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. 

[wq9nsc]

For sports, I often keep the focus point one or two above dead center.  It depends upon the sport.  Given the subjects, I would choose a focus point that would be on the subjects face during a typical shot.  You always want the selected focus point to have good contrast to work with so make sure it isn't on a plain white uniform.  In some situations you may be better off using a single point with expansion in case the single point ends up on a no contrast area.  Try both setups and see which works best for you, your camera/lens, and subjects.

I use AI Servo for sports.  IF the subject is standing in one place, then one shot AF is OK but if you are at an angle where there is any movement to/from the camera then you want the camera to be able to follow focus.

Since Canon cameras started providing auto ISO mode, for sports I use manual aperture and shutter speed settings with auto ISO enabled.  For indoor sports your aperture is usually going to be wide open but with stationary or slow moving subjects with a fast telephoto you may close down a stop or two and simultaneously reduce shutter speed to keep ISO reasonable while gaining more depth of field which also makes perfect focus point selection a bit less critical.  For the scenes I am seeing in your examples, 1/250th is likely fast enough for shutter speed but you would have to bump that up when needed if the moves become faster.

ALWAYS shoot these in RAW since you can correct white balance and adjust for a fairly wide exposure miss in post.

And be very happy that you have really good lighting for an indoor setting.  This is what I typically see with winter indoor soccer, shot with an EF 200 f2 wide open @ 1/640 which is the bare minimum for soccer and it still pushed the ISO to 10,000.

Rodger

[ebiggs1]

In PS there is Bridge.  Bridge is free and comes with PS.  The thing is and a lot of people don't know this but I am going to tell you, using Bridge and PS, you have exactly the same thing as you get with Lightroom. Shooting Raw and Bridge you will get directed to ACR.  There you will recognize the same controls as you get in the Develop Module in LR. The difference now is after editing in ACR you get directed to PS where further editing, more serious editing, can be done.

When using Levels you can use layers and masks to do targeted adjustments. MOF, this applies to all edits in PS.

[jrhoffman75]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

In PS there is Bridge.  Bridge is free and comes with PS.  The thing is and a lot of people don't know this but I am going to tell you, using Bridge and PS, you have exactly the same thing as you get with Lightroom. Shooting Raw and Bridge you will get directed to ACR.  There you will recognize the same controls as you get in the Develop Module in LR. The difference now is after editing in ACR you get directed to PS where further editing, more serious editing, can be done.

When using Levels you can use layers and masks to do targeted adjustments. MOF, this applies to all edits in PS.

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OP has Photoshop Elements. Different set of tools than Ps.

[BurnUnit]

Something else just occurred to me, remembering that this camera was purchased used. The previous owner may have made some Custom Settings or made some adjustments to settings to his own preferences that are still active in this camera. It couldn't hurt to do a full reset of the camera to the factory default settings so there's a known baseline before making any other changes.

[ebiggs1]

"I cycled through at least three, including one-shot and manual, and I think the AI focus. I don't believe I used al-Servo today because I was trying out the others. They ALL look like this or worse."

I believe you are trying to make this more difficult than it has to be or actually is. For the boy, your son(?), outdoors all you need was P mode.  Let the camera do the rest. Most of the time One Shot and just the center focus point will be the best practice choice. Remember, KISS, usually is the best.

 I am not a fan of auto ISO because I don't ever give the camera control over two legs of the exposure equation. If you stick with the Av mode, let SS be selected by the camera, ISO at or above 800.  Again, One Shot and center focus point. Now if needed adjust ISO up or down yourself.  This is the best option and if it doesn't work, again because of camera limits, there isn't a lot more you can do. Insufficient light is always a problem.

Always shoot Raw. Always use PS to convert and edit. 

[wq9nsc]

Ernie,

I agree that I won't give the camera control over two legs of the exposure triangle which is why I fix both aperture and shutter speed.  With sports, shutter speed slower than critical is going to result in too much motion blur and a step or two faster is desirable if conditions permit.  Most of the time indoor lighting is so bad that aperture has to be wide open for the lens and the shutter speed on the ragged edge of unacceptable levels of motion blur.  So those two exposure elements are very close to being fixed constraints based upon the shooting situation and I lock them in and let auto ISO keep the ISO as low as possible while maintaining proper exposure.

Depending upon the lens, camera, and lighting it may require slowing shutter speed to a less than optimal level to allow for acceptable noise and that is likely with older camera bodies that produce more noise at increased ISO.  If so, I would fix it at that point and on rare occasions I have had to make that tradeoff.

In a situation like this, try to position yourself to fill as much of the frame as possible because cropping at high ISO makes noise and loss of detail a much bigger issue. 

Rodger

[ebiggs1]

I love this and should have suggested it from the first. Good job!

" It couldn't hurt to do a full reset of the camera to the factory default settings so there's a known baseline before making any other changes."

[ebiggs1]

"...I fix both aperture and shutter speed."

It is always the dilemma when exposure is the limiting factor and either is the correct choice.  They are so closely related. Which do you choose? Do I give up blurry shots for OOF shots? 

However, I think if you poll pro sports photographer that actually make their living at it, they choose Av.

They set a minimum SS and, yes, some use auto ISO at least part of the time. The fellow I bought the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Sports Lens from is an NCAA photographer. I got to know him and some of the others a bit and picked their brain since I am not a sports photographer.  I usually avoided jobs in that area.  I have done a few for various reasons and circumstances. But its not my cup of tea.

I would never attempt to tell you or suggest anything since you have found a way that is working very well for you. It is obvious from your sample shots. However, I think it is best for a new person to start with at least the popular settings perhaps the easiest settings that seem to provide good results. As is the case sometimes there may be a limit to what can be done. And, as always there are usually several ways to accomplish the ends. 

[wq9nsc]

Ernie,

I agree people have to use what works for them.  For me I know that shutter speed has to be at least "x" depending upon sport so it has to be fixed.  Given typical lighting, wide open aperture is usually required.  So the only free variable left is ISO.

Peter Miller has started suggesting auto ISO as have some of the other NFL shooters.  I think the slow adoption is because it wasn't available until fairly recent years so there was a lot of learned habit.  But it works very well.

And during the off-season I finally did figure out how to get the camera bodies to do one thing I needed quickly and that is to be able to easily cycle quickly between two setups with a single button push.  Most of the time I am shooting wide open with fast shutter speed but there are brief moments when more depth of field is needed (i.e. post score celebration) so narrower aperture is needed but the shutter speed can also be slowed a bit for that to keep the ISO in check.

This method works for all three of the 1DX series bodies but I am not sure which other Canon bodies can utilize this feature:

1.  Set up the camera parameters you want for the "slow action/greater depth of field" scenario and save those to C1.  Delete anything in C2 and C3 so that they are not in the rotation sequence.

2.  Set up your normal game parameters in whichever mode you use, manual for me.

3.  Reassign the m-fn button to C under custom controls.

Now pressing the m-fn button toggles continuously between your standard setup and C1 mode.  You could use additional custom modes and toggle through those but that greatly increases the odds of ending up where you don't want to be and increases toggling time so two is all I need and use.  I will be using this often for sports.

Rodger