Nighttime Action shots

Frasca · February 14, 2009

(I hope this is in the right category!)
Hey! So tonight I'm heading up to Maine to shoot a ski.snowboard comp, 30 ft staircase, should be pretty well lit. ( www.thedowntownshowdown.com )I've had trouble in the past with snow, darkness and fast moving action pics. If anyone has any suggestions as to what I should shoot in for shutter and fstop settings as well as iso anything is appreciated!

I took this one last week.

(light source was behind me)
Please help! thank you :lust

Trevlan · February 14, 2009

What kind of portable flash system do you have? Also, what camera and what's it's flash sync speed?

I'm sure you can get away with Camera sync speed at iso 800 and f /2.8.

I would induce extra light with a strobe or two. I was just amazed by how truly powerful my SB600 was last weekend. I used it on 1/4 power. Still had two stops of brightness left if needed.

Candid Arts · February 14, 2009

What were the settings for this shot?

Well you'll obviously want as fast as shutter speed as you can get, which would mean the widest aperture possible. What equipment are you shooting with?

An f stop of 2.8 would probably be ideal, along with a shutter speed of about 1/250th or so. It looks pretty dark, so even at that I'm guessing you'll have to bump your ISO.

Frasca · March 2, 2009

I actually dont have any portable flash system right now, I need one. Its a Nikon D60 with its kit flash and lens (poor college student).
I kept my ISO around 800 and as it got darker I was forced to turn the flash on. I'll post some new pics as soon as I get on my own computer.
Thanks for the advice! I'll look into the SB600, I've heard great things about in the past.

Qarik · March 2, 2009

with out multiple strobes..I don't know if your ever going to get night time sports shots. Thats said...

1) Get as close as you can to the action to battle the inverse square drop off of light of your on board flash.

2) shoot at widest aperture for the most light.

3) crank up the ISO to maybe 1600

4) turn on any VR or IS on your lens

5) your shutter you don't have much choice. You have to be min 1/250th or so

6) pan focus when you can..that is follow the subject and shoot instead of focusing on one area and "waiting for it".

7) shot at highest FPS.

mercphoto · March 2, 2009

Qarik wrote:

1) Get as close as you can to the action to battle the inverse square drop off of light of your on board flash.

Yes. In other words, don't try this at 200mm or more.

2) shoot at widest aperture for the most light.

You'll need a 2.8 lens. An f/4 at the worst. But if you're shooting with a 5.6 lens then just keep the camera in the bag. Ditto if you don't have an external flash sitting atop your camera.

3) crank up the ISO to maybe 1600

Agreed.

4) turn on any VR or IS on your lens

Won't do you any good whatsoever. Keep it off.

5) your shutter you don't have much choice. You have to be min 1/250th or so

Go to Manual mode. Aperture to 2.8, 4.0 at the most. Shutter speed to your maximum sync speed, which is probably 1/250. Use an external flash, not the built-in on the camera. Put the flash on TTL mode and dial in some positive FEC, maybe a full stop.

7) shot at highest FPS.

Absolutely not! Fire off one shot at a time. If you're trying to fire off 5-8 frames per second your flash will never recycle fast enough. Even your second shot in the burst is bound to not have enough light power.

I've shot a lot of night motocross and this is what you need to do. External flash, set to automatic with a bit of positive FEC. Camera on manual, wide-open, shutter to maximum synch speed, ISO at 1600. Shoot RAW, you'll be further editing these photos. White balance issues, fine tune exposure, black points, contrast, shadow/highlight. It won't be a finished picture out of the camera.

I really need to finish the book on night action photography I started writing....

FL00DY · March 18, 2009

I was faced with a similar environment last week when shooting some mates racing there MINI's. It was a twilight event so had to start making adjustments as it got darker. Being a racetrack, the 200mm kit lens was best I had as was the built in flash on my D90, I had no choice but to be 30-50 meters from the action. Once it was getting darker it was mostly impossible. I didn't think I could crank the ISO that far, will keep that in mind.

Sorry to hijack the thread

For these conditions, am I hitting the limit of what my set-up can capture?

Nighttime Action shots

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