Action Shots in low light

[iluvphotography]

I recently went to watch a triathlon race that a few of my friends were doing and was trying to take some shots... and I found it very difficult since it was an overcast day and some parts of the race was through thick forrest..So I was struggling since I couldn't use a fast shutter speed because there were not enough light, and as I was kinda far from the action the flash was no use... most of my pictures were blurry..I also found it hard to focus as everything was so fast... Do you know what should have I done?? BTW I don't have fast lens... Just an 18-55mm and 75-300mm.

 

[xfloggingkylex]

if focusing is your issue make sure you have your autofocus set to continuous, that way it doesnt focus and then stop. If it stops and your subject moves, you're out of focus again. As far as light, well thats pretty tough since you cant change the light in the area. I'll have to let a pro give advice other than a fast lense.

 

[iluvphotography]

How do I set the continuous autofocus? I have Digital Rebel

 

[xfloggingkylex]

I'm not familiar with it, but on my Pentax *istDL you go to the menu and it is called "AF Mode" with AF.C being continuous on my camera. its in the same area as the metering selection area and the focusing area on my camera. someone with the rebel can help you further.

Your camera calls it Al Servo instead of continuous; I just looked up your manual.

 

[iluvphotography]

Thanks

Now what about freezing the action??? does anyone know how to do it in low light??
I am sure Digital Matt has the answer

 

[Digital Matt]

You need a higher ISO. This makes the camera more sensitive light. The digital rebel is very good at handling noise even up to ISO 800 and beyond. Don't be afraid to use it. A noisy digital image is far better than a blurry one.

 

[cecilc]

BTW I don't have fast lens... Just an 18-55mm and 75-300mm.

I think you've answered your questions right there ...
I'm assuming that both of those lenses are 5.6 lenses - or, at least, 4.5-5.6 lenses ?

In addition to getting the ISO up high enough to allow faster shutter speeds in low light, trying to freeze action in low light with a 4.5 or a 5.6 lens is very difficult. Even with your ISO up to 800 or even 1600, I'm not sure that those lenses will allow a fast enough shutter speed to freeze action.

With those lenses, about the only thing you could do is try panning with your moving subject - if you can do it well, at least part of your subject will be focused properly while everything else in the shot is blurred from the motion of the camera.

Other than that, you might try to get hold of one of these lenses:
- 200mm 2.8
- 135mm 2.0
- 100 2.0

Best of luck with that ....

 

[rmh159]

... I am sure Digital Matt has the answer

Haha I know... Digital Matt and Big Mike are the Yoda's of this board.

Matt do you know anything about the D50's ability with noise at high ISO's? I thought it got a higher rating than the D Reb but I'm not sure. I had been debating between the two but it looks like the D50 pulled ahead so that'll be my first dSLR.

 

[Digital Matt]

As far as I know, Canon has the cleanest high ISO images on the market.

 

[fotonemer]

i would love a lecture on knowing when to change the iso settings.

 

[Digital Matt]

Before learning when to change ISO, you need to understand the relationship between shutterspeed and aperture.

Exposure = Intensity + Time

Translated to the real world, that means:

Exposure = Aperture + Shutter Speed

Aperture not only controls the amount of light entering the lens, but also the depth of field (area of acceptable focus) in your image. You should first decide before shooting, what your intentions are.

What depth of field do you want?

Do you want to stop motion?

Then, do you have enough light in your scene to use the type of settings you desire?

For example, if you want to shoot something with a very wide aperture, for a very shallow depth of field, which is nice in portraiture, and you are using ISO 800, on a bright sunny day, this might result in too much light coming into the camera. Even with a max shutter speed of 1/4000 of a second, you might still be getting too much light. In this case, you need a slower film, or lower ISO setting.

Conversly, imagine you want to freeze action in a sporting event, and it's a dull, overcast sky. You want to use a medium aperture to ensure that your subject is in sharp focus, but there is not enough light for you to get a fast enough shutter speed, like 1/500 or faster. So, you need to increase your ISO. 400 + ISO is considered fast. 100-200 is considered medium, and < 100 is slow.

 

[cecilc]

i would love a lecture on knowing when to change the iso settings.

Matt's given you some good information to start with ...
But the fact of the matter is that there's no hard and fast rules to adjusting your ISO setting ... and I think Matt's answer shows that.

It depends on what you're trying to do with the shot you're taking ....

My rule of thumb for adjusting ISO is this: I use the lowest ISO that I can as long as I can maintain my preferred shutter speed and my preferred aperture and still maintain the "proper" exposure (or the exposure that I'm looking for ...).

My main venue is sports - so I'm looking for high shutter speeds at open apertures. I want action stopped with a shallow DOF. That means that I'm usually shooting at anywhere between 2.8 and 4.0 and trying to maintain a shutter speed of around 1/1600 or 1/2000. The "other" variable in the exposure is the ISO - and, as I said, I will use the lowest ISO setting I can get away with as long as I can maintain those shutter speeds. When the shutter speeds start to drop (with failing light most of the time) then the ISO setting gets bumped up to adjust.

Hope that helps ... it wasn't much of a lecture ....

 

[iluvphotography]

Very useful points from both Matt and Cecil... So in summary, I should set the shutter speed to around 1/2000 first, then go as wide as possible with aperture, and then if it was still too dark, try to increase the ISO. Right?

Now i can't wait to go to some sport event on a cloudy day.. ( which shouldn't be a problem in Vancouver!!) to try these out..

Thanks for the tutorial guys..

 

[Torus34]

Way back in the dawn days of photography [yes, chillun, I was there!], film speeds were s l o w and lenses were s l o w e r. A rule of thumb for moving subjects was to try and get the action coming directly toward you rather than moving across the field of view. This dramatically reduced blur.

 

[Digital Matt]

Way back in the dawn days of photography [yes, chillun, I was there!], film speeds were s l o w and lenses were s l o w e r. A rule of thumb for moving subjects was to try and get the action coming directly toward you rather than moving across the field of view. This dramatically reduced blur.

Good point. I wanted to mention something about that. There is no way we can tell you what your shutter speed should be. The closer you are to your subject, the faster shutter you'll need (assuming they are moving in a straight line parallel to your lens. They will move across the field of view faster. If you are further back, you'll have more time with them in the frame. As Torus mentioned, if they are coming more at an angle towards you, or even directly on, you have even more time.