Help Shooting Volleyball

Hello all, shooting my first v-ball game tomorrow and would appreciate some help with basic settings on my 50d

I have shot other action indoors with the kit lense (Basketball) and didn't care for the results in sports mode. Still a lot of motion blur etc.. So I did a lot of research and came to the conclusion that in order to shoot indoor sports I needed a faster lense.

I purchased a 85mm f1.8 canon prime.

So before I shoot this game tomorrow I was wondering if I should still just use "Sports" mode or should I be using something more advanced such as Shutter Priority.

Any help is appreciated. I was an old film guy, then point and shoot, now DSLR, so it is all coming back to me slowly

-Henny

No, sports mode won't do - it limits ISO to 400 which isn't fast enough.

First - position - you'll want to be on the floor - right behind the net judge is a great spot. The 85mm is good to about 20-25 feet and that's it - so don't try shooting from the stands and cover the whole court - the combo just won't do well.

Now for camera set up:

1. Set a custom WB. You'll need a white subject - white card is best but if you can't get one then people have used paper or coffee filters. They don't work as well because they're not exactly the correct shade of white but it's better than nothing. B&H sells an $8 white card - hard stock - great investment. Make sure when you take the WB "shot" you're on the court by the net - the lighting under which the players will be. Set camera in shutter priority at 1/60 ISO 1600. The reason for the 1/60 is to allow the lights to cycle during the shot. That gives you an 'average' temperature. Your camera's manual will tell you the rest of how to set custom WB.

2. Now, set camera to Manual Exposure. Dial in ISO 1600, f2.0 and 1/400.
3. Set focus mode to AI-Servo.
4. Select center focus point only
5. Set to high burst mode.
6. Take some test shots during warmups - TIGHT shots of players torso/head.

7. Review the test shots on the LCD. Ignore uniforms - do the FACES look exposed properly?

7a. If faces look underexposed, drop aperture to 1.8 and repeat. If still underexposed set ISO up by 1/3 stop. Repeat test. Continue doing this until exposed properly

7b. If faces look overexposed raise shutter to 1/500. Repeat test - increasing shutter speed by 1/3 stop until exposure looks good.

7c. After faces look good, look at histogram - it should be centered and balanced or slightly to the right. If it's pushed to the left you're still underexposed - adjust accordingly.

The reason you want to shoot in manual exposure is simple. Lighting may be poor but it's almost always CONSISTENT on a volleyball court. If you use AV or TV mode and let your camera meter the camera gets fooled by jersey colors and can underexpose the shot. Underexposure is the worst thing you can do at high ISOs - it brings out more noise.

Good luck. Volleyball is very difficult - remember to frame tightly - within 25 feet. In fact most shots will not allow you to fit the entire player body in the frame. Unfortunate but a fact of life when using the 85 on a 1.6 crop body.

Just some examples of types of shots to look for. Plenty of others but these are the easiest to get (note these were taken with a different camera/lens combo which allows me looser framing then you'll be able to get):

John, thank you for all the help, Your shots are incredible. May I ask which body/lense combo you are using?

I printed out the instructions you laid out in your post. I will post my results Monday.

Thanks for taking the time to help.

-Henny

no text

John gave good advice. Let me add; if you use your right eye to shoot, try to keep your left eye open to look around for the ball.

Roger

Unfortunatly I am blind in my right eye (almost) so I have to use left

OK, took some shots. Please critic, and don't hold back

Canon 50d
EF 85mm F1.8
Settings were Tungsten WB (Could not get a custom WB to work)

1/500 Shutter
1600 ISO
1.8 Aperature
A/I Servo
High Speed Continuos

I'd recommend shooting in Shutter priority mode (Tv) with a shutter speed of 1/500th or 1/750th if there is enough light. This should be enough to freeze the motion of the player's. Use the center AF point only in AIServo mode and try to focus on the player's chest. You may also want to choose Auto ISO with your 85mm lens and let the camera adjust the ISO from 100 - 1600 as needed.

--
Jeff Lynch
Serious Amateur Photography
http://jefflynchdev.wordpress.com

and if you think not show the ladies - remember their parents are in the stand shooing with a $200 point and shoot -

Chiz thanks for the comments, what do you mean by the parents and their point and shoots?

Self criticing here. My photo's turn out laser sharp, and I am happy with the noise level etc. The part I cannot get over is how awefu the colors are. The lighting in there was terrible. It was several different hues of headache inducing purplish, blueish puke. I am not blaming the camera , or the lighting for that matter. What I am wondering is how I could have corrected the lighting on sight. I tried doing a manual white balance, unfortunatly after I did that, all the pictures turned out green.

Any help on lighting settings to get pictures closer to John's would be appreciated.

jlynch said:

I'd recommend shooting in Shutter priority mode (Tv) with a shutter
speed of 1/500th or 1/750th if there is enough light. This should be
enough to freeze the motion of the player's. Use the center AF point
only in AIServo mode and try to focus on the player's chest. You may
also want to choose Auto ISO with your 85mm lens and let the camera
adjust the ISO from 100 - 1600 as needed.

Click to expand...

I wholeheartedly agree with and have used myself for two volleyball seasons, I would not use Tv mode or Av mode inside a gym. Like John said, the lighting is consistent, and you don't want the camera selecting any of the exposure parameters, because the meter can get fooled if you focus on a white jersey one time and dark jersey the next time. Use Manual mode and expose for the faces. If you get shutter speeds less than 1/500 in order to get a good exposure, then manually increase the ISO. Even the 50D's ISO3200 is pretty good and cleans up well in PP. I turn on the High Noise Reduction option in the custom functions. Although this will reduce your multiple shot burst to 6 shots before the buffer fills up, I hardly shoot a 6 shot burst anyway in volleyball.

Auto ISO in a gym is worthless. You will be at ISO1600 minimum anyway and may need to go to 3200 in order to get the required action freezing shutter speeds.

jlynch said:

--
Jeff Lynch
Serious Amateur Photography
http://jefflynchdev.wordpress.com

Click to expand...

--
Cheers,

Bryan P.

OneDMark3, FortyD, G10
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29386469@N00/
http://blplhp.smugmug.com/

The best thing that could poke you in the eye....is your viewfinder.

Henny156 said:

Self criticing here. My photo's turn out laser sharp, and I am happy
with the noise level etc. The part I cannot get over is how awefu the
colors are. The lighting in there was terrible. It was several
different hues of headache inducing purplish, blueish puke. I am not
blaming the camera , or the lighting for that matter. What I am
wondering is how I could have corrected the lighting on sight. I
tried doing a manual white balance, unfortunatly after I did that,
all the pictures turned out green.

Any help on lighting settings to get pictures closer to John's would
be appreciated.

Click to expand...

are very soft.....not that sharp. You said you used a shutter speed of 1/500s, which should have been fast enough to get sharp pictures. But even the non-moving body parts are not that sharp. How are your handholding skills? How are you focusing the camera for the shot?

As far as white balance, it is critical that you use custom WB. You can either shoot a white card or a grey card and use that image as your WB setting. Make sure the card fills the majority of the frame.

You also might want to use f/2 aperture on the 85 f/1.8.

--
Cheers,

Bryan P.

OneDMark3, FortyD, G10
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29386469@N00/
http://blplhp.smugmug.com/

The best thing that could poke you in the eye....is your viewfinder.

Thanks for all of the comments and suggestions everyone. I also thought that the photos appear soft. My hand holding skills are ok IMO. I have wondered though if I may need to do some microadjusting.

Great suggestions though everyone. I will definatly make some changes.

-

It's likely due to being too far away. Assuming you didn't crop these at all the full body shots are too far away. If you cropped any then they definitely are. That's the trouble using the 85 on a 1.6 crop sensor camera. It makes it tight but yet the smaller sensor does not allow you to shoot from further away. Shoot closer action and your shots will be sharper.

I wish I could get images as detailed as the ones you've shown. I own a 50d with a 70-200 2.8 canon lens and cannot achieve your results. Would you mind sharing your camera and lens combo and possibly the image exif data.

Thanks for any information,

Felix

First set (girls in red) were with 1dmkIII and 70-200 2.8 - ISO 3200 f2.8 1/400
Second set (in green) with 1dmkIII and 85mm 1.8 - ISO 2000, f2.0 1/400

I agree wholeheartedly with the second poster. You need to use fully manual settings in order to get the correct exposure. I have shot a lot of hockey and some volleyball and leaving anything up to the camera in a gym or rink setting will leave your pictures all looking like they were exposed at different settings. The other thing is that white balance is critical to get the best and most accurate colors. I shoot with a 50d and a 70-200L 2.8 is lens and use center focus . I have also found that it pays to play with your picture styles and fine tune them. It saves a lot of time in post processing. Don't be scared to play with your settings until you find something that you like. Practice practice practice is the best way to improve.

Here are a few hockey samples. (they were easiest to get because its hockey season)
All shot on manual settings.

For your first volleyball game, using Shutter Priority mode with your new 85mm f/1.8 lens would be ideal to minimize motion blur and capture sharp action shots. Good luck, and enjoy the game!