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Question about night photos at high speeds


8 years 8 months ago #449808 by JuliaSmith15
Ok... so maybe not that fast. But I'm considering going to take photos this Friday at a Barrel Race (some type of horse race) but it starts at 8 pm. I've done it before and personally I just don't like a lot of the photos that I end up with.. their not that sharp, and noisy, etc.  The riding arena IS lit, but not that great. I've tried finding tutorials and fellow Rodeo photographers help, but no one seems to be able to answer me. :/ I have no clue what settings I should use. So for all you awesome Night action photographers, do you have any suggestions or tips for me?

Attached is a photo that I have taken at a night race. 
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8 years 8 months ago #449820 by John Landolfi
You are trying to get moving subjects to appear sharp. I would try using Shutter Priority, with the shutter set at 1/2000, set ISO to Auto, set the shooting mode to Continuous, and check how to enable focus tracking on your camera. If you aren't shooting RAW, you should: it will make handling noise issues in PP easier. If you are going to shoot in JPEG, you'll likely have some noise issues.

Post some shots after the event!
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The following user(s) said Thank You: JuliaSmith15
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8 years 8 months ago #449902 by JuliaSmith15
Ok, thanks for the tip! I'll be sure to try that.

Haha, will do!
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8 years 8 months ago #449923 by icepics
I've done indoor sports and the low light challenges what a camera can do (since it's recording light). I'd probably shoot Raw to be able to adjust later. Yeah, you'll probably have to go with a high ISO and use the slowest shutter speed you can manage.

I don't mean as slow as 1/60 or slower, I mean can you do it at 1/250? 1/500? get in a good position and brace yourself?  I sometimes have been able to get some hockey shots at 1/125 which is too slow for sports, but it took me figuring out how to make that work (shooting film at 400 speed) and get a shot when the action pauses when they turn to go the other way, or at a faceoff, etc. Not ideal, but it's often a matter of figuring out how to make something work.

Go early, see where the light appears better (even though it may look better to our eyes than will be enough for the camera). Try different vantage points so you can get a horse and rider when they come under a light. I try to avoid the dark corners.

Good timing with sports/action helps, takes practice to learn but knowing the sport (which you seem to) is a big help to anticipate what will happen next and be ready.
Sharon
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The following user(s) said Thank You: JuliaSmith15
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8 years 8 months ago #450035 by JuliaSmith15
Ok, thank you! I'll give that a try! =D
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8 years 8 months ago #450169 by Shadowfixer1
I've shot rodeo in similar lighting and it's not hardly possible to do what you want without using flash. You have to set the highest ISO you can live with, set your shutter as fast as your lenses widest aperture will let you, and that's all you can do. If that doesn't work, then it won't work no matter what else you do.
www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
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The following user(s) said Thank You: JeremyS
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8 years 8 months ago #450526 by Don Fischer
I've tried doing a bull bash indoor's at night, not much luck. Photographer's in the arena had flash's set up in the ceiling. Tried doing cutting horse's indoors, not much luck there either. Did do some barrel horse's at a small Rodeo the one day years ago. Outside during the day. Found out position looking at the barrel's was about everything. I keep thinking I have to go do some rodeo's again. Liked them but need a lot more experience on where to put myself.

I do fast moving dog's right now. Fast ISO, 620, and at least f8. Continuous shooting. And follow the oblect with the shutter release held down. Start before you get to where you want and shoot through it, a number of shot's. I've tried shooting 6fps but found out I did better with 3fps. Seem's to give the camera more time to focus.
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8 years 8 months ago #450537 by Shadowfixer1
It also helps to have the fastest lens you can get. My long lenses are not fast. I made these images with a micro four thirds camera and it would have worked a lot better with a constant 2.8 lens. That would have let me bring the ISO down. The earlier post by John saying to use a shutter of 1/2000 of a second is dreaming. I'm sure he just doesn't realize how dark these venues are.
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www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
Photo Comments
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8 years 8 months ago #450538 by Don Fischer
Shadowfixer, that's 3rd shot is super!
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8 years 8 months ago #450575 by Shadowfixer1
The 3 images I posted were all shot at ISO 10,000. A constant aperture would have gotten me a couple more stops. The shutter was 1/ 125 sec. I think. I could have gotten down to ISO 6400 nd upped the shutter to 1/250 if I had a 2.8 lens.
www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
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8 years 8 months ago #450804 by JuliaSmith15
Thanks for all the tips, everyone! It actually went great, compared to the other times I photographed barrel races at night. I'll post some results!
Attachments:
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8 years 8 months ago #450805 by JuliaSmith15
My shutterspeed was below 500, ISO on Auto, and I shot in Raw.
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8 years 8 months ago - 8 years 8 months ago #450807 by John Landolfi
You were close on 2 and 3. Why not try higher shutter speeds while you are shooting?
If you look at you captures and zoom in on the screen, you can get a rough idea if you stopped the motion enough. Experiment!:)  Did you work on the noise in LR?
Photo Comments
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8 years 8 months ago #450809 by Shadowfixer1

John Landolfi wrote: You were close on 2 and 3. Why not try higher shutter speeds while you are shooting?
If you look at you captures and zoom in on the screen, you can get a rough idea if you stopped the motion enough. Experiment!:)  Did you work on the noise in LR?

The ISO was already 12,800. A faster shutter would push that to 25,600 if you just did one stop. The solution is a faster lens. The results here are about as good as it will get with the equipment used. These small town night rodeos are tough to shoot. Been there, done that.
www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
Photo Comments
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