Shooting indoor sports such as volleyball

Stahli7

I seem to have trouble shooting inside a gym with my D5100. Can you please help? The photos are blurry and always seems to be a little yellow and shadowy.

bruto

For sports you must have a fast enough shutter speed to stop motion. This is not the same as the shutter speed required to stop camera shake, but must be fast enough for a moving subject. Lens VR, for example, will not have any benefit for subject movement. You'll be best off over 1/250 second in shutter speed, and below that chances are moving players will be blurred. 1/500 would be better if you can do it.

In addition, of course you must focus on moving players, and for that you must engage Continuous servo auto focus, and get out of Auto Area, since it will not likely choose the subject you're aiming at. Try C and Dynamic Area focus. Set the center focus point as your active starting point for the player you wish to center your focus on. Try to follow that player as he or she moves.

Depending on the light, you may have to crank the ISO up pretty high to get your scene bright. Sports mode might work, but shutter priority might work better. At least initially, try Auto ISO and see how it does. If the ISO goes too high and is too noisy, you can set an upper limit in the menu. Auto ISO should help if the light is uneven or varied.

For color balance, your best bet is probably Auto white balance, and shooting in Raw mode. You can then alter white balance in post processing without penalty. In View NX2 and other such programs you can set either one of the standard WB presets or customize it by color temperature. Try the presets first, and if you find one that you like, you can then use that as your initial setting in the camera.

If your lens is fairly slow in aperture, and the gym not terribly well lit, the job will always be a challenge, but practice can help. There will be little you can do for shadows if the court itself is shadowy. Don't use auto flash, as this will probably cast harsh shadows, and favor the closer players at the expense of those further back.

Stahli7

Thank you. I'll give it a try!