 BetterPhoto Member |
Photographing Football Games at Night I have a Nikon D50 and a Tamron AF70-300mm F4-5.6 lens. No extra flash, and I was wondering what would be the optimum setting for taking photos of these football games at night. I have tried a few things and none have worked... The shutter either stays open just a little too long so the players kind of blur, or it is open to little and not enough light gets to the shutter. I have gotten a few pretty good pictures but not as many as I would like. Thanks in advance for any help!
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Scott H. |
Assuming you have tried increasing the ISO to 1600, the only thing left is to buy a telephoto lens with a 2.8 aperture (expensive). Your f5.6 lens just will not let enough light into the camera at the high shutter speeds you need to stop action.
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- Dennis Flanagan Contact Dennis Flanagan Dennis Flanagan's Gallery |
You need to go manual. Shooting at night, your automatic settings will never get it right. If possible, go onto the field and get a good meter reading. If using your in-camera meter, cup your hand and hold it about 8 inches in front of your lens and use that meter setting. That will be the same light illuminating the players throughout the contest.
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Roy A. Meeks |
Assuming you are shooting high school games, none of the above answers will give you satisfaction. After 25 years of shooting high school games, I have found that a lens with a 2.8 aperture will work fine. Shoot on manual,your iso can be 800-1600,shutter speed at 60-250. Use a lens that zooms from 28 to 300 and USE A FLASH. I prefer the Metz 60CT4 on manual and set at F8 or F11 without the difuser down over the light. It will stop the action and give you a very printable picture even at the distant hash mark when the plays are not being run to the student body side. College games you can get by without the flash at night. but you can not get satisfactory pictures below 60 shutter speed. This works with film and digital.
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