Whats a good shutter speed and ISO setting to shoot sports photos with a Canon Rebel XS?

There are three components that make up the Exposure Triangle: ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. All three are variables and are inter-related since changing one requires changing at least one of the other two and, in some cases, both. Since trying to deal with three variables is very confusing its best to choose one as a "constant", leaving only two variables which is more manageable. I often suggest setting an ISO and then not touching it unless absolutely necessary.

Another consideration is the conditions you're shooting in. Is it sunny? Overcast? Night time? Are you standing on the sidelines or sitting up in the stands? Different conditions present different problems and require different approaches/solutions.

First, forget about using the camera's Scene Modes.

Now lets look at some hypothetical situations, beginning with shooting on a sunny day. Under these conditions you can ignore anyone who suggests "... crank up the ISO ..." since its possible to achieve a very high shutter speed at ISO 100 on a sunny day. I'll travel back in time to the days when few cameras had built-in light meters and use the venerable "Sunny 16 Rule" to prove this. Sunny 16 states: "On a sunny day, set your aperture at f16 and your shutter speed to 1/ISO." So here's what a chart of aperture/shutter speed settings would look like on this sunny day using ISO 100:

f16 @ 1/100 sec. Sunny 16

f11 @ 1/200 sec.

f8 @ 1/400 sec.

f5.6 @ 1/800 sec. That should stop almost any action on the field.

f4 @ 1/1600 sec.

Even if you're using a zoom lens with a variable aperture of f3.5-5.6 on a sunny day you can maintain a shutter speed sufficient to stop action with a low ISO of only 100.

If its cloudy or overcast you can simply use ISO 200 and still maintain a fast enough shutter speed.

If you're shooting at night you have a whole different challenge to deal with. Ideally, you'd have a fast f2.8 constant aperture zoom so you could use a lower ISO but if that's not a lens you own then the only option is to use a high ISO. Of course using a high ISO means more digital noise but that can be dealt with.

A major consideration when shooting at night is understanding that we see differently than the camera. The combination of our very sensitive eyes and our brain allows us to see a high school football field as fairly bright. Colors look "true" and we have little difficulty in seeing the action on any part of the field. Think of the eye as the lens and the iris of the eye as the diaphragm inside the lens. I've no idea of the "maximum aperture" of the human eye - it might be 0.5 or 1.0. In any case its much larger than any really affordable lens. (Leica has a 50mm f0.95 lens that's about $10,000.00). So lets assume the eye is f1.0 and our lens is an f2.8. That means that we see the football field as much brighter than our lens does. Since f1.0 is 3 stops faster than f2.8 and f2.0 admits twice as much light as f2.8 and f1.4 admits twice as much light as f2.0 and f1.0 admits twice as much light as f1.4, to the camera the football field is a dark place. Since its impossible to make the camera lens faster than what it is and we need a fast shutter speed to stop the action our only choice is to use a high ISO like 1600 or even 3200.

I use and recommend this site for low-light/night exposure recommendations: http://www.calculator.org/exposure.aspx Lets use the Scene 'Brightly lit shop windows, bonfires, floodlit sports, bright fluorescent lighting' and ISO 1600 and 3200 to see the difference.

f1.4 @ 1/2000 sec.

f2 @ 1/1000 sec.

f2.8 @ 1/500 sec.

f3.5 @ ~ 1/333 sec.

f4.0 @ 1/250 sec.

f5.6 @ 1/125 sec.

ISO 3200

f1.4 @ 1/4000 sec.

f2.0 @ 1/2000 sec.

f2.8 @ 1/1000 sec.

f3.5 @ ~ 1/666 sec.

f4 @ 1/500 sec.

f5.6 @ 1/250 sec.

NOTE: f3.5 is 1/3 stop faster than f4.0 so I added 33% to the f4.0 shutter speed to get the approximate shutter speed values shown.

For comparison, an f2.8 constant aperture zoom would allow a shutter speed of 1/250 sec. at f2.8 using ISO 800. That's why professional sports photographers spend the money for such a lens. The Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM zoom is $1,899.00 at http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

I suggest shooting in Aperture Priority (Av on your camera) and base all shutter speeds on f5.6 and adjust the ISO as required to get a fast enough shutter speed to stop the action at f5.6 since we know that at f3.5 our shutter speed will get faster.

To deal with any excessive noise, refer to this article: http://www.shutterbug.net/equipmentreviews/softwar...

Your best approach would be to crank the ISO up as far as it will go........ IF at night or indoors. Don't worry about a slight color shift or noise. Right now all you want are - IMAGES..

.

Set the camera on A - Aperture Priory. Make sure you keep the thumb wheel that controls the Aperture set to keep the lens as wide open as far it can go - ALL the time. Do NOT set your f/stops down, any.. and now shoot away, watching your shutter speeds thru your view finder and if it dips below 1/125th of a second or so, brace your self as to NOT move and slowly squeeze the shot off.

.

As said, a mono-pod will do wonders. They are very mobile and you tip and wag the whole thing to get in the action. But, because it is on the ground you have a lot more stability than hand holding.

.

Now, daylight... ALL the same things, however, here you can crank the ISO down a notch or two and have it at 800 ot 1000. You still want the shutter speed high to freeze action (if that is what you wanna do).

.

You may want to do a test some day and take a series of pictures of and at the same thing, inside and out side. Start at the lowest ISO your camera has, and take a picture. Click up the ISO to the next, and take another picture. Keep doing this until you have gone through the entire ISO range your camera has. If out in daylight, the camera can be on P but manually set the ISO.

.

Now, look at all the pics on YOUR computer screen. Just how 'bad' do any of them really look...? Far too many people listen to and believe older stories of how images were degraded by high ISO #'s or longer shutter speeds when in fact, cameras today have gone past these bad things and can deliver rather excellent images with high ISO's or long shutter exposures.

.

You wont know until you test YOUR camera to see just what CAN it do..?? I shoot often at 3600 ISO and have been known to expose for as long as 15 - MINUTES... so you have to push your camera to know what it can (or can't) do in a pinch. You may be surprised.

If you're outdoors and it's still daylight (not sunset, dusk, or night), you should be able to get enough light for a good shutter speed without having to crank your ISO, even if you don't have a fast lens.

I would recommend setting your camera to TV mode. This allows you to pick a shutter speed, and the lens aperture will compensate to give you a correct exposure based on how much light it meters. If you can, it would be best to stick around 1/250 or faster if possible.

Depending on how much light there is, I would start with your ISO around 400 or so. You can go all the way up to 1600 if you need, like if your pictures are coming out too dark even in TV mode.

An easier way would be to set your ISO to "Auto," although that solution tends to increase the ISO rather than opening the lens aperture, so your photos will all be more grainy in general.

Good luck!

1

I have the exact same camera! One thing I can suggest is to get a mono-pod. It's basically like a tri-pod, but only has one leg which makes it easier to move around. This will definitely help with keeping a steady hand when photographing and losing the blurry quality in your photos. When I was doing sport photography it's best to take photos during the day, when it is sunny. If you are in Manual mode or P for Program mode I would keep the ISO at 400, but that also depends on how bright it is outside. Remember, the faster the shutter speed (whether it be 1/250, 1/500...etc) the clearer and crisper your images will turn out.

You are missing the one thing that really matters, the aperture. If you have the kit lens or another "all around" lens you likely can't open your aperture more than f/4. Which is way too narrow to allow for a fast enough shutter speed to do sports. ISO helps but has it's own problematic implications.

The only real solution to shooting sports is get a better lens. Something with at least a minimum aperture of 2.8. It will look something like Canon EF-S 135mm 1:2.8

It depends. With some exceptions, you use the fastest shutter speed and lowest iso you can get away with (I say lowest iso because it creates less noise)

For example, if you can get away with using 1600iso instead of 3200 iso then you should - otherwise, use 3200iso if your camera supports it. Depending on the lighting conditions, you may have to use a high iso (or, if you are outside on a sunny day, you might be able to get away with a lower iso, depending on what shutter speed you are using).

If your subjects are coming out blurry, then you need to use a faster shutter speed, which may mean increasing your iso.

Really, you should read your camera manual - it goes over things like this.

Shutter Speed For Sports

It depends on whether it's day or night, obviously, and it depends on the conditions at the moment, regardless.

For daytime, try ISO 500 at 1/800 at f/5.6 for starters. This will get you in the ballpark and you can tweak the settings up or down until you get the results you need.

At night, it's going to be hard to get anything decent unless you have a fast lens. You would need to use around ISO 2000, 1/100, f/5.6, for starters adn that will probably be too dark. If you have a faster lens, you can open up the lens, use a faster shutter speed, and/or use a lower ISO to improve image quality.

There are 3 (actually 4 if you count ambient light) that are important here and you are only mentioning 2 of them. Shutter Speed, ISO AND aperture.

Those 3 are the exposure triumvate.

It all depends on available light and aperture ... you can't make that call without knowing both of those.

If you ever wondered if will there be a betting process that may provide you with a higher percentage of winning bets than losing one's then you need to know that this technique occur, will be here https://tr.im/B2nkT , Zcodes System.

Zcodes System is the most effective activities trading software/system.  Ron, Mike, Steve, and their team of programmers used around a couple of years beta-testing Zcodes before even launching it live and it really shows. 

If you want to earn money, a fortune then, employs Zcodes System.