50mm 1.8 question.. basketball photos?

Question

Ok I had posted a week or so ago about needing a faster lens for little money to do some B,Ball photos. I was recommended this lens. I love it, but it keeps giving me the Macro look, I need the whole team to be in focus but it only focuses on one person and the rest are blurred it, Its good for some shots , but how can I get it to focus on everyone. use the M setting put it on 1.8 and set my ISO to the appropriate setting. Ive even tried 'landscape' on the picture style.. what setting am I missing? Wish I could post a photo . Thanks in advance for any help

Answer 1

As fhotoace said, ISO is your friend, raise it as far as you can.



At f1.8 you get shallow depth of field, but if you stop down the lens, then you have a problem with shutter speed.



So raise the ISO as fast a you can (take into account that this increases noise, newer, more expensive cameras can usually go to higher with less noise, but you're probably not going to buy the newest most expensive camera).



Anyway do some tests to see how high you can set your ISO without noise being too much of a problem for you.



Once you've established the highest ISO you're willing to go to, set the camera to that and then you can either choose an aperture basing on how much depth of field you want and let the camera decide the rest. Or choose a shutter speed that is fast enough to freeze the game and let the camera choose aperture.



Finally the 50mm really wasn't the greatest choice, but if you can sit on the side of the court it's ok. But even there a zoom would have been better. With a zoom you can change the field of view and frame your shots while staying in the same position (You can't exactly back up into the stands or walk onto the court).

Answer 2

Indoor sports are tough, no doubt about it. You have some great answers here. The only thing I'll add, because it sounds like you might have a budget to work with, is that a fast lens will do wonders. If you are satisfied with how much of the frame you are filling with your existing lens, then getting the 50mm F1.8 will help a lot at little cost. For example, if you are shooting at 1/30 at F5.6 (when your zoom is at 55mm), with an F1.8 you can shoot 1/250 at F2.8. You can drop the ISO some if a slower shutter works, too.

Answer 3

When selecting an F stop of 1.8, you are letting much more light into the camera, therefore allowing for a quicker shutter speed, but you are also creating a very shallow depth of field. This means that only a portion of the photograph is going to be in focus. Increase the F stop as much as the available light will let you and you should find that the entire shot should be somewhat in focus. This will however decrease your shutter speed. Try an F stop of 8 or so.

Answer 4

"use the M setting put it on 1.8"



There's your problem right there - f1.8 gives you a very narrow depth of field. You need to use a higher f-stop number to have more things in focus. However, when you do this, you limit the light coming into your camera and so your pictures would come out dark. And since you can't use flash . . . as you can see it's a conundrum.



If you read your camera manual you would know this. You should get a book on photography from the library.

Answer 5

Try to use a setting around 2.8-4. It will give you a little more depth of field, and not compromise shutter speed.



With a 50mm, you are getting the exact results expected in terms of depth of field. At 1.8, it will be shallow, only a few players in focus.



For basketball, a 50mm is a great lens with a crop sensor. I've shot a lot of college games with film, and would use a 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.4, and an 80-200 2.8. Your 50mm is a 75-80mm equivalent, depending on camera.



Use this tool to calculate DoF and see what distances you should expect:



http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Answer 6

It's because with the lens wide open you are getting a shallow depth of field - this is basics of photography, you should know this.



If you want a greater depth of field (to get more people in focus) then you need to stop down the lens a bit. How much depends on how close you are to the subjects. This online depth of field calculator should be able to tell you what's in focus at different apertures/distances to subject;

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html



When you stop down to get more in focus, you'll also cut down the light, so the shutter speed will slow down, which may give you motion bur with moving subjects. You can increase the ISO to give you a better shutter speed, but this will be at the expense of noisier images. Exposure is always a trade-off.

Answer 7

The higher the ISO, the smaller the aperture. The smaller the aperture, the bigger the Depth of the Field (DOF). So the recommendation is to boost your ISO. On the other hand, if you use a camera with smaller matrix (a good point and shoot with a lot of settings and a fast and long zoom lens), everything will be in a sharp focus. This is the advantage of a smaller matrix.



PS Remember, 1.8 is bigger than 8, since it is not 1.8 and 8, it is f/1.8 and f/8

Answer 8

I know exactly what you are talking about.



The problem you have is that the more you increase your aperture (reduce the f number) the shallower your Depth of Field is. The depth of field is the "thickness" of the plane that is in focus.



It's all a question of give in take in photography. The more you increase your aperture, the more light comes in but the shallower or thinner your focus depth is.



Here is a diagram illustrating the problem (not mine, just something I found).



http://www.arbabi.org/-/arbabi/gallery.asp?LID=&cat=69797&pID=2&row=15&photoID=3155012



As you can see from the diagram, the small the fstop, the shallower the zone that is in focus.



The problem you have is that you need to shoot at f1.8 to get enough light to be able to shoot in low light conditions. It's a question of give and take.

Answer 9

f1.8 will give you a narrow depth of field - or what looks like selective focussing. If you want everything in focus, try f8 or greater. Whoever told you to get a 50mm to do basketball shots was an idiot. You'd have been much better off with a zoom lens.

Answer 10

You have been given the wrong advice. A 50mm is totally unsuitable for basketball photography.



I have no idea what your budget is or how far you sit away, but something like a 70-200mm f2.8 would be more suited to fast action sports. A 70-200mm f4 might also do on a budget.

Answer 11

f/1.8 gives a very narrow depth of field...



and that lens is no good for baseball... unless you are in the faces of the players...



you need a zoom lens... 70-200mm... there is an f/2.8 version (i believe) that would be more use than a 50mm