Ben's nana Loc: Chesterland, Ohio

Hello all,

I am processing 250+ image from my daughters div meet, Ugh! I am at about 25% capture rate at this point. I did manage to get 80% of one of her dives. My goal is to get an entire dive!

Here were my settings. I shot with Nikon D500, spot metering, group AF, f2.8, 1/1000-1/1250, ISO 2500. I used 70-200mm lens. So here is my question:

The lighting is indoors and changes considerably from focusing at the height of 25ft (close to ceiling lights) down to water level. I had to make considerable changes in post processing to get consistent exposure and color. Would you recommend shooting with the ISO sensitivity on, and does the need for the camera to adjust to changing light slow it down? Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks for looking and thanks in advance for advice

Fran

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whitewolfowner

The D500 should adjust for the lighting changes as the drive progresses. I suspect you are shooting in a manner to either prevent the camera from changing the shutter speed or the aperture. If this is the case, change your settings so the camera can make the adjustments needed. Varying the ISO is going to degrade the photo as the ISO goes up.

Ben's nana Loc: Chesterland, Ohio

I'm shooting in manual with fixed SS and aperature. I did also set a fixed ISO, but spent an awful lot of time in pp.

Fran

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

As a fellow sports action shooter, who also owns a D500, here's what I would do with that lens. Normally, I shoot all of my indoor sports action with both a set aperture, a set shutter speed, and at a set ISO. For aperture, I shoot wide open - in your case F2.8. For shutter speed I would suggest trying 1/320 at first, and if motion isn't frozen, go up to faster speeds until it is. (Sorry, It's been a long time since I shot diving!). Select the appropriate ISO after setting the other two, based on the lighting. For indoor sports, I normally get there early enough to check my exposures and look for the best background so I use a light meter to set my exposure. Once everything is set, I shoot in manual. Check the images, check the histogram and adjust as needed. In these cases I also set a custom light balance using an ExpoDisk -- love that device! If I find that the light is really that inconsistent between top of dive and hitting the water, then I would recommend using auto ISO. I would use Matrix metering in this later case. Indoor sports separate the men from the boys in both experience and equipment. You're in the arena where the D5 shines, but there is absolutely no reason the D500 is not up to the task. There is also no reason not to increase the ISO to get the capture you need. If you want more specifics or wish to discuss settings further, please PM me. A large portion of my professional work is sports action and I'd be happy to help as I'm very familiar with the Nikon line. Best of luck. Your photos and questions show that you are on the right track. One final tip: you probably will need to active the flicker reduction setting.

Thomas902 Loc: Washington DC

"Would you recommend shooting with the ISO sensitivity on, and does the need for the camera to adjust to changing light slow it down? Any other suggestions would be welcome." For the D500 AutoISO apparently does not slow frame rate... However for earlier bodies Nikon notes in their specifications that frame rate drops with either AutoISO on and/or VR enabled... The User Manual for the D500 does not carry that restriction (page 367) thus the recent iteration of Expend 5 (in the D5 & D500) is able to handle the throughput...

Suggestions? In Camera RAW use the eyedropper on your daughter's suit's white strip and determine the settings which works best... use this technique on all subsequent frames... That has been my go to for years... btw since you've locked in SS; Aperture and ISO the only variable in the equation is auto-focus... If it were me I would possibly place some credence in Nikon's Global Service's Technical Guidance for the D500 in shooting sports. Here is their thoughts on Diving...

Diving

When photographing divers against low-contrast, undifferentiated backgrounds, choose 3D-tracking, position the focus area over your subject (for best results, choose the uniform or another area of the subject that is a different color from the background), and press and hold the AF‑ON button or keep the shutter-release button pressed halfway. The camera will automatically track the diver, letting you concentrate on composition. When photographing divers against the stands, billboards, and other high-contrast backgrounds, select 72-point dynamic-area AF.

Autofocus mode: AF-C
AF-area mode: 3D-tracking or auto-area or 72-point dynamic-area AF
Custom Settings
a1 AF‑C priority selection: Release
a3 Focus tracking with lock-on > Blocked shot AF response: 3 > Subject motion: Normal
a4 3D-tracking face-detection: Off

Here is the source for other Sport Shooters seeking to master the D500
http://nps.nikonimaging.com/technical_solutions/d500_tips/af/recommended_af_settings/description/

Hope this helps and thank you for sharing this series... Absolutely breathtaking.... Your daughter is highly skilled...

Ben's nana Loc: Chesterland, Ohio

Thank you for the compliment about my daughter. Yes, she is amazing... not bad for 15 years old.

I think I will shoot sets of dives and keep track of the settings, the ones I like, the ones from Nikon, and from other people and then see which ones give me the best results. I'm probably shooting faster shutter than I need to but am worried about camera blur. We'll see. Thanks for all your advice, I've seen your pictures and they are amazing. There are several of you on UHH that are my sports idols!

Fran