I need so much help

[Zac the footy photograper]

I need help I have a Nikon d7500 with a Tamron 70-200 f2.8. I’ve just started with soccer photography and the camera was working fine I had good settings like 1/1000 shutter 1250 iso and 1000 iso for light and bright out soccer games and out of no where images go black dark and super grainy at night. As an example one day I was shooting perfectly images were great, Then they became grainy and super dark and I have to turn my iso to its highest just for it to even have some sort of light coming in. When I switch to auto focus it’s sometimes grainy but on manual it’s horrible I’m on auto iso and those settings so please help with if you have any ideas of what’s going on

 

[Marilynne]

Welcome!

Please post some examples of your work.

You need to resize your photos to 1000 on the long side. That should work.

Guidelines to adding a photo to your post.

1. Resize photo to 1000px on the long side.
2. Resolution set to 72ppi (Pixels Per Inch)

These guidelines will be good for viewing on a computer but will not be good for printing. This will help safeguard your copyright.

 

[BF Hammer]

Can you try to upload a sample good and bad images into a reply to this thread? You don't mention your f-stop and that is the important 3rd leg of the exposure triangle. I and others can read that from the exif data of samples.

Upload directly here as nearly every photo host site likes to strip off exif data on images that are shared.

 

[Zac the footy photograper]

 

[Zac the footy photograper]

 

[Zac the footy photograper]

 

[Zac the footy photograper]

I turned off auto iso and when I go to auto focus the picture look good but for some reason my things is stuck on f2.8 and I don’t know how to fix it because it’s not changing when I try to

 

[BF Hammer]

Zac, Do you not know how to transfer your photos from your camera's card? We need the photos in order to help you, not a screen-capture of you viewing the photos from your phone.

What the goal here is to see if your camera knows what is going wrong. You already are reaching out because you don't know what is wrong.

 

[Woodyg3]

I turned off auto iso and when I go to auto focus the picture look good but for some reason my things is stuck on f2.8 and I don’t know how to fix it because it’s not changing when I try to

What mode are you shooting in?

 

[Zac the footy photograper]

Manual

 

[Zac the footy photograper]

Zac, Do you not know how to transfer your photos from your camera's card? We need the photos in order to help you, not a screen-capture of you viewing the photos from your phone.

View attachment 422425
What the goal here is to see if your camera knows what is going wrong. You already are reaching out because you don't know what is wrong.

I have an Sd card reader would that work

 

[Clovishound]

You can use a card reader to upload, however, you will probably have to downsize the files before uploading. Most people downsize them to around 1000 to 1500 pixels on the long side and use JPG format. Another question I have is what file type are you using in camera? Are you shooting in RAW, this will give you .NEF files, or are you shooting JPG? RAW will give you more flexibility in the editing process, but will require that you do at least some minimal editing. Do you use any editing software? If you don't have any editing software here is a link to NX Studio. It is a free download from Nikon. It isn't the most powerful editing software, but it will give you the basics, and is relatively easy to use.

As stated at above the reason we are looking for an image from you camera is that it contains specific information on settings in the camera, so that we can diagnose what is going on. This file contains a lot of information that is extremely useful for a diagnosis. An quick alternative would be to right click on the original file, choose "properties". A window will pop up and you can choose the "Details" tab. You can then take screenshots of the information displayed. You will probably have to page down a couple times and take several screenshots to get all the info. Uploading the original file would be better, but screenshots of the details will work.

Manual with auto ISO is a great choice for shooting sports, but you have to keep an eye on your ISOs as they can get out of hand if light levels get too low. The good news is that even rather high ISO images can be salvaged with the right software. I hope you don't mind, but I ran one of your high ISO images through Topaz and here is the result. It would probably do an even better job working with the original image, rather than a low resolution screenshot.

 

[Zac the footy photograper]

 

[BF Hammer]

FILE PROPERTIES

[ ./ ]
Content-type: image/jpeg
Size: 2352128 bytes (2.24 MB)
Last modified: Tue, 30 Sep 2025 23:37:23 GMT
Dimensions: 1507x3470 pixels

IMAGE META DATA

Date: 2025-09-21 21:49:30 (no TZ)
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D7500
Lens: TAMRON SP AF 70-200mm F2.8 Di LD IF Macro A001N
Focal Length: 200mm, 300mm (35mm equivalent)
Aperture: ƒ/2.8
Exposure Time: 0.0008s (1/1250) You might be able to use a slower shutter here
ISO equivalent: 40000 Far too high, this is the reason for the noisy photos
Flash Fired: No (enforced)
White Balance: Auto
Orientation: Normal
Software: Adobe Lightroom 10.5.0 (iOS)
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto) This is an auto-exposure mode, not manual. But it is also the mode I would choose.
Exposure Bias: none
Metering Mode: Matrix I was wondering about this, but again the mode I would use also.
Focal Length: 200
Color Space: sRGB
Focal Length (35mm): 300
LensModel: Macro A001N

I cannot pick much apart here. If I were trying to shoot this, I would also be in Shutter Priority mode with auto ISO. The ISO for this image would up very high. This is where I would compromise and try to slow down the shutter speed. The aperture is already opened as wide as it goes so no more help to get there. I might try some shots at 1/500 and see if motion blur becomes an issue.

Camera settings that could help the photos: look for a menu item that might say something like High ISO NR (turn on). And you can cap the maximum ISO that Auto ISO will go to, and I would consider making that 12,800. It can keep the high-ISO noise to something that can be fixed better in post processing.

PS: Ok, I just re-read the original post. The "bad" example is taken at night. Problem is simple here, stadium lights do not come near the brightness of daylight. It's why the auto-ISO jumped so high. You either accept the noisy images or accept motion blur on fast-action by slowing the shutter speed.

 

[Zac the footy photograper]

Thank you so much you really helped me a lot, One last question what do you think the best settings for soccer at bright and sunny times and dark low light times?

 

[BF Hammer]

Thank you so much you really helped me a lot, One last question what do you think the best settings for soccer at bright and sunny times and dark low light times?

I do not have an exact recipe to follow. Like with sports, trying to shoot birds flying requires fast shutter and changing light conditions. So I use shutter-priority and try beginning at 1/1000 and adjust up or down guided by reviewing images.

In general a full-frame sensor of similar vintage will be less noisy in low-light settings than a crop-frame sensor. A newer generation sensor is also going to look better. This is one reason among others why I switched to full-frame gear. But finances are different for everyone.

 

[Needa]

You have picked what would be for me a very challenging subject to shot. Just keeping up with the action in daylight would be tough not to mention under the lights. Tracking the action or panning will be a skill to work on which will help under all conditions. Reading the light is going to be important if there is bright light behind the camera it will tend to make you players darker, are there portions of the field that are brighter under the lights try to capture the action there if possible.

Try a learning plan, say the next two game one day and one night only play with shutter speed, then next two maybe try center-weighted metering, then see what limiting the ISO does for you. High ISO noise reduction? You get the idea. Learn to read the EXIF data. Once you learn what works for you you will be able to repeat the results.

Try not to crop it make the noise more prominent.

Looking forward to seeing your images.

 

[Clovishound]

If you are taking a lot of high ISO images, you really should invest in noise reduction software. It is often included in the better general editing software like Lightroom. There are also specific products, like Topaz that are specifically noise reduction and sharpening products. If money is an issue, there are also free products out there. In general the software you have to pay for is superior to the free stuff, but everyone has different financial situations. I would love to have a Nikon Z 600mm F4 lens, but I make do, and am quite happy with my 200-500mm F5.6 and an adapter.

I have no idea how good, and what the best free noise reduction software is. Maybe someone will chime in with a recommendation. Otherwise, you could try a couple and see what works best. I have been very happy with the results I get from Topaz, although I've had some issues with Topaz AI.