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10/16/2011 12:19:35 PM · #1 |
| I have a Nikon D3000 camera with a Nikon DX 55-300mm lens. It take gorgeous pictures, however when I am shooting pictures at night for our schools football games, the pictures are very blurry. I am not a professional photographer by any means so I am lost as to what all to do. I am thinking of getting a tri-pod which I know will help, and I changed my ISO settings to 1600 or H1. I hate loosing the clarity and brilliance of the picture on those settings and it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference with the blurring. The pictures come out grainy and blurry on a higher ISO setting. Does anyone have any other suggestions that I can try? |
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10/16/2011 12:32:41 PM · #2 |
Originally posted by tammiedc:
The pictures come out grainy and blurry on a higher ISO setting. |
This ALWAYS happens -- my camera is noisy to the the point of uselessness at ISO 400 ...
Are you using auto- or manual focus. If you are letting the camera focus, it is probably having a hard time in the low light situation, especially with a moving subject.
As an experiment, set up under the same conditions, then pre-focus on a specific spot on the paying surface, and wait for the action to hit that spot. You are not worrying here about composition or anything except focus/exposure. However, if this "fixes" the problem, then it is something you can practice, so that you will be able to anticipate where the "good" photo-ops will occur.
You might want to search for some previous threads on sports photography -- there has been a lot of good advice (better than mine) posted before ... :-) |
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10/16/2011 12:45:15 PM · #3 |
Try "aperture priority" and set aperture at wide open i/e 5.6 for 300mm. It's the best you can do with the 55-300. It's a juggle to decide the best combination between the blur of slow shutter and high iso. Your D3k may have an adjustment for high iso noise reduction in camera in the menus. If you are shooting high iso .jpg it will help a lot.
Turn VR off when you want to shoot "panning" shots. Deliberately swinging the camera for a pan shot causes the VR to try to overcome the motion, and it can't because of the extended motion. V R does not help when the subject is in motion, because it's sensing the motion of the camera, and correcting for that to keep things that are not moving from being blurred.
Another thing you will find is that the best shots are probably ones with the action coming directly toward you, which reduces the motion blur caused by the moving subjects. If you can get along the sideline so that you can shoot as the players are coming your way, it will help. If you practice panning shots, you may get pretty good at that, and get some great shots where motion blur is a very desirable effect, as long as you can keep the faces acceptably sharp.
I just shot a rodeo last night, and with a well lighted arena, I got most of the good shots by using my old manual 85mm f1.8 at f1.8 and f2 and iso 800 and 2500 to get acceptable shutter speeds. I was getting 1/640 @ f 1.8 and iso 2500 for the bull riding, and 1/125 or so with iso 800, shooting the barrel racing. I tried the 18-105 VR which is an f5.6 lens at 105mm, and shutter speeds were around 1/40- 1/60 sec, definitely not acceptable for motion stopping. I did get a few nice panning shots that way though.
The ball field light may not be enough for you to shoot good action shots, esp with the zoom at 300mm because shutter speeds are likely to be too slow, even with the aperture wide open and iso high.
That is a great lens for daytime shooting though. It has impressive sharpness and focus speed, and the VR is equally impressive.
ETA, Welcome to DPC. I hope you will hang around long enough to soak up some of the knowledge and fun here.
Message edited by author 2011-10-16 12:53:24.
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10/16/2011 01:30:51 PM · #4 |
Have you tried panning?
You would be amazed how clear some pictures can turn out with a slow shutter speed. Some of my favorite sports pictures that I have taken were with a 1/30 shutterspeed when it was practically dark, because I was panning as they ran by me and they are sharp and the background awesomely blurred |
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10/16/2011 01:46:47 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by MelonMusketeer:
Try "aperture priority" and set aperture at wide open i/e 5.6 for 300mm. |
I love shooting in aperture priority and do so about 97% of the time. I have found that there is a trap when using aperture priority to achieve good shutter speed.....I have found that sometimes I still don't get a fast enough shutter speed and I don't realize it until I view the images later.
I would, instead, use shutter priority and choose the slowest shutter speed that yields acceptable results.
Another option would be to set the camera to manual, set shutter speed to the slowest speed that yields acceptable results, choose the widest aperture that gives you enough depth of field, and set your ISO to automatic to let it do the rest.
Message edited by author 2011-10-16 13:50:00. |
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10/16/2011 01:48:29 PM · #6 |
| Rather than a tripod you should use a monopod. Gives some extra stability but allows fast panning and movement. If you are shooting at 300 you would need a shutter speed of at least 1/450s to avoid camera shake, but you might want even faster to freeze fast motion. You will probably need the lens wide open plus the ISO most suited to get your required shutter speed. |
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10/16/2011 06:28:21 PM · #7 |
| For a high school game, you might consider trying a flash. Follow the action up & down the field, and give the flash a try. You'll still need to boost the ISO but you can squeeze a bit more light onto the field that way. Given a slow lens and the poor lighting, that might be your only realistic option. |
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10/16/2011 06:33:41 PM · #8 |
| Skip the beer at happy hour before the game! :P |
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10/16/2011 08:22:23 PM · #9 |
Did you look closely at the players? My football pix were sort of blurry one time, and at the end of the game, I got close to the team, and the players actually were blurry.
: )
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10/16/2011 08:59:46 PM · #10 |
| I had a D3000 and didn't like it at all for the same problems. Sorry to say, but it performed dreadful from ISO 400 and above. Perhaps if you could get a hold of any model above it on loan or hire or trial from a shop. Nikon superseded the D3000 very quickly. You can take great pictures, but I was constantly wondering what I was doing wrong with a lot of my pictures (I still do LOL)while a large part of the problem was the limitations of the camera. Hope that helps. |
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10/16/2011 09:20:02 PM · #11 |
| Watch for and try to time your shutter release with natural stop points in the action. For example, at the top of a jump to catch a pass; in the huddle; the second before the snap. You have two enemies of good shots in that situation - low light, and moving (sometimes fast-moving) subjects. Do everything you can to maximize the light, and minimize the motion. For example, try to avoid shooting into the shadows, try to avoid times of maximum movement. Most of all, practice, practice, practice. |
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