Manual Settings for Sports Photography
Sports Photography Settings on a Landscape Photographer’s Blog
The title sounds strange on a landscape photographer’s page.
Like any parent or grandparent with a camera, there are many sports photography opportunities with the kids/grandkids in sports.
Originally always used Aperture Priority
Ever since the kids were little, I always used Aperture Priority (AV) for the primary setting, with single focal point and evaluative metering.
These settings I used with my first digital camera, Canon Digital Rebel, and maintained them with the Canon 5D, 1DsMIII and now the 1DxMIII.
At the time, the grandkids were playing in the outdoor youth leagues.
Conditions never changed much, and things generally worked well.
And then the sports moved inside.
I started noticing shutter speed issues when the sports went inside, such as youth basketball.
The gyms they tended to be quite dark.
Manually Increased ISO
Darker gyms dictated increased ISO levels.
By this time I was using the 1DsMIII - and still learning its limits.
Lenses were always f/2.8, shooting wide open again with aperture priority.
With that camera, I never liked the outcome of using the higher ISO levels above 1000 (as I remember). Too much grain for my desire.
Processing in Lightroom often softened the faces more than desirable.
Unfortunately, with these two concerns, the shutter speed was affected.
Switched to f/2 or faster lenses
Still shooting with the 1DsMIII, I started using faster lenses. The first was the Canon 85mm f/1.4 L IS.
With little kids basketball, we were sitting under the basket, or practically on the court on the sidelines, so being close was never an issue.
This worked well in low light gyms, typically shooting at f/2.0.
Switched to Canon 1DxMIII
As the older grandkids started playing high school sports, I took many more pictures under different lighting conditions.
The basketball games and track meets were much faster.
With the slower 5 FPS on the 1DsMIII, I was missing too many shots.
Indoors, with low light, I still had the excessive (for me) grain and/or slower shutter speed issue.
I switched out to the Canon 1DxMIII, for a number of reasons, including speed (now 16 FPS with 99 shots before buffering), and the ability to shoot with higher ISO settings.
As mentioned in the product information, shooting at much higher ISO levels provided great results, far better than I would have imagined.
Clarity of the images was better than with the 1DsMIII.
I still wanted improvement.
Tv and Av
Using the Custom Settings feature on the Canon 1DxMIII, I experimented with many different settings, primarily Aperture Priority though at times also Shutter Priority.
In situations where players went from sunlight to shade, or changing light inside, I still had the issue, especially when compensating for the darker conditions,
In Aperture Priority (Av), the shutter speed would naturally slow down in darker situations, causing motion issues.
In Shutter Priority (Tv), the aperture would adjust in brighter areas to provide greater depth of field than desired.
Testing - Manual with Auto ISO
Then I reread the manual, and an idea hit me.
Why manually set both the aperture and shutter, and leave ISO on Auto, allowing the ISO to “self-adjust” given the lighting conditions?
This is departure from my landscape settings, where I also shoot manual, though set all three, shutter speed, aperture and ISO, single capture at a time, with 2 second delay on a tripod.
Late in fall 2025, I started testing sports with these settings.
The first opportunities in darker settings were outdoor evening soccer games under the lights.
The results were quite encouraging.
Moving inside for basketball games, I again used the same settings, with great results.
Add in Lightroom - AI Denoise
With the low light of gyms, the ISO was naturally quite high, and grain was very apparent.
Prior to 2025, I was using the Luminance slider to remove the grain.
I wasn’t quite happy, as it softened the faces more than desired.
Switching to using the AI Denoise feature in Lightroom took care of that issue.
Now the images are much more refined than before.
One note - AI Denoise is great for removing grain. However, if the image is out of focus, it will still be out of focus.
My Manual Custom Setting Test for Sports
It’s my custom “C1” setting on my camera.
Shutter speed: 1,000 second
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: Auto
Single point focusing on the subject’s eye, or face if distance
Evaluative metering
Multi-shot sequencing
Camera is hand-held
With this setting, the aperture is maintained for the desired shallow depth of field, the shutter speed is consistently maintained for capturing fast action, and the ISO is self-adjusted to the variable lighting conditions under the lights of the outdoor soccer stadium.
Post Processing (shooting everything in RAW), after all other adjustments are made in Lightroom, I use AI Denoise on the Selects. Has really improved my low light images.