Need Help Bad with Sport Photos

[truthdesigns]

I am so confused on shooting at night at the skate park.
Can someone explain what settings or what they would do
to shot a skater under the night lights. I have tried to raise the
iso and i get a grainy image. I thought I was raising the shutter speeds but I don't think I was able to accomplish that. I have a Nikon D50 and I was shooting in P Mode.

 

[tyoberg]

You're almost certainly going to have to accept a fair amount of graininess if you're shooting at night, even if you have a really nice, expensive and fast lens.

 

[truthdesigns]

I have been reading my manual and I think I have answered
some of my questions. I have to be in S Mode shutter-priority
to raise the shutter speed. I will have to go back to the skatepark
and practice.

 

[Recty]

Things to keep in mind is that the higher you raise your shutter speed, the higher you'll have to raise your ISO to compensate, which will introduce higher levels of grain to your photos.

You can also, depending on how you feel with a shallow depth of field, lower your aperature as far as it will go. However, the example you show is at f/4.5, so if you're using one of the kit lenses you probably cant go much lower than that.

One of the things that might help is buying one of the cheap "nifty fifty" lenses, for right around $100-150 you can get a lens that lets you go to f/1.8 which will help quite a bit with night time photography, as long as you can handle being stuck at 50mm and having no zoom besides your feet!

 

[Wolverine]

Forget f/1.8
Check out Leica's Noctilux-M. 50mm f/0.95
Right now you can get it for a little under 10k.

In all seriousness, if you can swing the extra cost to get down to the f/1.4 vs f/1.8, I think it's worth it.

 

[truthdesigns]

thanks for all the help i am looking into the nikkor 50mm lens.

 

[areze]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15243348#post15243348 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Wolverine
Forget f/1.8
Check out Leica's Noctilux-M. 50mm f/0.95
Right now you can get it for a little under 10k.

In all seriousness, if you can swing the extra cost to get down to the f/1.4 vs f/1.8, I think it's worth it.

bet that would make for some really cool starry sky shots.... not 10k cool, not even 1k cool. but cool anyway

btw, they make 35mm 1.8f lenses too I think... little wider, I know alot of skateboards like a really wide angle lens for some reason... you see fisheye used alot(not my tastes, but whatever, with the high resolution of todays cameras, you can always crop, cant go the other way post processing.)

 

[Misled]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15243308#post15243308 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Recty
having no zoom besides your feet!

Nice, but when you're old like me, it's a very slow zoom!!!!!


:lol:

 

[IPT]

If you want action shots you should really consider a flash. F1.4 and such is great but your DOF starts getting really shallow. If you are real close to your subject that may make a difference.

 

[InLimbo87]

Faster lens, flash, and get out of P mode!

"Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson is a great book I recommend for those looking to maximize what they can do with their DSLR's

 

[Dino]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15245318#post15245318 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by IPT
If you want action shots you should really consider a flash. F1.4 and such is great but your DOF starts getting really shallow. If you are real close to your subject that may make a difference.

Yep, a speedlight or two off camera will be your best friend for this type of photography . And best of all, you can do it all for less than you'd probably pay for a new lens and have more creative control!

 

[swjim]

Justin, if you look back at the diving board pics that I posted last week you can see how flash can be used to freeze action.

 

[truthdesigns]

I went out again yesterday and my pics came out a little better but still really grainy. I guess its time to research some flashes.
swjim what ISO and shutter speed were you using?

 

[swjim]

Here's the link to the thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1655535

My last post had info that should help you here:

A little additional info since there seems to be some interest: I was shooting at ISO 160 at the beginning and moved to 200 as the light started to fade. All were shot at f/2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/200 (the max sync speed of the 5D). The idea was to expose for the level I wanted the background to be at, which was intentionally underexposed so that the boys would "pop" in the images.

During the day the shutter speed of 1/200 obviously would have been too slow and they would have looked blurry (unless you pan extremely well). The boys are sharp in these photos because the flash has a very short duration and "freezes" the action.

 

[truthdesigns]

Thanks swjim!

I am thinking of purchasing the Nikon SB-600 any thought?

 

[swjim]

Disclaimer: I shoot with Canon, so I'm not as up to speed on the Nikon products. That said, I believe the SB-600 is a good flash, it just doesn't has a little less power than the SB-800 and SB-900 and does not have the built in remote flash capabilities that the 800 and 900 have. It's probably a good bang for your buck choice to get you started and if you get more into flash photography you could always sell it and buy one of the other models or use it as a manual slave.

 

[truthdesigns]

Here are some shots from last night:0(

 

[swjim]

According to the EXIF the flash fired on those and it looks like it helped but due to the low power output of the built in flash it wasn't enough to get the exposure you want. A hot shoe flash will help with the power issue.

The next step after that would be to take the flash off camera which you can do relatively inexpensively with some ebay triggers to see if you like it or not (you will).

 

[Wolverine]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15245318#post15245318 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by IPT
If you want action shots you should really consider a flash. F1.4 and such is great but your DOF starts getting really shallow. If you are real close to your subject that may make a difference.

I look at this from the flip side. If I'm out doing sports at night, a flash is going to REALLY irritate me. I agree that from the photographer side it will help (as you mentioned, if close enough), but I personally would try to do without; as a disclaimer, I always make an effort not to use a flash.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Ironically flash is often more useful in the day than it is at night.