D300 - Youth Soccer Settings?

[DeannaD]

Hi,

I just unwrapped my D300 and hope to shoot my 12 year old son's soccer game on Sat. Since the spring season is almost over I don't have a lot of time to experiment. Could anyone recommend settings they've used in similar circumstances? Should be sunny (9:30 AM) and potential for a lot of shadows on their faces. My soccer lens is Sigma 70-200 f/2.8.

In particular:

Active DLighting on/off?
AF Mode? # of points?
NR on/off?
Starting ISO (I always use 200 on sunny mornings, but i've heard maybe I should use a higher value as a default)

I'm only up to page 70 in the manual, so any help would be greatly appreciated !

thanks,
Deanna

[LSCSN.com]

Wow you actually read the manuals :). That's impressive. My son plays soccer and here are the settings that I was using last Saturday for a 1:30 start.

ISO - 200
Shutter - 4000
f 2.8

AF center point only for me - some like other modes
Noise reduction off

I have posted three shots in the sports section from that game if you want to see what that will look like. Can't remember what the thread name is though.

[a2rob]

Originally Posted by DeannaD

Hi,

I just unwrapped my D300 and hope to shoot my 12 year old son's soccer game on Sat. Since the spring season is almost over I don't have a lot of time to experiment. Could anyone recommend settings they've used in similar circumstances? Should be sunny (9:30 AM) and potential for a lot of shadows on their faces. My soccer lens is Sigma 70-200 f/2.8.

In particular:

Active DLighting on/off? OFF (action to fast for this setting)
AF Mode? # of points? 21 or 51 (I tend to use 21 for outside)
NR on/off? OFF (no need for this)
Starting ISO (I always use 200 on sunny mornings, but i've heard maybe I should use a higher value as a default) 200 (bump it to 400 if clouds roll in and back down if they roll out again)

I'm only up to page 70 in the manual, so any help would be greatly appreciated !

thanks,
Deanna

Do not be afraid to experiment with different settings.

Rob

[DeannaD]

I WILL experiment! Just want to get some decent shots tomorrow!

What about in-camera Sharpening? What setting do y'all recommend?

[a2rob]

I use Lightroom, so I have my cameras set to "0" sharpening and post sharpen in LR.
I guess this will be a matter of opinion though...

[AndrewCCM]

Originally Posted by DeannaD

I WILL experiment! Just want to get some decent shots tomorrow!

What about in-camera Sharpening? What setting do y'all recommend?

Do you shoot RAW or JPG?

I don't shoot D300 or JPG, but use sharpening mainly for LCD preview purposes since the embedded JPG in the RAW file is used for the preview on the camera.

[DeannaD]

Normally for soccer I take jpg since I take a TON of shots. However, I'll probably try some raw tomorrow so I can fiddle with the settings in Capture and figure out what I can improve.

[Matt_G]

Unless you need the images immediately (media) shoot RAW and buy some more cards!

I tend to use center weight metering for baseball.

Use the single focus point that lands on the players head the easiest. For landscape I usually use "the" center focus point... for portrait I use the one directly above the center point (or two above for older kids)