your finger over it, the flash don't work and the focus won't work right. "Infrared assist" in the manual. Myself, I use the sb400 strobe flash cause the popup flash uses too much power from the camera battery.
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Sizes and their corresponding resolutions

Personally I would select the highest setting offered. In my case, there are 3, good, best & bestus, or maybe its better. That should give you better results. All blurry can mean other things too, like shooting indoors, at night or similar low light situation. And what happens is: camera select a slow shutter speed in order to give you the right exposure or amount of light. And if its using a slower shutter speed - you have to hold the camera steady, otherwise you'll get blurry shots. which I shoot in low light, I'll find something to lean on or some way to brace myself so that I (hopefully) won't get the "blurs" And using the lcd display (instead of viewfinder) may contribute to the blurs as you generally hold the camera out to arms length to view & shoot which makes it difficult or impossible to hold the camera still/steady in that stance.
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Blurry indoor photos C-750

Use A mode and set the biggest aperture you can set (f3.5 ?) this this will then allow the camera the fastest shutter for the availbe light. In low light conditions this still may onlt be 1/4 sec which is still to slow for hand holding a camera. Best you turn your flash on huh.
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Indoor flash images are blurry

It is possible you have the Flash Mode set to one of the Slow Sync modes (lighting bolt with the word Slow). Slow synchronization flash sets a slow shutter speed for the background exposure and fires the flash for the subject exposure. Since the shutter speed is slow, your subject should be still and the camera should be on a tripod otherwise blur can result. Since this mode should only be used when the above conditions can be met, you should use the FILL-IN FLASH (single lighting bolt symbol) mode for most situations that require a flash for correct exposure. Repeatedly pressing the FLASH MODE button will cycle through the various flash mode settings.
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Indoor flash images are blurry

It is possible you have the Flash Mode set to one of the Slow Sync modes (lighting bolt with the word Slow). Slow synchronization flash sets a slow shutter speed for the background exposure and fires the flash for the subject exposure. Since the shutter speed is slow, your subject should be still and the camera should be on a tripod otherwise blur can result. Since this mode should only be used when the above conditions can be met, you should use the FILL-IN FLASH (single lighting bolt symbol) mode for most situations that require a flash for correct exposure. Repeatedly pressing the FLASH MODE button will cycle through the various flash mode settings.
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1answer

Images are blurry

It is possible you have the Flash Mode set to one of the Slow Sync modes (lighting bolt with the word Slow). Slow synchronization flash sets a slow shutter speed for the background exposure and fires the flash for the subject exposure. Since the shutter speed is slow, your subject should be still and the camera should be on a tripod otherwise blur can result. Since this mode should only be used when the above conditions can be met, you should use the FILL-IN FLASH (single lighting bolt symbol) mode for most situations that require a flash for correct exposure. Repeatedly pressing the FLASH MODE button will cycle through the various flash mode settings.
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