Setting Canon D60 for night-time sports photography

Recently I was asked if I could provide my local football club with
action shots from games for their match-day program. I am not a
professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination and seek
advice from those more experienced group users.
I have recently purchased a Canon D60 which I use with a Sigma
70-300mm lens. For daytime games the standard sports setting is great.
However for night-games the sports setting doesn't produce good enough
pics.

I would appreciate any advice on settings for night action shots so
that I can get good enough pics from night games to put into the
program.

Thanks.
Derek.

 

Maximum ISO (1000), aperture priority mode, widest aperture. Also, with
the D60, don't try to use the AI focus mode at night, instead set it to
one-shot focus or manual focus and prefocus to where the action will be.
If that's not good enough you need a faster lens, better lighting, or a
camera with better high-ISO behavior.

 

You will have to get yourself away from the P&S settings and start
learning how to use the camera as it should be. You have 2 issues - a
lens that at its widest is F4 but you are most likely to be shooting it
at F5.6 and the need for a high ISO.

It will be the lens that will really let you down as you really need
something like F2.8 throughout the range (Sigma 70-200 does this). I
would try to borrow or hire one for a game to see how it works out. The
70-300 is at the low end of Sigma lenses for sharpness/speed and isn't
up to this type of work.

You will need to shoot at ISO 800. You can clean up any noise afterwards
with software like NeatImage. AF will probably be useless or too
inaccurate at such low light, so practice your manual focussing
techniques.

Do some trials, it is the only way to learn the limits of your gear and
yourself.

Kenny