@debnbill526 wrote:
Thank you---I watched many of the videos and learned a lot about light metering, aperature and so on--things I didn't even knew existed. You were spot on when you stated I had to learn how to use my camera FIRST and I am sure that will take quite a while. I went out last night and started playing around with the settings. While, I have not even come clse to mastering them, I was able to get a few good shots by making the adjustsments I learned through the videos. Thanks so much.
You are welcome. But Canon made the videos, I just supplied the links. I am glad to hear that the videos are clearing up the mysteries of photography. KEEP SHOOTING, both day and night. Experience is the best teacher. As ISO rises, so does noise. Find out what is the highest ISO that you like. I am guessing that it may be around ISO 800 to ISO 1600.
A monopod is good investment. I use a Kirk MP-2 tilt head on mine. Ball heads do not work as well on a monopod. The tilt head allows me angle up or down without having to make significant movement with the monopod. Another good investment might be Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens. This lens has a wider f/1/8 aperture for low light shooting, but the shorter focal length will mean that you may need to move with the action up and down the field.
Shooting RAW and JPEG is good idea. You can use the JPEGs now, and come back much later to edit the RAW files, You will very glad to shoot everything as RAW. Set your White Balance to Auto, and use Evaluative Metering, which is the default metering mode.
I think a shutter speed of 1/10 is a bit slow for action photography. Your moving subjects will be captured as blurs. The minimum shutter speed that I like to use for action sports is 1/200 to 1/400, which is hard to achieve under most high school lights. Depending upon your available light, you may not be able to get shutter speeds that fast shooting at night.
Using Av mode is good to use, so use that. I prefer M mode. Once the sun is fully down and they lights are on, the exposure setting is not going to change much, if at all. The only times I have had to vary exposure is when a field has light and dark areas. These fields always have one or more lights not working.
Use Av mode. Dial in a minimum aperture, f/4. Set your ISO at your highest preferred setting. Let’s say it was ISO 1600.. Unless you are in M mode, you will always want to dial in an ISO setting. The camera is already controlling one leg of the exposure triangle, the shutter speed, so let’s keep it that way.
The hardest part is going to be tracking players. The monopod should help make that easier as your arms may begin to fatigue. For action photography, I prefer to use AI SERVO focusing over ONE SHOT because the distance between the camera and the subject is frequently changing, such as when players are running in your general direction. Test out each focusing mode during daylight hours. If you can attend a team practice session, GREAT.
Remember, just keep shooting. Learn how to read your exposure and camera settings of each photo. Canon’s post processing software, Digital Photo Professional, can make this very easy to do. You will learn a lot.
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"Fooling computers since 1972."
