My daughter started playing middle-school volleyball and shooting these games has been humbling! I'm currently using a Canon 7D and 70-200 2.8 IS lens. To get pics that are okay, I've been using ISO over 4000, usually 5000 but that high ISO is really grainy. I also have a Canon Macro 2.0 macro and wondered if that might be a better lens for indoor shooting??

Any input on settings/set-up/lenses would be greatly appreciated!

The 70-200 should work fine at ISO400 if there is good lighting. If possible you could use a flash if you have access to one. Shoot close to the floor, don't shoot from the stands down on to the action, floor shots show better. Also don't shoot on full auto, shoot on TV on the dial and change the speed to 125 or so depending on lighting.

I occasionally shoot H.S. gym basketball, and have a friend who shoots H.S. volleyball. When we get to talking, this is what we complain about; all of them are lighting related.
1) The different types of lighting make it hard to set the white balance. Especially difficult is the cycling of the sodium or fluorescent lamps. ie. 60Hz cycling makes for some underexposed shots if you catch the off cycle. The 7DII has a setting to delay the shutter to release only on the "up cycle" if yours is a II.
2) As you're discovering dim lighting/and fast motions make for difficult shooting. f2.8 can work if you're prepared to do considerable post processing to remove noise.

What my friend has resorted to is shooting an 85 f1.8 and cropping aggressively to get tight (he's shooting a 1DX full frame). He also shoots an 85 f1.2, but that lens wasn't made for fast action. He says it can work for volleyball because the action is predictable, allowing him to pre-focus and camp out on a spot. Even then his keeper ratio is less than 30%.

I borrowed his 85 f1.2 to shoot a local Sporter Air Rifle Match (another sport with challenging lighting, but no fast action). Makes for some interesting shots. I'll see if I can share some.

I used the 85 1.8 as well. Only ever used it for indoor v-ball, and now it just sits.

Still, it was handier than the 70-200, and 1.8 helped a lot. I also camped out and waited for the set. Flash was a no-no, of course.

Rick

ISO320, 1/125, f1.8


same settings as above.


50mm ISO320, 1/320, f1.2

I might be interested in your 85 1.8. Was about to pull the trigger on a Tamron with VC for twice the price!

The 7DII is a perfect fit for most of what I shoot so I went ahead and ordered one from Cameraland and it should be here this week. I'll keep an eye out an 85/1.8 now too....thanks for the feedback

Forgot to mention that I played with a 135 f2. It was okay, a bit more reach, but I didn't think the autofocus was as fast or precise.

Was able to snap some vball pics on Thurs and the difference was very noticable. I think the "flicker" function really made it easier to get decent pics. That and I manually set thw white-balance to compensate for the flourescent lights. I have so much to learn.....wish I could just tail a pro for awhile!

Show us some pics!

BTW, if you're going to shop a 85 f1.8, take a look at the Tamron version. It will cost you twice as much, but the VC was letting me shoot a lot slower than I thought I could hand held. You might ask CameraLandTamronPhotAdv his thoughts. He's a very knowledgable guy (even though he shoots Nikon).
Tamron ran rebates last year around Thanksgiving. Maybe they'll do it again this year!
Tamron Rebate Thread (with Airshow pics)

Here's some pics.

Right now I do very little to my pics (these are untouched) and I normally shoot in L JPEG but I shot in RAW/JPG so I can hopefully learn how to take out some of the grain with post processing.

Those are pretty darn good as is. The grain isn't distracting at all. I remember shooting volleyball when I was in highschool (1999-2000) with 3200 ISO black and white film and the grain was like looking at a bowl of oatmeal.

One thing you may try is disabling your camera's built in noise reduction, and then using a separate noise reduction filter in post-processing. I've found with my Fuji X mirrorless cameras that the in-camera noise reduction causes a "smoothing" of textures, particularly skin tones, that is distracting and sometimes looks like fine-textured high-noise grain. Once I turned off the in-camera noise reduction that went away.

Thanks for the tip....I'll give that a try!

Indoor action sports are very tough. It seems gyms are better lit than pools. I ended up getting a Tamron 18-270 to be able to get pics of my son diving in high school (think fast summersaults and twists) and swim pics of my daughter.

Outdoor is a bit easier, especially if it's sunny.

Had to push ISO.
25 yard action shows blur.


Daylight starts.


Sunny fly.


Night finals under the lights.


CA Venue.

Also try using a monopod.

Diving Pictures. All indoors. Parts of different dives.

I like that daytime fly pic and this last diving pic with his head just on top of the water!

I think I shot stuff at the pool a time or two...

I might have even shot some diving...

Thanks. Pure luck there!

Cardboard boat races are a hoot!

Love those pics....that boat race looks like a lot of FUN!!

It was a hilarious event to shoot. I wish I could link in the whole gallery...these are just the faceless ones because these were minors, and the shots were for internal use only.

Those are some great shots of the Volleyball game! One tip I'd mention is : Almost every sport has one instant when the action is frozen, like the volleyball serve you posted. learn what they are, anticipate them, WAIT for it, then shoot!

Rest pics

I was cruising POTN (a Canon shooter site), and ran across this and thought of this thread. This guy is using strobes on some of his sots and very good gear. (I think I'd get kicked out of the gym since folks here take volleyball pretty seriously). But even his non-strobed shots look pretty good to me.

...and continuing the tangent, I kinda like the camera work by this guy doing swimming.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1457476

Once again, why do folks post links to images and then pull them down?

Well, i had to look up the thread to see why this was posted to me. All I can say is it weren't me!

Looks like a PB F up.

The links are still in the post (quote my post). I pasted it to the URL in a new tab and PB timed out.

IronB: Did not intend to imply anything personal, just tend to hit the reply on the last post. Pretty much just a generality here. Just get tired of the "take a look at these" only to find they've been pulled down.

Could be that folks think their image has rolled into the forum records when that is not the case.

Been using PhotoBucket for a decade and never had an image vaporize.

No worries, 1. Didn't take it personally.

Thought you meant mine as they did not show, but now they are back.

PB can be frustrating.

Missing link to Shooting Volleyball blog post;
http://zivnuska.zenfolio.com/blog/2016/3/how-to-photograph-volleyball

I love the following thread. Shows that short and wide can give you great shots if you're willing to put yourself out there/down there;
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1465508

I've spent more time than I care to admit shooting in dingy gyms. Here are some tips:

1) Shoot at 2.8. That's why you spent the big bucks on that lens.

2) Shoot RAW files. You can do more to save an underexposed RAW file. You can also shoot at one color balance setting (right or not) then download the files into Lightroom, adjust one frame's WB to perfection then sync the rest to it

3) Fast glass like a 85/1.8 is helpful though I usually shoot them at f/2.

4) The best photogs will still get a lot of bad frames (with manual or autofocus) in dark gyms, so shoot lots of frames. Lots.

5) If you can afford it, upgrading the camera to a 5D Mark4 is worth it. The high ISO settings are very clean.

If I saw a girl wind up like this in the 70's when I was in middle school I would have been worried....

W

Your digital noise is barely noticeable. And a lot of times viewers expect to see that a bit at high school sports.

I've been lucky enough to shoot a lot of volleyball, some with strobes and some with available light with fast glass and top-of-the-line camera bodies. Even with the crazy-fast motor drive, I still miss "peak" moment sometimes. It's helpful in the long run to use single shot instead of the motor drive. Train yourself to get the peak moment.

Nice stuff and keep shooting.

"Motor Drive?" Wow! How old are you?

Sorry. Just couldn't help it. Have a good one,

Ha, 1minute. I'm 40.

I mostly responded on this because I saw a fellow Nebraskan posted! I haven't updated my site in a while, but here's an example of what I was talking about with lights and no motor drive (and some luck):
http://www.mattmillerphoto.com/?#/Portfolio/Sports/12/

Nice work, and today's buffers and cards are something else given the amount of data that's generated.