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Nikon D300 Tint Shift?

EngineerPhotogEngineerPhotog Registered Users Posts: 3 Beginner grinner
edited February 9, 2012 in Sports
I shot a local football game and noticed something I've never seen before and wondered if anyone else has seen this.

I am shooting with a Nikon D300, RAW, ISO 2500 with a 70-200 lens at around 105, f2.8, 1/250s manual. Focus was in continuous mode and I was shooting in Ch (Continuous High). When I took single shots, the color was fine, but as it started firing with the shutter button pegged, this color shift developed. I made sure I wasn't in Auto White Balance, thinking that was part of the problem. I also disabled Active-D, and High ISO NR to no avail.

I wanted to post 3 pics so you can see the orange hue shift from the right side of one pic to the left side, then back again and sometimes right up the middle.

Any ideas, or am I just asking too much of the D300 in such low light, high speed conditions?

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    aktseaktse Registered Users Posts: 1,928 Major grins
    edited February 6, 2012
    It sounds like you're were shooting under lights that cycle.

    This is a post on sports shooter and there are some other threads on dgrin.
    http://aktse.smugmug.com/
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    jheftijhefti Registered Users Posts: 734 Major grins
    edited February 7, 2012
    Yep, lights that cycle on and off at 60 Hz: variable intensity and color! The good news is that your camera is fine; the bad news is that there is not much you can do about this except take lots of shots and hope that enough are taken near the peak of each cycle.

    Not that it will help this problem, but I might push the SS up to 1/500 at a minimum for action sports. 1/250 is mighty low...
    http://johnhefti.com/
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    73Rocks73Rocks Registered Users Posts: 147 Major grins
    edited February 7, 2012
    jhefti wrote: »
    Not that it will help this problem, but I might push the SS up to 1/500 at a minimum for action sports. 1/250 is mighty low...

    I 2nd that comment . . . 500/sec is about the lowest I will go when shooting sports. Try upping your ISO a little more and increasing the SS.
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    IcebearIcebear Registered Users Posts: 4,015 Major grins
    edited February 7, 2012
    73Rocks wrote: »
    I 2nd that comment . . . 500/sec is about the lowest I will go when shooting sports. Try upping your ISO a little more and increasing the SS.

    I know this may be counterintuitive, but you're really better off shooting in AWB under this kind of lighting. Really.
    John :
    Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
    D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
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    IcebearIcebear Registered Users Posts: 4,015 Major grins
    edited February 7, 2012
    Here's a thread I started in 2010 that has a lot of links and discussion about this problem. Good you brought it up again.
    John :
    Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
    D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
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    jheftijhefti Registered Users Posts: 734 Major grins
    edited February 7, 2012
    Icebear wrote: »
    I know this may be counterintuitive, but you're really better off shooting in AWB under this kind of lighting. Really.

    Yep, true. AWB and Raw will give you the greatest chance of salvaging a badly illuminated and colored shot. What I really hate are those shots that have a color gradient across them; you know, red on one side, green/yellow on the other. Really hard to correct!
    http://johnhefti.com/
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    IcebearIcebear Registered Users Posts: 4,015 Major grins
    edited February 7, 2012
    jhefti wrote: »
    What I really hate are those shots that have a color gradient across them; you know, red on one side, green/yellow on the other. Really hard to correct!

    You might be just the target market for LR4!
    John :
    Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
    D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
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    EngineerPhotogEngineerPhotog Registered Users Posts: 3 Beginner grinner
    edited February 7, 2012
    Thanks for the feedback. Hadn't thought of the lights on the field cycling in sync with my shutter and being on a harmonic of them. I actually started at 1/500 and boosting the ISO, but the pics were a bit dark since the field wasn't really well let and running that high ISO on a D300 was getting too much grain, so I compromised at 1/250 since I wasn't getting too much blur.

    Now I have evidence to show my wife why I need a D4! :-)
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    IcebearIcebear Registered Users Posts: 4,015 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2012
    EngineerPhotog wrote: »

    Now I have evidence to show my wife why I need a D4! :-)

    Good on you if she buys into that. Just don't let her read this thread, 'cause your reasoning is bogus. The only way to avoid the "cycle-shift" is to shoot longer exposures, not shorter. Still, it's worth a try! :ivar
    John :
    Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
    D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
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    jheftijhefti Registered Users Posts: 734 Major grins
    edited February 9, 2012
    EngineerPhotog wrote: »
    Thanks for the feedback. Hadn't thought of the lights on the field cycling in sync with my shutter and being on a harmonic of them. I actually started at 1/500 and boosting the ISO, but the pics were a bit dark since the field wasn't really well let and running that high ISO on a D300 was getting too much grain, so I compromised at 1/250 since I wasn't getting too much blur.

    Now I have evidence to show my wife why I need a D4! :-)

    Actually, the lights aren't in harmony with your shutter; they're just doing their thing cycling on and off sixty times per second. That means that a single cycle is about 1/60 of a second. If you shoot at 1/250 of a second, you'll capture about 1/4 of a single cycle. If that 1/4 of a cycle is centered around the peak, you're golden; if it's centered around the trough, you're hosed. Just random chance.

    Hmmm...I wonder if there's a market for a simple device that could measure the light cycling and sync your camera accordingly...Technically it wouldn't be too hard.
    http://johnhefti.com/
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