EOS Rebel T5 Settings for night baseball games

[jburch921]

Hello I'm new to this forum.  I have been using my Canon EOS T-5 for several years now and have literally taken 1,000's of pictures for travel baseball for years.  Most of these games have been during the day time and I would use the TV mode and for the most part, these pictures came out awesome.

Now my son is playing college ball and most of his games are at night.  I took some pictures using the same mode and some were ok, but just not great.  I have been reading some of the comments on your forum for settings. 

Can someone please give me easy settings to take actions shots? (my son is a pitcher, so fast moving action) on top of stadium lighting. 

Would "AV" be my best option or "P" for an action shot in the dim lighting?

Also what setting should I use for people in the stands in the dark.  Again I'm new to the night time picture taking, so any advice would be very much appreciated. 

[Tintype_18]

I  have a T7 so let me go through the archives and see what photos I have taken at nighttime ball games. I can click on Info and get a full rendering of settings. Back in a few minutes. Edit- Photo taken 5/17/2021 @7:34 PM; 1/15, f6.3, 85mm, ISO 100. My T7 has the 75-300mm lens. Found the camera is great for Sports shots in motion. I like to use M and experiment with settings. All it costs is a bit of battery juice, not like the days of film.

[Tintype_18]

FYI. same photo with some editing. Have two grandsons who play travel ball so the camera will get a good workout.

[ebiggs1]

" Photo taken 5/17/2021 @7:34 PM; 1/15, f6.3, 85mm, ISO 100. My T7 has the 75-300mm lens."

ALways a critic isn't there? But first just what is the subject? The pitcher or the infielder?  The pitcher is OOF  but closest.

A SS of 1/15 is way too slow to try and get sharp pictures at 85mm. Kick your ISO up to 800 or 1600. Remember doubling the ISO is just one stop I.E. 800 to 1600 is one stop. 100 to 800 is a nice gain and would get your SS up to more where it needs to be. ISO 100 to ISO 200 is one stop, ISO 200 to ISO 400 is one stop, and ISO 400 to ISO 800 is one stop, etc.

[Tintype_18]

The pitcher is my grandson. EB, thanks for the critique. Not sure if any of the boys' travel games will be at night this summer. You have been most helpful. I do want to take a monopod for photos. As the photo being OOF, I was shooting freehand. Might expain that. Still learning. Do we ever stop learning? Again, thanks.

[ebiggs1]

" Do we ever stop learning?" 

Never, and in my case some things I need to learn is hopeless!  You'll get there.  You have to walk before you run so just keep shooting. In my case I need to crawl first.

[ebiggs1]

I scanned through the previous replies and here are the gems.

"... you may be better off using Av and ISO 400 to 800 witth your camera body."

Absolutely! Abandon full manual mode unless you just get that rare situation. Av is what most pro sport photographers use.

"The T7 will be more replacement than upgrade."

I agree don't waste your money.

"Rebel camera bodies have reputations for being good performers in low light. Save your money for an RP"

Here again I agree. R is the future EF/EF-S meaning Rebels is not. However if you are thinking just the next four or fives years the T8i is tempting ot the 90D. The 90D being on the top of the list as it is a fantastic camera.

[Waddizzle]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

"... you may be better off using Av and ISO 400 to 800 witth your camera body."

Absolutely! Abandon full manual mode unless you just get that rare situation. Av is what most pro sport photographers use.

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I'm not so sure that you realize the reason why I suggested Av mode "for your camera body"or not.  

It is not because I favor Av mode over M mode.  Like I said, my recommendation would be to use M mode.  However, the Rebel T5 has an unusual quirk, which probably shared by its' older siblings, the T6 and T7 cameras.

When you adjust exposure settings, you can only do so in whole stops, although the camera can automatically use 1/3 stops when the camera is in one of the automatic modes.  The user can only set exposure in whole stops, but there is a work around.

The work around is to use Exposure Compensation, which is not available in M mode, but is available in Av mode.  This is the reason why I made the recommendation to use Av mode, because of the camera model.

[wq9nsc]

Waddiizzle,

I haven't shot with a T5 but doesn't custom function setting 1 allow you to set it to 1/3 or 1/2 stops for aperture and shutter speed?  Canon manuals aren't exemplars of excellent technical writing but from the T5 manual I looked at online that appears to be similar to what other Canon cameras offer as an option under Cfn 1.

Rodger

[Waddizzle]

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@wq9nsc wrote:

Waddiizzle,

I haven't shot with a T5 but doesn't custom function setting 1 allow you to set it to 1/3 or 1/2 stops for aperture and shutter speed?  Canon manuals aren't exemplars of excellent technical writing but from the T5 manual I looked at online that appears to be similar to what other Canon cameras offer as an option under Cfn 1.

Rodger

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Yes, you can set the increment to either 1/2 or 1/3 stop.  But, that only seems to apply to the camera's automatically set exposure values and exposure compensation. .All manually entered exposure settings were made in whole stop increments on my T5, and I would expect for the T6 and T7 to behave the same way.

As long as the camera has control over at least one leg of the Exposure Triangle, exposure can be controlled and set 1/3 stop increments, but it is done automatically for you.  Your manually entered values are in whole stops, but the camera's automatically provided setting will be in 1/3 stops.

I could only enter ISO as 100, 200, 400, 800, etc.  The same was true for aperture and shutter speed.  You could only manually enter whole stop values, while the camera provided its' setting in 1.3 stop increments.  

This behavior isn't really an issue in any shooting mode, not even in M mode.  In M mode, just use ISO Auto for more precise control over the final exposure setting.

[Waddizzle]

Here is a screenshot from the T7 User Guide on entering an ISO value.  Notice that settings are whole stops.

You get similar behavior when you set Tv and Av.  

This really isn't a major issue as long as at least one leg is being set automatically.  By not presenting the user with a plethora of values to enter, the user is presented with only a small handful of values.  Most users never know there is a difference.  For them, this is how a camera works.

It is not even an issue an M mode because you would use the Auto Lighting Optimizer to make a final correction for you.