EOS 60D Indoor Sports Photography Advice

[carissawv]

Hello,

I'm seeking advice on indoor sports photography, equipment, and software. I have 60D and use the 70-200 2.8 IS III.  I have LR 4 and Photoshop Elements 13 and I'm trying to figure out if upgrading my equipment and software would help or if this is purely skills that need to be improved. I shoot in RAW.

1/5400 2.8 2500 WB fluorescent

1/500 3.5 6400 WB fluorescent

[Tronhard]

I have the 60D and I still love using it!  Like you I have Topaz noise reduction and that can be very helpful in situations such as this.   As several people have said, the 60D is a capable camera and you have an excellent lens there.  You are very wise to consider technique before upgrading to different tech.

I am curious about what you produce from your shots: do you create for on-line or digital viewing or produce prints - if so, how big?

Definitely getting as close as possible to the action is important for a couple of reasons:

1. You can use a shorter focal length when the players are closer to you, which should help reduce camera shake

2. As you and others have said, the light coming to your camera should have more intensity (the inverse square law of energy dispursion applies here!).

3. Also as has been said, shooting low offers more dramatic composition.

One always has the challenge of balancing Depth of Field, Shutter Speed and ISO.  In the first shot, taken at 1/5400 sec, I would have thought your SS was higher than you actually need, even dropping down to 1/1500 or 1/2000 would help with the ISO and DoF.  If you want the boy to the left to be more in focus  you could thus gain some DoF.

It's worth experimenting a bit to see what SS you can get down to for the type of movements you are working with.  

[jrhoffman75]

Typo by OP. It was 1/400  for one image an 1/500 for the second.

[Tronhard]

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@jrhoffman75 wrote:

Typo by OP. It was 1/400  for one image an 1/500 for the second.

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Ah THAT makes more sense!!!   I DID read the thread but must have missed that one...

[carissawv]

Trevor,

I mostly just post online or do small prints for family and friends. Thanks for the advice.

Thanks for catching the typo, John. I don't know how I missed that!

[Tronhard]

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@carissawv wrote:

Trevor,

I mostly just post online or do small prints for family and friends. Thanks for the advice.

Thanks for catching the typo, John. I don't know how I missed that!

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For me, the output is the major question, and given the profile you have described I would certainly say that the 60D is still a good contender and you seem to get some great shots with it.  Just getting closer and lower may be all that you need to do to tweak your imagery!

[FloridaDrafter]

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@jrhoffman75 wrote:

"I have a Lightroom plugin (can also be used as a standalone app) that uses artificial intelligence for image sharpening (called Topaz AI Sharpen)."

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I use Topaz Sharpen AI and their Mask and DeNoise standalone apps on occasion. Usually don't have to, but when needed, they are excellent. Kind of expensive when you consider that they just do one thing (they do it extremy well), but they are nice to have in the toolbox.

[ebiggs1]

"I have 60D and use the 70-200 2.8 IS III.  I have LR 4 and Photoshop Elements 13 ..."

Your gear and software is fine. A more current camera like the 90D would always be a good idea. Newer tech is almost always a good choice. Your software is capable if you know how to use it.

Your shots appear as though you are shooting from the bleachers?  If, yes, that is a real problem. Location from where you shoot is paramount. You don't see any of the fantastic sports shots you admire, Rodger's included, being shot from the bleachers do you? You are basically just doing snapshots with a high dollar lens.

Second most important thing to good sports shots is "know the sport".  If you have no clue as to what is going on and what is about to happen you will never get 'that shot'.  This is true even if you are in the most desirable place to shoot from with the latest and greatest gear.

If possible go to the gym before hand and do some practice shots. This will give you some clue as to settings for your camera.

Otherwise nobody here can tell you those settings without seeing the gym. They can only guess. They may work, they may not. But game time is not the time to find out.

[carissawv]

Thank you, EB!

Yes, I'm going to try different locations next time.

[ebiggs1]

"I shoot in RAW. ... WB fluorescent"

Lighting temperature is of little concern if you use Raw. I would just set it to Average WB. Raw file is not affected with almost no  camera setting. Your choice of in camera settings is only used by the software to created a viewable image on your computer.

Critical focus and exposure is all you really need concern yourself with when using Raw.

[jrhoffman75]

Give DPP a try. The advantage of DPP is that Canon is frequently updating the processing engine along with lens image correction in DLO. If you export a TIFF from DPP into Lightroom you can do further editing, but since you are using LR4 I would say that you may not be getting any benefit from LR.

You can do your own testing and decide what works best for you.