Shooting Action In the Dark

richardman

How do you shoot people riding bikes in a "bike party" at 10PM with no moonlight and hardly any streetlight?

Crank up the ISO, zone focus, shoot at F1.4/F2 and hope for the best:




My wife and daughter were cheering them on on the right hand side.

More photos here:
http://5pmlight.com/PICS/2010/SJBikeParty/

Richard

Well, you didn't do badly working with what was available. Without seeing the face of the foreground rider, though, it's not a terribly engaging image. Next time you might try using an off-camera flash to provide a bit of fill.

michswiss

I love shooting in the dark. Motion blur, high-iso noise, lost details. If this had been my image, the cyclists would have been a blur with your wife and daughter in the background the point of interest. The car headlights would have only been a white streak across the scene, lighting various elements. But that's me.

As it is, you did a great job of stopping the motion of the riders in those conditions.

richardman

Richard wrote:

Well, you didn't do badly working with what was available. Without seeing the face of the foreground rider, though, it's not a terribly engaging image. Next time you might try using an off-camera flash to provide a bit of fill.

Richard, no offense, you try that and I can guarantee the 1000s of riders will come off their bikes and beat you up :-)