Newbie questions About Indoor Digital camera photography (long)

desertnightcreations · Jun 7, 2005

HI everyone!

I just joined you guys today to seek some advice on how to take pictures using my digital camera at indoor horse shows. This past Christmas I was thrilled to receive a new Digital Camera, a Sony DSC-V1. My old digital camera was about 5 or more years old and I felt as though I was ready for a step up. I read reviews about the different kind of digital cameras in certain ranges (Both price and megapixels) and thought that the Sony V1 would be a great choice.

I have actually read the manual. I can't say that I totally understand it but I have read the thing.

For outdoor horse shows, this camera kicks bootay! I was at an outdoor horse show about 3 weeks ago and I got some wonderful pictures despite it being my first time really screwing around with the thing.

When the sun went down however, I couldn't get a good picture to save my life, despite the flood lights that lit the arena. If I used the flash, it only flashed to a certain distance and I got a lot of lovely pictures of the rail but no horse. Turning the flash off and slowing down the shutter speed was no good of course because horses don't stand still for very long. The pictures were dark and blurry.

I was at an indoor horse show last night and I set my camera to make speed of the shutter a priority and opened up my f-stop all of the way thinking from my classes in my high school days with manual cameras (looooong time ago)that this would work. It was ok, but not at all great. Pictures were very grainy, blurry, dark and disappointing

So today I'm frustrated. I do realize that it's not the camera's fault that I'm not getting crisp, clear, beautiful professional-looking pictures..heheh.. that the problem lies in the idiot holding the camera.

Is there anyone else that takes pictures using digital cameras at indoor horse shows that can point me in the right direction of what to read to teach myself to take better pictures in this situation?

Thank you for your time!

Heather Moreton Abounader
Hand Made, Museum Quality Miniatures
Desert Night Creations
http://www.desertnightcreations.com/halters.html

Chase · Jun 7, 2005

Although I am not familiar with that particular model, do you have the option to change ISO settings? If so, try bumping up the ISO on the camera. You will lose some quality, but you will get higher shutter speeds and the quality difference is usually acceptable.

Unfortunately, there aren't many other options in relatively low light situations.

Big Mike · Jun 7, 2005

Welcome to the forum.

There are limitations to every camera & lens. When the light level is low, you can open the aperture, slow the shutter down or use a higher ISO. Each factor has it's limitations, you can only open the aperture to the maximum size, the slower the shutter - the more motion blur & the ISO (on your camera) can only be set to 800 (and higher ISO means more digital noise).

When you have reached those limits....The alternative is to use flash.

The flash on that camera is rated at 3m to 5m (10 to 16 feet). Fortunately, your camera has a hot shoe, which means you can easily attach an accessory flash. Check to see what flash units are compatible with your camera. A good flash unit will give you much more power and allow you to get shots from much farther away than the built-in flash will allow.

etaf · Jun 7, 2005

f2.8 is you max aperture, so if you had the camera open at f2.8 then you wont let anymore light in through the lens.
next to hand hold as a rough rule of thumb you will need 1/focal length
so at 136mm you need a min shutter speed of 1/180th if setting available or 1/250th - you might get away with 1/125th if you are very careful.
if the light conditions do not allow that any shutter speed lower will result in camera shake.
you have the option to up the iso to 800 but that may give noise, there are some programs on the web to reduce noise, some free some you have to pay for - http://www.michaelalmond.com/Articles/noise.htm
the flash has a range of just 3.5m hence the reason you only light up the rail.

I used this weblink to get specs on your camera
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/v1.html
hope this helps

ksmattfish · Jun 7, 2005

The max aperture on this camera's lens is f/2.8 at it's widest focal length. At it's longest focal length it jumps 2 stops to f/4. I think that if you aren't getting the results you want at ISO 800 with the lens wide open, then you may have to look into a different camera. Even the most powerful shoe flashes aren't going to be very effective beyond 20 or 30 feet; I doubt they could freeze a running horse.

desertnightcreations · Jun 7, 2005

Thank you to everyone for your advice! It didn't even CROSS my mind to buy an external flash.. duhh.. I'll give it a shot and see if that will help out at all for the situations where I can get close enough to the arena for it to be effective.:hugs: