need some suggestions on bad lighting situation..

303villain · Jan 20, 2006

So my paintball team is putting together a website to keep in contact with our sponsors, and attract prospective ones, and obviously they want action pictures. Well, the field we practice at is indoors, and the lighting isnt horrid, but not great. I want clearer pictures with better color and whatnot(basically, im not happy with the results ive got) and im looking for suggestions. this picture was taken at iso 1000, with the popup flash, and like 160th of a second shutter(going from memory here) at f5.6

what can i do to get better results? the lense i used is a 14-45 f3.5-5.6, ive tried using my vivitar flash, and the results i got were even worse! im very new to sports type photography(indoors at least) and any info would be great! thanks!

Rob · Jan 20, 2006

Lower the ISO, go to the middle of your zoom range and put the camera on a tripod. Abandon the flash and get everyone to stand still in the best lit area.

Consider going outdoors for a couple of shots against the wall - it'll look like inside and you'll get better light.

Rob

303villain · Jan 20, 2006

unfortunately, they really only want pictures from games(which i suppose i could get them to pose for some, but others(i have probably 20 that i didnt post that are not exactly "poseable") are not going to be so easy. we have a practice coming up at another team's home field soon and its outdoors, so maybe ill just skip playing for part of that day and take tons of pictures

MyCameraEye · Jan 20, 2006

This is basically sports photography just indoors. My first suggestion is get a FAST lens. If you can not afford a decent F/2.8 telephoto lens, then get yourself a 50mm F/1/8. Long as your not too far from your subjects this will work. Get off the high ISO's. This will only give you noisey shots. Put your camera in manual, and at ISO 400. Use a shutter speed of about 250 and shoot with the lens wide open at e.g. f/1.8 or f/2.8. Build in flashes are not that great. You want to get yourself a decent speed strobe flash that has a decent ready time on it being your shooting action. I am not sure what kinda of camera you are using but if you give me more details on your setup, I can make more detailed suggestions. Also, if your camera lets you change white balance, set it to SHADE +2 or +3. This will make the indoors colors more vivid. MOst pro sports photographers will use this to bring out the greens in the baseball field or the colors of the uniforms. In your case, the paintball team

Depending on how far you will be form the subjects, you can play with the power of your flash, in general, I usually put mine around -1/3 so I do not BLAST my subjects with white light. If you shoot RAW, you can also adjust exp compensation later. better to under expose the over.

I hope this helps.

Scott

Big Mike · Jan 20, 2006

What was so bad about the photos with the Vivitar flash? I would think that you would be able to get some fairly good images with an accessory flash...better than with the pop-up at the very least.

You might have to 'set up' some actions shots so they look like you took then while the game was going.

If you take some outdoors...try some with no flash...as fast a shutter speed as possible. Try some with a much slower shutter speed to show motion blur.

303villain · Jan 20, 2006

im using an e-500, which is known for noise at higher iso's. im getting a 14-54 f2.8-3.5, or a 50mm f2.0 but it wont be for another month that get it. with the vivitar flash, even on the lowest setting there were tons of reflections and to me, it just looked kinda funky, but i only took a few shots with that flash, i might try it again this weekend with it at iso 400, and ill play around with the white balance and shoot in raw.

Rob · Jan 20, 2006

With the flash you should be able to control the light output somehow. I'd suggest some home experimentation. You shouldn't need a high ISO with flash working properly, so perhaps a bit of manual consultation and practise will help out.

Rob

303villain · Jan 20, 2006

ive done some expirimenting, in comparable light, with it on iso 400, i am getting decent results at f4.0 @ 1/160th(thats the fastest flash syncspeed the camera has) so ill give it a whirl, and like you said, ill shoot raw, and underexpose a little

Big Mike · Jan 20, 2006

If it's kind of dark inside, you may want to try a shutter speed of 1/60 or 1/30 with the flash. That won't affect the flash exposure at all but will expose more of the background with ambient light. (The flash should freeze the subjects but depending on the ambient light and their movement....you may get ghosting.)

But if the lighting is ugly, you may be better off with the faster shutter to limit the exposure the background gets.

Dave_D · Jan 20, 2006

What is your ambition for great lighting? I have a friend who is a sports photog for all of the major collegiate events in the northeast US and here is one of his basic setups. 4 to 6 White Lightining 1800's mounted over the playing area remote fired by pocket wizard radio slaves. When he shoots a basketball game for example, the whole court lights up. I'm not sure if you want to get that serious, but I figured I'd throw it out to ya.