canon 450D

[Kiera]

Please help.

I am taking photos of my son playing football, I have the setting to sports mode but exposure is too bright. I then changed mode to P and tried to change settings manually but the pics came out in a blur.

I have tried experimenting but need some advice please.

What is the best mode and setting for taking sports shots with not too much exposure?

Thank you

[Lakitu]

Turn it round to your AV setting, this will determine the amount of light that is exposed. The f stop you should use should be your own judgement on what kind of day it is (bright sunlight/dull and cloudy etc). Start by putting it a relative 'safe' f stop of around 7 or 8, take a test shot and look at the result on the LCD. If it's too bright put it up a couple of stop, if it's too dark, put it down a couple of stops.

[Buenchico]

I've not got the same camera (and I've not bothered to download the instruction manual) but almost any decent digital camera should offer a shutter priority mode. Select it and then select the fastest shutter speed (e.g. 1/1000 or 1/500 of a second) offered by your camera. Your camera will automatically select the relevant aperture, which determines the depth field (but, unlike conventional SLRs, depth of field isn't particularly critical with a digital camera).

Chris

[buildersmate]

The shutter priority mode is called 'Tv' on the Canon. Select it, then you can choose the shutter speed manually by clicking round the small knurled wheel (close to the picture button). Having done that, the auto sensing system then tells you what aperture setting the picture will expose at, via the screen that shows through the eyepiece. It flashes if there isn't enough light going into the lens (in which case you will have to slow down the shutter speed by a stop or two).
This is how the 400D works - I assume the 450D is similar.

[Kiera]

Thanks everyone.

Will try out the camera tomorrow.

I have looked on web for ideas it says sports mode is the best to use but the light is too bright and it does not give me the option to change the setting?

In the other settings want ie AV can I take sports pics?

Thanks

[buildersmate]

The Av setting is definitely not what you want to use - it fixes the aperture and then the time exposure varies according to the light entering the lens.
What's wrong with using the Tv setting - that's the manual setting best suited to do what you are trying to achieve.
You may also have to manually focus on the subject because if it is moving fast, the auto-focussing won't be able to respond quick enough.

[magicmerlin]

I am amazed that the answers already given fail to give the main reason why your pictures are too bright. The problem as I see it is that the ISO rating is set at too high a value (maybe 800 or 1600), change it to 200 for starters and try again. I would also set the camera to back to sports mode as this tells the camera to set a faster shutter speed.

Buenchico - Depth of field applies to DSLRs as well as conventional SLRs. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field