Best lens for travel baseball photography? Please help I am lost on settings and lens. A year later.

[Aprice2016]

I have the Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 is USM Lens with 67mm UV Filter and canon eos r7 camera. A year later I have failed to get any decent photos of my son playing baseball and I have played with settings so much that my pictures are all blue. Please help with suggestions. Do I need a different lens? Suggested settings or videos I should watch?

[deebatman316]

Can you please provide example pictures in the forum so forum members can better assist you.

[Tronhard]

Hi and welcome to the forum:

My first thought is that if you have played with the controls so much, then setting the camera back to factory defaults will help you and will help us to help you, as configuration changes you have made may create a lot of confusion for us all.  See Page 840 of the Advanced User Guide for instructions.  I advise resetting each of the two options.

Do you have a PDF copy of the Advanced User Guide to refer to?  If not, you can download a copy here: cam.start.canon/en/C005/manual/c005.pdf
It would help to narrow down your issues if you can tell us what parts of the photography process are challenging you:  focus, exposure or both?  Definitely showing some images (preferably linking to the original files via a file-sharing app, so we can examine them, would help).

As to videos that may help you.  I would suggest that you watch the following videos, which cover stuff you know, but also a lot you may not:
Canon R7 Tutorial Training Overview Set Up - Part 1 - Made for Beginners (youtube.com)
Canon R7 Tutorial Training Overview Set Up - Part 2 - Menu System - Made for Beginners (youtube.com)

Setting up Back Button Focus can be a significant help for shooting sports, action and wildlife:
Master Back-Button Focus | How to Back-Button Focus on your Canon Camera (youtube.com)
Note that the presenter mentions that you need to set the Focusing system to be Servo. So, if you are not getting eye/face tracking on the subject of your choice, and if the subject is static, you focus on it and TAP the AF-ON button, if it is moving and you want to track it, then HOLD it.  At that point Eye tracking should kick in.

[ebiggs1]

"... then setting the camera back to factory defaults will help you and will help us to help you, as configuration changes you have made may create a lot of confusion for us all.  See Page 840 of the Advanced User Guide for instructions."

I am all in favor of a total reset to factory default. I am not in favor for any advanced focus settings or any settings out of ordinary camera operation. That is most likely why a year later you are not getting what you want. Most of the time the camera is smarter than you might think it is. So let's let the camera do most of the work. Your images are blue because you messed up the WB setting but a reset will fix that back to daylight. After the reset let's try Av mode and One shot using just the center focus point or center array of points. Do not use Ai-servo or any focus modifiers, Leave it set to One shot. The R7 is a crop sensor so the 400mm FL is going to need a fairly fast SS. Something in the 1/500 up and 1/1000 up is even better.But using Av mode will let the R7 do its best at SS. You can use auto ISO and set a low and a upper limit of your choice probably like 200 to 6400 is good. Set the WB to daylight but the reset should have done that so leave it there.

Now all photography gear has limits as to what it can do if these settings don't get you what you want it may not be possible with your gear. If it is a day time game these settings should be fine. One word about using the big 100-400mm, you have to hold it steady all the time even if you have a fast SS set. Hold is very important. Lastl make sure you are using raw format and not jpg. D/l DPP4 from Canon to u/l the photos to your computer DPP4 is free so you need to get it. It will also let you do some basic to advanced edits and make average shots into brilliant ones.

This is Billy Butler hitting another home run at a Royals game. This was with a 1 Series and a 300mm f4L lens.

BTW, never use any of the so-called "Creative" settings on the left side of the main dial.

[wq9nsc]

Baseball games generally have better lighting conditions than a lot of sports so in this case a lens that is f8 at the long end will probably work OK.  And as others said, it is probably time to reset back to factory default and start over.

I shoot all sports in manual exposure with aperture generally wide open, shutter speed fast enough to freeze motion (1/1,000 minimum for baseball and go faster if lighting conditions permit without pushing ISO too high), set ISO to auto.  Shoot in RAW so that you will be able to do the most with your image files in post processing.

AF should be set to servo and restrict the focus points to either the center or just above center because you need to choose what is important in the image.  Concentrate on the action and don't try to just use continuous high speed to catch the action or you will end up with a lot of garbage and very few keepers.

Location is always critical and that can be an issue in baseball.  You may have to carefully choose and shoot through an opening in the protective mesh/fencing depending upon your level of access.

Photos below captured with Canon 1DX II and III bodies with 400 and 800mm lenses using fast shutter speed and auto ISO.

Rodger

[stevet1]

Aprice2016,

Here's the way I think I would personally approach it:

Learn how to set your camera up to back button focus. That's where you take your focusing off the shutter button and change or re-assign to a button on the back of the camera. Most of the time it's the AF-On button.and you do your focusing with your thumb.

Next, set your focusing to AI Servo. That way, if your son is sliding into third or diving to catch a fly ball, you can follow him all the way through the action. With AI Servo, your focusing will continue al long as you hold down the button. The focusing will stop and lock on when you let go of the button. You can focus and shoot at the same time. In a scenario where there is no action, just tap your AF-On button once. That way you don't have to focus and shoot, focus and shoot, focus and shoot.

Thirdly, I would set your shutter to Continuous shooting, either high speed or low speed. The R7 is capable of 30 shots per second with the electronic shutter and 15 frames per second with the mechanical shutter, but you don't have to shoot 15 frames, just fire off 3 or 4 in an action sequence. Your bound to get at least one good one in the sequence.

As far your pictures turning out blue, I think somehow you've set your Kelvin White Balance temperature down way too low, around the 3900K range or less. I think if you used one of the White Balance Presets like Daylight or Cloudy, your pictures will turn out better.

Steve Thomas

[deebatman316]

The EOS R series has renamed "AI Servo" to simply "Servo AF" now. Don't know why they changed the name.

[deebatman316]

I would also discontinue the use of the UV filter.

[ebiggs1]

"I would also discontinue the use of the UV filter."

Absolutely, not needed and may hurt.

[ebiggs1]

Aprice2016,

I am again going to stress you re-read my post and keep it simple at first. Get some good shots before you expand to the more advanced settings. It is those advanced settings that have caused what you are seeing in your photos now. It is best to learn to walk before you try to run.

The guys that make the suggestions to use the more advanced settings are not new photographers so it  makes perfect sense to them. You are not going to get the photos like Rodger gets at first or without his level of equipment. Rodger also made the very most important point of all, "Location is always critical and that can be an issue in baseball."  It is location, location and location, where you shoot from is paramount.

The second most important thing is for you to d/l DPP4 from the Canon web site and use raw format files and not jpg. Never jpg. This all well before you touch the camera/lens. Reset first. Try my suggested settings and see what happens. Now go for it and make some fantastic pictures.