Rowing Photography Advice

[rower]

Hi. The main thing I take pictures of is rowing. I often have problems with the balance of keeping iso low enough on my d3100 to stop the images being grainy, keeping shutter speed fast enough not to get blur but still keep the aperture small enough to get an entire crew in focus without the image ending up too dark. I know if I had a better lens (I use a nikon 55-300mm) it would help but unfortunately can't afford one (yet!). Was wondering if there was any advice to make sure I optimise the quality of my photos? Thanks.

 

[Awiserbud]

are you using a tripod? obviously if you plan on moving with the boat along the river then this may be tricky but by using a tripod and panning you should be able to bring the shutter speed down considerably. if you are shooting at the high end of your 55-300mm then it will be almost impossible to get a decent sharp shot without a tripod. the 55-300 isn't the fastest lens in the world anyway, f5.6 if your shooting at 300mm, I don't think you can honestly expect exceptional results from this lens, remember to turn the VR off (if its a VR lens) if you are using tripod.

 

[brian_f2.8]

What are your settings? Rowing is outside so the ISO should be pretty low. Your SS is 400th?

I'm not a fan of the D3100, my buddy has one and even in broad day light I see noise n grain.

Nikon needs to recall this. Get a D7000 or D300S and you will see a huge improvement.

 

[Tony S]

VR on, handheld or on a monopod,pan with the rowers, set your exposure for the subjects using the highest allowable ISO to let you stop the action, and learn to time some shots for when they have the small split second pauses in their strokes to get shots of the rowers.

 

[rower]

Thanks for the comments. I use a monopod currently as it helps to stabilise the camera but gives me the freedom to lift it and grab a quick shot in the opposite direction should something of note be happening. Although I know what VR does I never really knew how it worked. After the comment about turning it off when using it on a tripod I did a bit of googling and now understand why! Does a monopod provide enough stability to warrant not having VR on?

As for the grainy images - I find that once I go above iso200 the images becoming notably grainy but I always presumed that was what you get for buying an entry level dslr? In a typical overcast day I'll have ISO about 200 and the aperture pretty much as open as possible and about a 1/400 on the shutter. I generally set my ISO and shutter speed and then reduce my aperture as much as possible until the images are about the right brightness.

 

[Awiserbud]

I very rarely use VR, even hand held, I'm a bit old school and try to minimise vibration the old fashioned way
I am suprised to hear about the noise levels at such a low ISO on the 3100, didn't realise this was such a big problem on this body, I often crank the ISO up to over 1000 on my D7000 and still manage to get usable shots. It was one of the D7000's biggest selling points.