Looking for tips on indoor sports action shots?

[Buchanan0204]

I'll be photographing some badminton which is obviously indoors and in pretty poor lighting conditions. It's dim to stop the players getting dazzled by bright lights.

I'm looking to take action shots, mid air smashes etc where they swing the racket extremely quickly and move very quick.

Any tips? I can be as close or as far away as I like.

I'm a beginner and don't really understand aperture no matter how much I read up on it. I understand though I will need a high ISO and a fast shutter speed.

Cheers all for tips.

 

[Buchanan0204]

Aperture is the the "hole" in the lens that lets the light through. You can change the size of the hole. You do that by altering the F number using your camera to different values eg. F7.1, F5.6, F2.8. The smaller the number, the bigger the hole (aperture). So F1.4 lets in more light that F5.6 (a lot more!).

The bigger the hole, the more light that can enter the camera. The more light you can let in, the shorter exposure time (therefore faster shutter speed) you can achieve to make a well exposed photograph. That's why lenses with high maximum aperture numbers (lets say F2.8 and below) are often called "fast lenses".

Different lenses have different maximum apertures. So if you see a lens called Canon EF 85mm F1.8 it means its an 85mm which can achieve a maximum aperture setting of F1.8. You may notice a basic lens like the Canon EF-S 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 has an aperture range noted. This means the maximum aperture is variable, and changes as you zoom.

You want a lens with a low F number to allow you to open up the aperture a lot, so you can gather as much light as possible in the poor lighting conditions you are predicting. This is more important with sport because as you rightly understood you will need a fast shutter speed (shorter exposure time).

Fixed focal length lenses (ones that dont zoom) are sharper and generally have larger maximum apertures. Depending on how close you want to be a 50mm F1.8 or 85mm F1.8 lens might be a good place to start.

Thank you very much, that's an excellent description and has helped me a lot.

 

[Buchanan0204]

Can anyone recommend me a lense at a sensible price for a Nikon D3100.