What am i doing wrong!

Nozebleed

Hi..just so you all know...im a noob! I recenlty aquired a Cannon 500d and for the last few day's ive been getting to grips with various camera functions work...
I went to a soccer match tonight...played on astro turf under lights...i wanted to see how the sport mode works (contiueous mode/al servo)..just wanted to snap a few action pics in a row. Unfortunately...every action scene/pic i took came out blurred!!

I dont think it was becasue camera shake...but maybe im completely missing something regarding technique. When shooting moving subjects are you supposed to follow the subject holding the button down contiueously so the camera reels off a load of shots? and these shots should all be automatically in focus.

Pics 1&2 (attached)...The guy was just standing there throwing his leg up in the air..so im not moving just pointing camera holding the button down..i took them using sport mode f5.6,55m focal length,ISO 1600(auto) and exposure 1/10...it wouldn't allow me use a shutter speed..above 1/30sec. Why would that be? Is it because of the lights? although the flood lights are bright and pitch is well lit..is it just not bright enough?
I know exposure time should be 1/2000+...the highest shutter speed the camera would allow me in sport mode for all the shots tonite was between 15 and 30..i cat understand it.

I also tried to shoot using the TV mode (advanced action mode!:rolleyes:)..i set the shutter speed to 1/4000 and all them pics turned out very dark (almost black)..i think this was using a large aperture too...which i assumed would be correct..not sure exactly what the ISO number was...I deleted the pics there and then (mistake)..i was frustrated b this time..it was freezin!

Saint_Mel

What lens are you using? For floodlit games etc your best bet would be a fast lens @ f2.8 and that combined with a high enough iso should get the required shutter speed. Bearing in mind the higher iso the more noisy the image will be

Borderfox

Welcome

The shutter speed is low because the lens cant let enough light in and this gives you a blur, you can manually push the shutter speed up but this will result in darker pictures. Lenses that have lower f numbers like f2.8 are generally used in these type of shots.

Nozebleed

yeah the lens was the 18-55 (f3.5-5.6)..it came with the camera. I was going to buy the nifty fifty cannon lens..maybe i will now.

FedEx

Yes the kit lens isn't great .... the nifty fifty 1.8 will give you faster speeds ... but less of a focus area ...

Neonjack

Nozebleed wrote: »

I know exposure time should be 1/2000+...the highest shutter speed the camera would allow me in sport mode for all the shots tonite was between 15 and 30..i cat understand it.

I'm fairly new to photography myself, but it sounds like you should have been in manual mode to adjust your exposure that much. I'd imagine the sport mode has a limited range of settings. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Ghost Train

using 18mm would have given you a faster shot but wider of course

smelltheglove

A fast lens and RAW, then even if the images are slightly dark they can be brought back reasonablly well up to around 3 stops in raw processing.

Obviously you are only getting to know your camera so this sort of shooting is hard to begin with, learn your settings in daylight, get to understand them and control them properly in premium lighting and when you know what you are doing more then you can start pushing yourself to this sort of situation.

Nozebleed

i think i know what went wrong....it was all the lens' fault.:) definately the lens.
thanks for the advice.