Night Sports Shots

I have been frustraitingly taking shots of football matches under floodlights with no success. I have a Sigma 70-200 f2.8 and a Sony A380, when snapping i have tried a high ISO which creates lots of noise, i have tried shutter priority of 1/50 which creates little light, and i have tried a manual setting which crates ghosts figures, can anyone please advise, i would be most greatfull.

With action shots in low light you have only a few options. First I suggest you switch to Aperture Priority and let the camera set the shutter speed. By doing this you will see in your information display the speed the camera chooses before you take a shot. If it's too slow to stop the action you must raise your ISO until that shutter speed will freeze the action. If that is still unacceptable you can't get a decent shot under those conditions. Give us some more details of your equipment and settings.

Here's what DPreview had to say about your camera:

At base ISO the A380 performs very well and delivers good detail and natural if slightly vivid colors. Default output is a little soft. Shooting in RAW can definitely gain you some extra detail, especially in low contrast areas of the frame where some careful sharpening in RAW conversion will get you a good amount of additional detail. The Sony's dynamic range is in line with the competition in this class. It delivers a decent amount of highlight range and blown highlights weren't more of a problem on the A380 than on other cameras in the upper entry-level segment during our sample shoots.

Where the camera starts to struggle is at higher sensitivities. It's not horrible in low light but it's not on the same level as its current direct competitors. That's not really a surprise as the A380's sensor and imaging pipeline are virtually identical with the A350's which was launched in January 2008 - an eternity in digital imaging terms. The sensor is noisier than the competition to start with and this is exacerbated by the A380's heavy-handed approach to noise reduction which blurs a lot of detail but also results in unsightly chroma noise blobs. You can get better results by shooting RAW and optimizing your own noise reduction but the outcome will generally still be inferior to a camera that generates less noise in the first place.

All in all, if you don't do a lot of low light photography, you won't have any reason to complain about the A380's image quality but if you do you might want to have a look for alternatives.

I would do some ISO tests at home to see what your usual ISO is on that camera, then use that. Take some shots of an ornament or something in natural light late in the day with just the rooms normal light on, iso 400, iso800, 1600, 3200 - and see what the sweet spot is for that camera.

Also, look into the focus tracking modes.

Thanks for the reply, ive tried manual mode but ghosts like figures, shutter priority too dark, losing ideas really. know every camera is different but i wouldn't mind if i got one decent shot. I also have a big problem with noise on a higher ISO, its driving me nuts as a nights work is non productive.

Yes will do but im sure that the light during the time of day differs an evening football match.

Shoot at f/2.8 in aperture priority, drop exp comp to -1, adjust iso till get at least 1/200, ideally want 1/500. Will get noise and dark shots but can easily lighten in ps.

Shoot in bursts, make sure autofocus is on continuos and use monopod or tripod if poss.

Agree with what others have said.

If light is pants - select your largest aperture - in this case f2.8

See what shutter speed this then gives you for correct exposure.

You'll have an idea of the shutter speed you want (say 1/500) but if only 1/100 is 'available' for example and it's too slow for the 'frozen' movement - increase your ISO till you have your desired shutter speed.

If you find you have to raise the ISO to the point that noise in unacceptable (under-exposing by a couple of stops adds to noise) or you simply can't raise it enough to reach your 'desired' shutter speed then you want to have a think about the images you're trying to capture and be a bit cute.

Remember that motion blur is minimised and almost negated if your subject is coming towards you head on rather than accross your frame. This will buy you some shutter speed so think about the action.

Pull out a bit from your 200mm - you'll gain light at shorter focal lengths.

Experiment with your slower shutter speeds too - now and again you will get one right.

One more tip, set up near goals as players will be coming towards along lines of phils point, more importantly will get faces of players.

These tips and the settings aren't mine, but a mate who is a pro sports tog covering premier league and super league rugby.

Many thanks to all, i will give it a go and report back afetr the next night match.