nite time photo help please

[KYCruiseCrazy]

ok i have a XT and would like some help getting great nite time pictures at a nascar race. we just went to the KY sppedway and the day pics are crisp and sharp. the nite time pics were blurry. please help. we are going to bristol and lowes. thanks

 

[0bli0]

your daytime shots - are you panning with slow shutter, or are you taking fast shutter pics?

in either case, you need either a faster lens, or to bump the ISO accordingly. if you are panning, it will be much easier to get decent shots. i'm afraid without a very expensive fast lens and/or lots of noise, to get crisp fast shutter shots isn't really possible. but panned shots look heaps better anyway

 

[Anewman]

If you are shooting in full auto(green box) mode on Canon Dslrs the max ISO the camera will use is 400. Take it out of auto and put it in P mode, there you can set your own ISO speed(use 1600 for night time Nascar). Yes as 0bli0 stated, an expensive/fast/tele lens will help as will panning with the car.

 

[boBQuincy]

At night you may have trouble getting the camera to focus quickly enough, especially if you do not have a fast lens. Try locking the focus in advance and panning with the cars, shooting when the car is in your pre-focused zone.

One easy way to pre-focus is to carefully focus in auto then slide the switch to manual.


boB

 

[handicap18]

Not much else to add here. What lens are you currently using? If a zoom what focal length is it mostly set to?

It will be expensive, but getting a prime telephoto lens with a wide aperture will help. Others can be more help, but maybe something like the 200mm f/2.8 or 135mm f/2.8. A 3rd party lens like Sigma will save you some money.

At night in a sports stadium using ISO 800 at f/2.8 will get you a shutter speed of 1/250. Kinda slow for what you want. ISO 1600 at f/2.8 will get you a shutter speed of 1/500. Thats better.

If you have just a basic telephoto zoom, chances are its widest aperture at the longest focal length is f/5.6. (Guessing that its 200 or 300mm) That f/stop at ISO 1600 will get you a shutter speed of about 1/125.

Maybe pushing the ISO to 3200 might help? Others on the board with Canon dSLR's will have a better clue on that. I don't know how it will effect fast moving objects.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

just push it to ISO 3200 (set to ISO 1600 and set exposure compensation to -1 stop, then push it back using levels in Photoshop, then clean the grain using Imagenomic Noiseware CE -- freeware --)

 

[PoohJen]

Hey John! Whatch you doin' on this board?!!! I never did see those pics of the chocolate buffet you ran up to shoot! (and I went to bed w/o going up, 'cuz I knew I could just look at your shots later! )

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

jen im here cause i got a really cool digital camera and took almost 4000 last year at WDW. ill find and send you some of the pics . the lens that in using is a EFS 18-55 and a EF 75-300. i hope this helps. any other ideas? thanks