shooting at softball game at night.lighting is ok but could be better.i have the 80-200 2.8 and the 50- 1.8D.have a D300.what would be some things to try and get good pictures?i used the 50 tonight because they let me sit right next to the batting circle and they looked like crap.lighting not good and blur in just about all of them.it was a lot darker,had to lighten them up.
Modified by bugman at 1:19 AM 6/1/2011
Here's the EXIF for these frames:
1st image:
Copyright RN
Exposure Time 1/30
F Number 2.8
Exposure Program Program AE
ISO 250
Exif Version 0221
Date/Time Original 2011:05:31 19:21:44
2nd image:
Copyright RN
Exposure Time 1/400
F Number 1.8
Exposure Program Shutter speed priority AE
ISO 500
Exif Version 0221
Date/Time Original 2011:05:31 17:56:46
Now ... 1st image is simple ... not enough shutter. You're shooting in AUTO mode and 1/30 second exposure won't cut it when it's a night time shot. Bump up your ISO (this was shot at 250 ... the D300 should give you great images at 1600) and your shutter speed. Try shooting in (not sure what Nikon calls it) Shuttter Priority mode.
2nd image ... looks like you lost your focus point ... it must've grabbed the fence behind the players.
Freezing action takes higher shutter speeds ... you bump up ISO and shoot wide open aperture to get the fastest possible shutter speeds.
I shoot professional sports for a living ... if you need any help just drop me an IM and I'll send you my email address and phone #.
Rich
thank you.forgot,had it in auto because i could not get anything much from the others.
I agree with whats posted here. The first one you need a lot more shutter speed and a higher ISO is the only way you are going to get it.
It also looks like the the focus point is off on the second one. that one could also benefit from more iso and shutter speed.
I shoot in lights like that a good bit with my 7d and its a challenge. Sometimes is hard to completely stop the motion blurr but you can get close. A couple things i trend to do is i use manual mode with iso in the 2000-3200 range and adjust the shutter to whatever i can get away with. I also setup my auto focus to use a single point in the center. I find in low light that mine will focus on any shiny object in low light if i use multi point auto focus.
Here is a shot i took last year that was done at iso 2000 1/1250 shutter and f2.8. There is still a little motion blurr off the bat and ball but the rest is ok. Not the best shot i have ever taken but one i could find easily. This was taken ~8:00 at night under full lights on the field.
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Modified by jb882 at 3:26 PM 6/1/2011
Modified by jb882 at 3:30 PM 6/1/2011
i could live with that one!it was 9:30 last night.got one more tomorrow night and will play with what you both have told me.thanks
Dont be afraid of cranking up the iso. From what i have read the d300 is really quite good up to 3200. As long as you expose correctly noise should be manageble and you can correct it in software after the fact.
The d300 you have seems to be a very similar camera to my 7d in a lot of regards. We shyoot with very similar setups. I use a 70-200 f2.8 a lot and my 50 f1.4. I also am a huge fan of the 24-70 f2.8 i got this year.
There are a lot of good books out there on digital photography but the one I always recommend to folks is "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It does a great job explaining the relationship between ISO, apature and shutter speed. About 13 bucks and well worth it.
Mike
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