Sharpness of Moving Subjects Indoors

[mgrabow]

So I was a wedding photographer for years and shot square format using lots of different techniques both indoors and outdoors. The subject rarely moves unless dancing. So there was lots that can be done.   Now, I shoot a Mark4 and a Mark3 but mostly of my children during their life’s events. Yes I shoot at work (not my primary role but rather an ancillary duty), but typically outdoors where ample light is not a problem.

When shooting my kids at their karate tournaments, it is typically in a gymnasium. Yes there are some windows and lots of metal halide lights. But when trying to freeze the type of a katana during karate forms demonstration, one must crank up the shutter speed.   Like 640 plus. This just kills the ability to use a non grainy ISO. typically at 12,800iso at F3.2 just to keep the exposure in the ball park.

And of course it never fails some mom posts a pic with an iPhone that is tack sharp and I need to hear why are my photos grainy.   Granted the iPhone was not freezing the action to the same degree, but it is pretty damned good.

I guess my question, without using a flash, any recommended settings that will offer good results at freezing the action with keeping the ISO out of the grain.

[mgrabow]

Thanks ebiggs1 (I think) for the reply.   At these Karate Tornaments you are in two places.  10 feet away or 50-100 feet away in the stands.   So the 16-35mm is my choice when I am at the 10 feet away.  The 85mm is useless at that distance unless I am trying to shoot just the upper body.   So the only place to use the 85mm is up in the stands.  Thus the need for cropping.

My wedding photography days were over  20 years ago. In those days you shoot,  send it off to CPQ for proofing.  Use the cropping cards and send them back.  No photoshop or editing done.  The guys at CPQ would use their judgement or tweek the images on request. There was no lense correction done, no sharpening, no editing, no post processing by the photographer.  The lab made any corrections that were possible in those days. In fact if I was shooting for another studio, I never even saw the pictures.  Just dropped off the film and picked up my check..   So yes I was quite familiar with basic photography in a controled or semi controlled environment.  Never had a need to shoot a photo at 10,000 ISO because I could set up any lights I wanted (depending on the church). Dont think my Bronica SQA had an ISO even close to that. So I do confess a lack of experience when shooting in questionable lighting conditions indoors with no flash.

I have CS6 so I will be working on my post processing skills using that.