Beach volleyball camera settings?

[ScottA]

I enjoy shooting a lot of beach volleyball with my Canon T1i w/ a Canon 15-85mm IS USM lens. Any advice on best camera settings (shutter speed, ISO, apt.,mode setting, metering settings,etc..) would be greatly appreciated. I have some knowledge, experience with camera settings and would like feedback from other peoples experiences shooting beach volleyball. I have over 20 years experience playing volleyball so I know what angles, positions are optimal to shoot from.. My shooting position on the court can vary, I tend to get a few feet back from the net post, staying low. I always like facing the bay.ocean when I shoot. Between 9am-2pm or so I

[Daniel Browning]

If the lighting is consistent, I

[nvitalephotography]

Id set it to AV mode set a really small aperture so the background is as blurred and not distracting. During the day outside as long as its sunny ISO 100 is probably fine, but as Daniel said if your shutter speed starts to drop below 1/500 then raise the ISO accordingly. Spot metering so the subject is exposed correctly. If you have a flash available it could come in really handy to cut down those harsh midday shadows.


Try to avoid facing to directly toward the sun otherwise you may get a bunch of silhouette shots or shots with really overexposed backgrounds.


Goodluck

[Richard Lane]

Hey Scott,


Welcome to the forums!


I would try to stay above 1/1000sec unless you would like to intentionally introduce arm blur or ball blur. On the beach ISO 100 or 200 should be good enough. I've never used your lens, but it seems like you will be shooting at around f/4.5 to f/5.6.


A good starting point would be the Sunny 16 rule, so on a sunny day you will have f/5.6 at 1/1000sec and ISO 100 in manual mode, then adjust accordingly. TV or AV mode would work well too, however if you use AV mode, then you must keep an eye on your shutter speed to make sure that it doesn't drop too low. If it does drop too low, then just raise your ISO.


You should get a CPL filter to reduce reflections off of the sand or water, just remember that you will lose approx. 1 & 1/3 stop of light. If you use a CPL, then you will probably have to raise your ISO to 200.


Evaluative metering should work too, especially if you have 1/2 of the sand and 1/2 of the ocean in the frame. I find the dark water and light sand seem to cancel each other out somewhat on the meter.


Good Luck,


Rich

[ScottA]

I really appreciate all the feedback and tips!! When I had my camera set on program mode typically the shutter speed would be set it self to 1/1000, 1/1250 sec and the ball would be blurred barely or not at all if I was lucky. I haven

[ScottA]

I really appreciate all the feedback and tips!! When I had my camera set on program mode typically the shutter speed would be set it self to 1/1000, 1/1250 sec and the ball would be blurred barely or not at all if I was lucky. I haven

[Richard Lane]

..Canon T1i w/ a Canon 15-85mm IS USM lens.


I always like facing the bay.ocean when I shoot. Between 9am-2pm or so I'm facing the sun or partial facing it to avoid having the hotels, background over take my volleyball pictures, this is the toughest time to adjust, set up the camera.





Shooting during the harsh mid-day light can certainly be challenging. A CPL can also help with improved contrast and colors, and not only with reflections. Think of a CPL as Sunglasses for your camera. I also hope you're using a lens hood. The only pain is adjusting the CPL when the hood is on.


Other options would be to setup the volleyball court parallel to the shoreline, however that may not be an option.


If you had a "longer lens" with a wider aperture, then you would be able to face the hotels and isolate your subject better (by standing further away) while blurring out the background more. A lens like a 70-200mm f/2.8 or f/4, or a 200mm f/2.8L would probably help in this regard. Also keep in mind that if you do go for a longer/faster/wider aperture lens then you may still need a CPL to slow down your shutter speeds at the widest apertures, if you turn around and shoot into the Sun.


Rich

[ScottA]

How much is a good CPL? Where

[Richard Lane]

They're not cheap at around $150. I like B&H. The better ones are multi-coted (MRC) and/or Kaeseman (weather sealed). Yours is 72mm, I'm not sure if you will need a slim one (more expensive) or not to prevent vignetting at 15mm. The 70-200mm is a great outdoors action lens and it's a very versatile focal range and if you get one, I would recommend the f/2.8 version, this way you could add a 1.4X extender and still have a pretty fast lens at f/4 (you lose one stop for the 1.4X extender, also keep in mind you lose 1 stop for a CPL). I don't use IS for action photography, but the newer lenses have IS and may be better optically, especially the version II model. When you're ready you should come back here to discuss your options further.


Your lens is not weather sealed, forget about the dust, you will never ever see it in your photos and it may happen again. I personally wouldn't take it apart. Whenever you try to get dust out you risk the chance of making it worse. If it bothers you then you should send it to Canon, but I would rather see you put your money into equipment rather than a cleaning.


Rich


EDIT: Can you stand on the side of the court that has your back to the Sun and then when the players switch sides, you just stay where you are?


The only time that that may not work is between 11-1.

[ScottA]

There

[Richard Lane]

If it's a small speck of dust on the lens and it is showing up in the same place on the pictures, then you may have dust on your sensor, because a small or large amount of dust in a lens shouldn''t show up in pictures. However, I have been wrong before. [;)]


I get your set-up better now. What I am suggesting is since the courts are parallel to the beach and you are facing the Ocean, then you could shoot the side of the court that has the sun in the players eyes in the morning (which will be the west side of the court) and the Sun will be at your back. Then after the Sun passes over you at 1pm, then you could shoot the east court. So, now you will be facing east with the sun at your back. If you don't switch sides when the players switch then you can shoot the other team at that time.


It may help you a little for a few of the games at least.