Sony A6000 Suggestions for Capturing Sports

[lifethrumylense]

Hey I finally went and purchased a Sony A6000, as I caught a good sale on a bundle at sams club got the display camera bundled with 18-55 lens and 55-210 lens for $ 584.00 plus tax. I couldn't pass it up, my plan for camera is to mostly capture sports, those sports being Basketball and Soccer. Occasionally I will also do family photos but mostly for friends. I was wondering if anyone had any settings suggestions I should try or suggestions on lenses/ accessories I should pretty much immediately purchase. Thanks for all suggestions and help.

[LiveShots]

Some good stuff on this video to get you started...

 

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

There are many options and with time you'll find sertings that suit your style of photography.

 

To get started with sports, you could set the camera to S mode and the shutter speed to 1/1000s. Set ISO to auto, focus area to wide, autofocus to AF-C and use the 55-210. This will allow you to track moving people and freeze their movement. If you shoot indoors or outside in low light, you might get grainy photos, but that's because the lens does not allow enough light to hit the sensor. Only a change of lens will fix that.

 

After that, you can start experimenting with lock-on AF to track a certain person and shutter release priority to increase the shutter response. It is entirely possible to shoot sports with this camera and lens but it's not optimal for it. So you can expect to miss shots and you'll need some practice to get the really nice photos you want.

 

Fot portraits you can use either lens. Start by setting the camera to A mode. Select ISO 100 and the lowest F-number you can. Select AF-S and activate face recognition. You need fairly good light, so if the images come out blurry, set ISO to auto. Zoom in a bit, use 55m on the short lens and 100-210 on the long lens.

 

There's a lot more and many variations, but these will get you started.