Suggestions for taking pictures in the lower light with action
Nov 19, 2018 13:24:02 #
I have been reading this thread to get some more tips, because I am in the same situation.
I have been shooting indoor "kid" sports with my Sony A6000 at F2, 1/200, and ISO 800, and getting pretty mediocre sharpness. When I am out on the court, I shoot handheld, and only switch to the tripod when I am using lenses over 100mm.
The picture quality is plenty good enough for Facebook, but not good enough for heavy cropping. Based on the suggestions, I am going to try moving up to 1/250 and ISO 1000 to see if it gets me sharper images to work with. Considering the quirks of the Sony 50mm lens, I may try F2.8 and an even higher ISO to see if it gives me a cleaner file to start with.
I have been shooting indoor "kid" sports with my Sony A6000 at F2, 1/200, and ISO 800, and getting pretty mediocre sharpness. When I am out on the court, I shoot handheld, and only switch to the tripod when I am using lenses over 100mm.
The picture quality is plenty good enough for Facebook, but not good enough for heavy cropping. Based on the suggestions, I am going to try moving up to 1/250 and ISO 1000 to see if it gets me sharper images to work with. Considering the quirks of the Sony 50mm lens, I may try F2.8 and an even higher ISO to see if it gives me a cleaner file to start with.
Nov 19, 2018 13:25:59 #
In the perfect world use a shutter speed of 1/1000 or 1/2000, f2.8 lens setting, and a high ISO. I always shoot sports in Aperture Priority using Auto ISO. If that is not available, you can get away with a shutter speed of 1/500 and the fastest f stop and ISO your camera will allow. If you can get the subject moving toward you, you can get away with a slower shutter speed. Also, if the photos are a little dark you can fix it in Photoshop, in other words deliberately underexpose using a faster shutter speed knowing that you are going to make corrections in Photoshop. Practice and you can get in right. Also, Jared Polin has an excellent U tube video on how to shoot moving subjects and sports when you have limitations with your camera.
Nov 19, 2018 16:32:04 #
You learn to pan with a tripod. A gimbal head is great for that. I use it with all of my BIF shots with long lenses.
Nov 19, 2018 17:05:51 #
Dynamics5 wrote:
How best to take pictures in low light where people are moving around so pictures are not dark? Kids playing, some folks dancing.
Most everyone has good advise for you. If you find anything beyond your means, try this.
Set your camera to manual.
Set the iso to just below whatever figure you feel is a safe highest value before noise really becomes a problem..
Set you shutter value to something fast enough to freeze the motion.
Take a couple pictures. See how things turn out.
Most should be dark but not black. If totally black, raise iso or use a slower speed and hope the motion is still enough.
With the photos on the dark side, you should be able to lighten them up in a good post editing program. That way the action should be frozen enough. When lightening them, try to stay just below when the noise takes over.
This is a great way when using Capture One Pro and probably would be for Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.
*(this is a trick I have used in the past and is based on when I had to push the processing back in analog days.
Experiment until you get satisfactory results.
Nov 19, 2018 17:11:16 #
Yes, Thanks to all for the recommendations. I will be home in a week or so. Hope Lightroom will alleviate some of the problem with darkness. But it sounds like faster lens would really help.
Nov 19, 2018 17:24:29 #
Let me just add: DO NOT underexpose and try to bring up the brightness in post with a Canon Camera at high ISOs (kiss of death for low light photography). Expose as far to the right as possible without blowing the highlights thus maximizing your dynamic range and signal to noise. You need all that you can get of each with high ISO/low light photography where DR and S/N are already limited, and underexposing further limits both. It may not matter as much with some “ISO invariant” cameras (although it’s never a good strategy unless you’re unsure of you highlight metering), but your 6D is NOT ISO invariant!
Nov 19, 2018 19:01:21 #
I don't think you have to prevent all blur due to motion. In fact, some blur helps to show what's happening. I do pan in the direction the subject is moving. If a flash is used I prefer to set flash to just before the end of the exposure.
Nov 19, 2018 19:13:18 #
Dynamics5 wrote:
How best to take pictures in low light where people are moving around so pictures are not dark? Kids playing, some folks dancing.
A camera that has no problem with ISO 16,000 or higher is the first order of business. A Canon 5DMkIII, NIkon D3S/D4/D5, etc.
A lens that is at least F2.8 or larger. You are not likely to actually use a fast lens wide open, but it does make composition and AF work better. F4 should be a target aperture and 1/250 (or faster if shooting sports) should be your target shutter speed. You'll adjust your ISO to give you a decent exposure.
Test exposures will help tremendously. Go manual and forget about trying to analyze the camera's metering system. Take an automatic reading, shoot, then adjust to your liking, keeping an eye on the histogram and highlight overexposure.
If you have anything other than a full frame camera, best of luck.
Nov 19, 2018 19:34:36 #
TriX wrote:
Let me just add: DO NOT underexpose and try to bri... (show quote)
A good post processing ed program can recapture 3 to 5 stops from the dark side depending on the cameras ability. My ten year old Pentax has no problems with three, never tried more.
Suggesting they can't pull out from the dark side might be just a Canon thing but I really doubt it. A Nikon, Sony, Olympus and a few others can with out a hassle.
Nov 19, 2018 20:01:39 #
TriX wrote:
Let me just add: DO NOT underexpose and try to bri... (show quote)
Thanks for giving me a "second" on my earlier 6D opinion. That camera is just not good at really high ISO values. Some of the higher end Canons may be, but most of them are not at high ISO. According to the DxO website, the top 3 high ISO DSLR cameras (aka low light response) right now are the Sony A9, the Sony A7-iii, and the Nikon D3s----in that order. I know this will be controversial and some won't like seeing their cameras get low marks, but that's what the website says. https://www.dxomark.com/cameras/compare/side-by-side
Nov 19, 2018 20:40:11 #
Dynamics5 wrote:
How best to take pictures in low light where people are moving around so pictures are not dark? Kids playing, some folks dancing.
Use lighting (constant or strobe).
Nov 19, 2018 20:40:49 #
Dynamics5 wrote:
How best to take pictures in low light where people are moving around so pictures are not dark? Kids playing, some folks dancing.
Need a cheap flash ,that you can fire manually not on the camera. Fire during the longer exposures , Open Flash Technique will freeze the subject and the rest will be blur motion. Or maybe creative Panning ? Have some fun with it
Nov 19, 2018 21:06:27 #
tomcat wrote:
Thanks for giving me a "second" on my ea... (show quote)
Hello Tomcat, I think we have had this conversation before, we may use data from different sources, and I have no opinion which is correct, but short of testing all these bodies myself, I’m relying on the DXOMark data from the link I posted previously. Here’s the low light ISO data on some popular FF cameras (higher is better):
Canon 5D3 3652
Canon 6D/6D2 4070/4178
Canon 5D4 5011
Canon 1DX2. 5189
Nikon D850. 4115
Nikon D5. 7178
Nikon D4. 4494
Nikon D3S. 4307
Sony A9. 6612
Sony 7SM2. 5696
As you can see, it’s well less than a stop worse than a D5, 1DX2, 5D4, A7II or A9, and as I said, almost the same as a D850 or D3S. Certainly not a low light/high ISO slouch.
Nov 19, 2018 21:14:00 #
GENorkus wrote:
A good post processing ed program can recapture 3 to 5 stops from the dark side depending on the cameras ability. My ten year old Pentax has no problems with three, never tried more.
Suggesting they can't pull out from the dark side might be just a Canon thing but I really doubt it. A Nikon, Sony, Olympus and a few others can with out a hassle.
Suggesting they can't pull out from the dark side might be just a Canon thing but I really doubt it. A Nikon, Sony, Olympus and a few others can with out a hassle.
You certainly CAN pull up the brightness in post, but it will cost you in terms of noise and DR, especially with a Canon - a well known issue with non-ISO invariant cameras. A mistake in low light.
Nov 19, 2018 22:31:25 #
jonjacobik
Loc: Quincy, MA
I'd set the speed I need to freeze the action and set it for auto-iso. Some will be grainy, some will be dark, but when you get to post, you should be able to bring it in clearly.
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