Canon 7D Indoor gymnastics photography (complete beginner)

[Sk8ermaiden]

Hi, I've been the owner of a Rebel T1i for 10 years now, bought used. It stopped working and I just picked up a 7D used for almost nothing. My Tamron 28-75 f2.8, bought specifically for gymnastics meets, is what typically lives on my camera.

I tried to take a class when I got the first DSLR but a weekend was not anywhere near enough time to learn and practice and I reverted to auto for basically everything. I used the sports setting heavily for gymnastics and taekwondo. 

There is no sports auto on this puppy, and while I really want to actually learn to use it, I'd also like it to work for me *now.* Like I am fully willing to learn what the most likely useful setting is, or what the sports setting on the canon rebel uses, and go with it until I learn. 

I wasn't going to post this question, but I saw how helpful you had been to so many asking similar questions on this forum, I thought I'd gve it a shot. This is definitely more camera than I have any business owning, but the 8 fps has me .

Also, does anyone know a good online course for DSLR beginners? Once that moves slow with a lot of reinforcement or repitition? Thank you so much. 

[ebiggs1]

Yeah, Auto and/or Sports mode is probably the worst settings you can use for almost anything let alone indorr sports.

The 7D is more of a pro level camera that's why it doesn't have a Sports mode.

No one can give you the exact settings without seeing the location and conditions there.  However, I can give you some basic starting points.  I use Av mode for indoor sports.  This allows you to set a fixed aperture, say f4 for instance.  The 7D will then select the fasted SS it can for proper exposure.  Second choose a higher ISO number, 800 for starters.  Always shoot Raw format and use a post editor to convert them. Canon offers the very good DPP4 to you for free. You can d/l it if you don't have it already.

You cannot do lens correction with DPP4 since it only handles Canon lenses.  But some, most. commercial and some free editors do. I consider post editing mandatory for the best results. Not an option!

Keep in mind the settings I offered are only starters and they may need tweaking.  ALways get to the site early if you can and do some test shots.  Hopefully you do not have to shoot from the bleachers.  Location you shoot from is by far the most important thing.

[ebiggs1]

"... I saw how helpful you had been to so many asking similar questions on this forum,..."

BTW, "help" is our middle name so feel free to ask away! 

[Waddizzle]

I do not know the extent of your background or experience, so I will assume not that much background training.  There are two parts to being a successful photographer.  You have understand the basics of photography, "Exposure Triangle" and "Depth of Field."  Those are two good topics to search for on YouTube.

The second part is, of course, understanding your gear.  Hear is a series of videos from Canon that teach the basics of photography to absolute beginners.  You want to have a comfortable seat, and your camera on a tripod in front of you.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp-znpQge8HxrllwXwn9B0Xxf1f7BQnXC 

Hope this helps.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Thanks guys, I stayed for an hour when I dropped her off and played with some things. I could not get aperature priority to work very well for action shots (they were usually blurry). Shutter priority between 320 and 400 seemed to get me the best results, but they still are a too dark. Is there something I can do to correct this before it happens? I did a lot of playing with lowering the shutter as far as I could, but obviously failed a lot. And I wasn't there for any running tumbling, which will be even faster. 

This one was exposure: 1/320, aperature 3.2 (which was the absolute max I could get in the gym and not have super blurry photos), ISO 1000. 

This one was shutter speed 200, aperature 3.2, iso 800. 

I'm still reading everything I can find and looking for a good class! 

[BurnUnit]

Next time try setting your ISO to 1600 or 3200 and see if you get a higher percentage of "keepers". You may start seeing a bit more noise in your shots but the higher ISO should allow you increase your shutter speed a step or two. And if you shoot in RAW you should be able to clean up most of the noise in editing with Canon's DPP4 software.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Thank you, I'll give that a shot tomorrow. 

I'm a good with photoshop, but I've never shot in RAW. I'll do some googling about how to get satarted.

[ebiggs1]

"Keep in mind the settings I offered are only starters and they may need tweaking."

Remember I advised to be willing to change those. Av is still the preferred choice, IMHO. Your problem is not Av mode or a slow SS it is insufficient light. Even if you set Tv, your lens is going wide open or at the very least it should. Av defines that, while Tv does not. Also, all camera/lens combos have their limits.  You may be at that point with what available light you have in the gym. Since I will bet artificial light from you is prohibited, your only course is jack up the ISO or get a faster lens.

"I'm a good with photoshop, but I've never shot in RAW."

This is very good to know.  Always, always and always shoot Raw.  Not an option! PS handles Raw files almost seamlessly. You will be offered the ACR converter upon import in to PS.  There you can do edits to the Raw data info. Lightyears better then jpg.

[Sk8ermaiden]

I definitely tried! I may be able to tweak better after more videos and books and practice. I will say I shot a picture of her getting some PT from a coach in TV, AV and Auto, and I was floored how much better (both, but especially) Av was than auto, wow. 

I'll shoot some in RAW tonight. 

[ebiggs1]

"...looking for a good class!"

A good choice and faster than your Tamron might be the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens.