 BetterPhoto Member |
How to shoot indoors with a zoom and flash Hi, I'm trying to photograph our school's basketball games but my pictures always come out dark. I'm using a Zoom lens and a flash. I don't think the flash is strong enough. Any tips on how to photograph indoors with a Zoom lens and not get such dark pics? I'm a beginner and needs lots of help!! Thanks
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Get down on the court for starters. I'm guessing that your zoom is around a f/4.5 for it's biggest aperture, so you'll have to shoot wide open. And it would be better if you shoot when the action is in the near court, that way you wouldn't have to use the flash at full power. Not knowing how strong your flash is, I'd take a guess that if you used 400 film, and set the flash to 1/4 power or maybe 1/8 power, you'd could get pictures if your aperture is about f/4.5 and you only shot action when it's in the near court. If you use straight on flash, it's always going to make the background darker. You can lessen the effect if you had a f/2.8 lens. But using staight on flash set on auto, you'll get the flash not shooting strong enough if another player is in front of the one you're trying to take a picture of. Or you'll get some where it shoots full power because of the open area behind the player you shoot.
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Jon Close |
The dark background is not directly related to the flash, it is due to the combination of too small aperture and too fast a shutter speed. If your subject is dark, then you're beyond the range of the flash. Faster film will address both. Try ISO 800 or 1600. You're probably already shooting wide open (f/4-5.6), and a slower shutter speed (1/60, 1/30) would lighten things up, but at the expense of subject motion blur. You'd have to be pretty close (w/in ~10 feet) and/or have an extremely powerful flash to use it at 1/4-1/8 power in this situation.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
If she shoots at 1/60 she's going to get a ghost image. She could do it, but a good chance of too much ghost image than she would want. But she wouldn't need an extremely powerful flash if she waited till the action was no farther than top of the key and she shot at the biggest aperture she had, and she shot from the baseline, not in the stands. I wasn't thinking a built in flash, I was thinking a regular flash from the hot shoe. But if she uses straight on flash and gets a good exposure with somebody at the free throw line and freeze the action, the other end of the court is going to be much darker if she's at f/4.5. Now if she had a lens that she could use at 2.8, it would help.
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