Quick Tip for Nikon Sports Shooters
If you’re shooting sports with a Nikon D3, D700 or D300, you’re probably shooting fairly often in high-speed continuous mode, so you want the best performance (most number of frames per second) possible.
Well, if you’re shooting with a VR (Vibration Reduction) lens, once your shutter speed gets above 1/500 of a second, you should turn VR off to avoid any shutter lag or slower frame advance rates caused by the VR trying to stabilize the lens. (At high shutter speeds, you don’t really need to VR—after all, Vibration Reduction was designed to let you hand hold in low light, slow shutter speed situations. If you’re shooting with shutter speeds above 1/500 of a second, you really don’t need the VR, eh?).
When I’m shooting sports, to freeze action, I generally want my shutter speed to be at least 1/1000 of a second (or faster), so I know at the beginning of the shoot to turn my VR off. Anyway, I thought that might be helpful to other Nikon sports shooters out there. (Photo above by Eric Kuna).
If you’d be willing to write a book or e-book on sports photography I’d sure be interested in buying it. I know you’re not a “pro” sports shooter with years of experience shooting all the major sports but you’ve worked hard and come along way in the time I’ve been following your blog. I’d be very interested in learning what you’ve learned so far and getting more insights, tips, successes and failures that you’d be wiling to share.
Anyway, just my 2 cents. Keep the sports shots and tips coming and have a Happy New Year.
You specifically mention Nikon sports shooters here… Is there any reason why this same concept wouldn’t apply to IS control on Canon lenses?
Cheers for the tip, people say to me it must be great shooting sports. I very rarely see the game as I constantly working the ball. The shots you get are great, but once you have downloaded your cards you often feel more tired than the atheletes were.
Some of my tips here,
1 Shoot the crowd, you get great colours, emotions and characters
2 Image lock whilst reviewing, that little key button helps you find a image quickly whilst downloading
3 Get comfortable, use a stool, 90 minutes of crouching, kneeling means fatigue, that means bad shots
4 Shoot the ball, this guarantees against bias,
5 Shoot the scoreboard all the way through, trying to remember who scored when and where is tricky, especially when the sports editor calls you trying to get the score.
Just my five cents, cheers for sharing
Rich
A little off-topic, but thought this will be interesting for D300 owners. You can bump up the FPS on a d300 to over 7fps without the battery grip by following these settings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG5UKwgGRJI
I checked and it works. Pretty handy if you don’t have a battery grip and are into sports photography.
Scott
That is really the first 18% gray hat you are wearing I have ever seen you wore. That really is a classic photo of you dressed in black; non-smiling and “no lo tanger me” attitude. Where did you get it that gray hat anyhow? and can I get one somewhere also? This a side of Scott we hardly see, but it is so damn impressive! That gray hat will become a classic. Where can i buy one? Please.
You appear tooled up and looking for action, Scott! I like the black NAPP photovest. Can NAPP members buy such vests?
Balliolman
I wonder why this is special for “nikon photographers”
IMHO this applies to all camera systems / lenses with any stabilisation mechanism …
Good tip that some people just tend to forget.
Ryan
http://www.ryanhollowayphotography.com
Scott, good tip. I’ll keep that in mind. FYI – your D3 is probably sucking up at lot of dust if you ‘re switching lens like the photo depicts. Try facing the camera down when switching out lenses. It will save a lot of cleaning time. But if you like the dust-spots-on-every-image-look, GO FOR IT!!
Does that also apply to the 18 – 24 VR?
Hi Gang:
This shot was taken on field right after the USF vs. Pitt game, and I’m packing up my lenses to head home.
To Mandy: I know you’re kidding, but just in case; the gray hat is a Nikon D3 ballcap my buddy Bill Fortney game me as a gift (he works for Nikon Professional Services, so he gets lots of cool little stuff like that).
To Paul: Good one (that’s all I can say on the subject).
To Balliolman: That vest was a photo vest we had custom-made for the Photoshop World instructors. I love that vest (my favorite ever), and maybe we should look into getting another batch made to make available for NAPP members.
To Richard: Thanks SO much your sharing your tips (I love it when my readers do stuff like that).
Take care,
-Scott
Thanks for the Tuesday tid-bit.
-Bob
(Beantown)
Put me down for one of the vests, or tee shirts, or hats.
Scott, what are your image quality settings that you use when shooting sports? Shooting in RAW may give 3 fps but in sports, this is too slow.
By the way, you in black, killer look dude! I want that vest!
Excellent tip. Thanks.
Great tip Scott. I don’t shoot sports but I do photograph active children a lot so I will be pulling this one out of my bag of tricks often. Thank you for the many ways you and NAPP have helped to make me a better photographer and image editor this year. I hope 2009 is really good to you and your family – Happy New Year!
The same tip applies for Canon shooters. No need for the IS if you shutter speed is way high, like over 1/1000.
Not a problem Scott, you have helped me out tons in the past, just paying it forward.
Rich
Ahh…the VR Button…or for us Canon folk IS.
Too many times I’ve forgotten to take it off when shooting at high speeds or using my tripod. One more memo to write on my hand.
Ha! Love the photograph of you Scott. Looks like you are getting ready to do part two of that Joe Mcnally’s commercial.
Dwayne.D.C.Tucker II
Nassau,Bahamas
http://DwayneTucker.com
“you really don’t need the VR, eh?”
Scott, you’re now an honorary Canuck. The placement of the “eh?” was just right.
Are we going to see you at Timmy’s with a large double double (ask Dave)?.
Great advice, and something I’ve actually pondered as well. I don’t shoot sports (anymore), but I do shoot a lot of flying birds, and your advice holds true for that as well. I’ve found setting the shutter release at release priority, or release+focus, rather than focus priority also goes a long way toward maximizing frame rate. The number of focus points selected also seems to play in to a lesser degree…
Unlike the rest, I wanted to comment on the MBP. I was recently visiting the Apple Store and discovered the 1,2,3, & 4 finger commands on the trackpad (at least I think that is what you are referring to) for the MacBook Pros. I was so impressed. I’m using a 24inch iMac, which I believe has a glossy screen. It’s never bothered me. When the time comes, I will be adding a MBP to my Mac family. Hang in there Scott, you’ll get used to it.
Scott,
Count me in on being interested in the vest too! If it does come to happen, maybe it could be announced on the NAPP website. I still love your Ohio State shots.
Larry
I would definitely like to see that vest made available to NAPP members. Maybe you could post your equipment and accessories you use for a football shoot some day.
William
William, he already did, look back a few weeks, Scott dedicated what I think was a full post on his gear for sport shoots…he introduced those knee pads in that same post I think.
And aah, switching lenses in the open!The dust!The filth!
Great tip anyway,
Morgan
Scott,
You know that next to life itself (and CS4) I love you best. BUT… (and to plagiarize my favorite author) “wait for it…” You are really disappointing the cleats off my shoes with your coverage of these (foot)ball games. If I want cool shots of the athletes in action, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, API and others have a corner on that market. Your action shots are missing the action that I’d have expected YOU to bring to the table.
What I’m saying is that when my favorite Scott Kelby gives us digital jewels I expect to learn something I didn’t know. You are my instructor and your game coverage is not teaching me a damn thing. Oh, I’m sorry. Was I being harsh. Apologies. Let me explain. I want to go behind the scenes with Scott Kelby and you are simply not taking (me) there. I want to see the intimate stuff that’s going on at the game. I want to see the cleavage. NO NO NO, not the cheerleaders! ESPN, etal has that market cornered too. I want to see the gaps and curves and shapes that make up the foundation of a game. I want to see the expressions going on with the team mates, on the bench, a grimacing referee, a face-full-of-prayer from the players and coaches clutching together and, after their months and years of training and preparation, asking G-d to give them that game changing play. I want to go backstage. I want to “share” your field pass and be allowed to look around at everything but the field. I pay DirecTV way too much each year to see what’s happening on the field. I want my teacher to educate me with the passion and commitment that is dripping off the players as they support and latently reach out to their team mates to reach their objectives and win. Few things are more compelling and cause more introspective thinking than seeing a grown (250 lb) man with an eyeful of tears from the pain, the intensity, the stuff that makes me cry when the mushy music plays on a heartfelt breakfast cereal commercial. You know what I mean. I want to see life.
Now, before I break into song, I’m going to call the Commissioner and have the season restarted (Cmd, Opt, … oh whatever the keyboard shortcut is!) and now when you are back out there with your field passes, let’s do the right thing Scott.
And, besides offering you a great New Year with energy to deliver us tons of new stuff to make us better us’es, it’s only with tough love that I’m compelled to post this reply.
VR is soft man….learn how to hold it steady.
Thanks Scott for your posts….good stuff
I shoot with pentax and they use shake reduction on the ccd instead of lenses so another top tip from me would be to turn vr or shake reduction off when using a tripod and slow shutter speeds because it can cause the tripod to shake a little which causes you to loose a bit of sharpness on your images.
http://www.edstonephotography.com
A few of the Canon shooters mentioned above that the same can be said for using the IS (Image Stabilization) feature found on Canon lens. I will add my voice to theirs and state the same thing… turn it off.
Sometimes it almost seems counter intuitive to turn it off especially when you are shooting sporting events that are later in the evening at less than well lit stadiums. All the manuals say that IS is best used when shooting in low light situations… but you also have to remember that by nature turning on IS immediately reduces your exposure by a stop or two. So having it on when trying to shoot at a faster shutter speed is very counter productive to your mission because your going to be fighting for a good exposure with a fast shutter speed… you will need all the help you can get so losing two stops right off the bat is not a good thing!
To be perfectly honest… I have never shot with IS turned on. I am not saying that it doesn’t have a purpose… I have just never found a time when I needed it.
Turning on IS does NOT “immediately reduce your expoosure by a stop or two”. That’s absurd.
All it does is use gyros to stabilize the optics. It allows you to handhold a shot “a stop or two” slower on the shutter than you could if you didn’t have IS/VR.
In other words, if you’re handholding at 200mm and 1/100….the exposure won’t be any different with/without IS/VR…but the shot with IS/VR will be sharper.
Scott, just looking at the sports photo of yourself, sporting (sorry) a very smart vest! WITH the napp logo, any way NAPP members can purchase these? I’m in the market for one, and haven’t like what I’ve seen on eBay so far.
A reply would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Declan Howard,
Ireland