Camera: Best Settings for Indoor Sports?

[KPMcClave]

Last night was my first attempt at the G4 camera's manual settings. It was not entirely successful.

I tried shooting some pics of my daughter playing basketball. My frustration with my Turbo's inability to do this well (in a brightly lit gym...and she's only 8) was the main reason I'm here with the G4 now. My Droid Maxx camera actually caught these tyype shots better than the Turbo.

Any guesses at a good jumping off point for ISO and shutter speed for a big gym with big windows along one wall? It's rainy yesterday and today, so not as bright as on a sunny day, or on a sunny day back during the winter when there was also snow outside.

I messed around in the 350-450 ISO range, and 1/125 and 1/250 shutter speeds. I didn't really get anything very good. It was either way too pixelgrainy or still too much blur. Maybe I overcompensated on one setting or the other, or maybe on both?

Any feedback is eppreciated, especially if you've taken similar type shots successfully on the G4.

Thanks!

 

[wassct]

Indoor baskestball is difficult to shoot with a DSLR with a bigger sensor let alone a smartphone. With that said the G4 f1.8 apeture does let in more light than your typical smartphone. If they are moving fast you need a faster shutter speed which will obviously reduce your light so an increased ISO will be needed adding noise to your picture. I would use raw mode, set shutter speed to around 500 (if they run slower you may be able to go a little lower) and bump up ISO until it looks bright enough but not too high. The pic will be noisy which is unavoidable in a gym basketball game with such a small sensor but you can than edit the raw file in Lightroom or Photoshop and reduce some of the noise.

I know it's not ideal and while the G4 camera is very good you really need a larger sensor and good low light dslr lens for good indoor basketball photos.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

 

[jamielov]

Welcome old friend! Seems we followed the same path. I use auto a lot, and tap focus on specific players on the ice. Manual for me is still experimental. Ive got some amazing action shots during the hockey games i have to get shots of, but i also get a decent amount of noise. Haven't attempted any modifyibg modifying post shooting. So, keep experimenting and let me know what you come up with.

I spoiled now, and already anxioysly awaiting the LG G4 Pro in October. The camera specs that are rumored... Wow

 

[RedOctobyr]

I'd go by what wassct said.

It's a good camera for a phone, but it's still a phone camera Even a good-quality point and shoot may do better indoors in moderate light. As he said, you want a wide-aperture lens, and a large image sensor.

For settings, you still don't have aperture control, since the camera can't adjust that (no phone camera can, AFAIK). So the two remaining things you *can* adjust are shutter speed, and ISO. Don't try to use the flash, you're too far away for it to work, so the results would simply be worse.

I think RAW is a good idea, I've never really tried it, but it should give you more options later.

For ISO and shutter speed, I often look at it as picking a fast-enough shutter speed is the most important thing. If that means I need a really-high ISO to get a crisp picture, so be it. There will be more noise, absolutely, but zoomed-out, it may still look OK. Whereas a slow-shutter, low-noise picture that has image-quality potential, but is actually just a blurry mess, doesn't do me any good You can't really de-blur a slow-shutter picture later in Photoshop.

Just my opinion.

 

[tardus]

You could try the FV5 camera app mentioned in another thread and take multiple shots.

 

[GibMcFragger]

You can take multiple shots with the stock camera app also, just hold the button. I have gotten some great action shots that way (albeit in good lighting).

 

[KPMcClave]

Indoor baskestball is difficult to shoot with a DSLR with a bigger sensor let alone a smartphone. With that said the G4 f1.8 apeture does let in more light than your typical smartphone. If they are moving fast you need a faster shutter speed which will obviously reduce your light so an increased ISO will be needed adding noise to your picture. I would use raw mode, set shutter speed to around 500 (if they run slower you may be able to go a little lower) and bump up ISO until it looks bright enough but not too high. The pic will be noisy which is unavoidable in a gym basketball game with such a small sensor but you can than edit the raw file in Lightroom or Photoshop and reduce some of the noise.

I know it's not ideal and while the G4 camera is very good you really need a larger sensor and good low light dslr lens for good indoor basketball photos.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated. Yes, it's a tough shot, but my frustration with the Turbo was that it stepped back from the Maxx in thos situations. It was crazy. Outdoors, etc. The Turbo took some really nice shots, but I love my daughter way more than flowers in the sun.

So, I'm not looking for gallery ready poster sized prints by any means. I just want something presentable at worst, with the occassional, "wow, I can't believe I caught that."

I will get in to RAW at some point, but I haven't really spent the time getting prepared (for example, I may have to get software to process it).

I wound up tonight starting at or near your suggestions in manual mode for jpegs, and had to adjust downward. 450 ISO or above looks terrible. I think the best I got was 400 ISO at 1/125 shutter speed. Still not great by any means, but it was darker here the past couple days. That may result in improvmement with the gym getting sunlight from outdoors.

 

[KPMcClave]

Welcome old friend! Seems we followed the same path. I use auto a lot, and tap focus on specific players on the ice. Manual for me is still experimental. Ive got some amazing action shots during the hockey games i have to get shots of, but i also get a decent amount of noise. Haven't attempted any modifyibg modifying post shooting. So, keep experimenting and let me know what you come up with.

I spoiled now, and already anxioysly awaiting the LG G4 Pro in October. The camera specs that are rumored... Wow

I thought of you and your hockey pics when I asked the question. I think a big benefit you have when taking those is the brightness of the ice. Adds a lot of extra light for your shots.

I think Auto will always be too slow for this gym when they're playing (when she takes tennis lessons outdoors later in the summer I'm more hopefuly).

 

[KPMcClave]

I'd go by what wassct said.

It's a good camera for a phone, but it's still a phone camera Even a good-quality point and shoot may do better indoors in moderate light. As he said, you want a wide-aperture lens, and a large image sensor.

For settings, you still don't have aperture control, since the camera can't adjust that (no phone camera can, AFAIK). So the two remaining things you *can* adjust are shutter speed, and ISO. Don't try to use the flash, you're too far away for it to work, so the results would simply be worse.

I think RAW is a good idea, I've never really tried it, but it should give you more options later.

For ISO and shutter speed, I often look at it as picking a fast-enough shutter speed is the most important thing. If that means I need a really-high ISO to get a crisp picture, so be it. There will be more noise, absolutely, but zoomed-out, it may still look OK. Whereas a slow-shutter, low-noise picture that has image-quality potential, but is actually just a blurry mess, doesn't do me any good You can't really de-blur a slow-shutter picture later in Photoshop.

Just my opinion.

Good advice. Thank you. I try to never use the flash, especially in a situation like this, though.

 

[KPMcClave]

You could try the FV5 camera app mentioned in another thread and take multiple shots.

Thanks. I tried that for a bit on the Turbo. A number of its features didn't work for that phone, but maybe it's time to give it another go. What does it add that the G4's camera doesn't have, or what does it do better?

 

[KPMcClave]

You can take multiple shots with the stock camera app also, just hold the button. I have gotten some great action shots that way (albeit in good lighting).

I actually haven't done that as yet. That was allegedly one of the ways to capture a good shot in this situation on my Turbo...it did not go that well. I'll give it a go. Can you take multi-shots in manual, too?

 

[vapore0n]

Last time I used my Canon 70D to shoot volleyball it was with a 70-200 2.8 lens, shutter set to 1/500, and ISO 3200. Shooting inside gyms are really difficult with any gear.

I would set the camera to manual, RAW/Jpeg, try out shutter speed of 1/250 or 1/400, and then raise the ISO till the histogram is exposing to the right. Id prefer a grainy picture than a blurry one. I can always post-process the RAW files after.
Another setting you could try is using the AE Lock button. Once set, the camera should shoot faster, as it doesnt have to compute exposure settings. This only minimizes shutter button delay.

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[GibMcFragger]

I actually haven't done that as yet. That was allegedly one of the ways to capture a good shot in this situation on my Turbo...it did not go that well. I'll give it a go. Can you take multi-shots in manual, too?

Just checked. You cannot.