action shots at night = heartbreak

[hipshot]

I just took a bunch of action shots of a snowboard rail at night and they stink! :x
I was about 15-20 ft. away with my rebel kit and everything came out blury. I thought I was tracking the riders fine and getting good pics with sports mode but was way wrong. There appeared to be plenty of artificial light, but any motion even walking, was blurred.
I could've uped the ISO, shot in manual and tried out the "servo-hack-technique".....guess :roll: ...?
I really was expecting a lot more though, I mean I could reach out and touch the boarders. Plus I'm a little confused because I've taken better photos with a zoom lens on a cloudy day from much further away and all action was frozen.

see here: www.squareshell.com/helpme.html

[Spargo]

Did you have a really slow shutter speed?

[mdude85]

well, the first one seems pretty sharp ... second is of course blurry. shutter might have been open for too long. plus, are you using a tripod?

[cmM]

you could have used a flash, since you were that close to them. With available light, the only thing you could do to help is shoot RAW, manual everything and try as best as you can to focus accurately, even manual focusing.

I shot a bike ride at night with available light, and it was quite THE challange.

[friscomgm]

Action photography at night is a challenge for sure....right now all I can really do is use my 50 f/1.8 at ISO800 - 1600 and hope that some of the shots come out...

:(

[hipshot]

I really should've tried a few shots in manual focus :?
Suddenly I feel limited with my rebel :shock: for action anyway :wink:
Live and learn.

[maderito]

I really should've tried a few shots in manual focus :?
Suddenly I feel limited with my rebel :shock: for action anyway :wink:
Live and learn.
The shots are well exposed despite difficult lighting conditions. With this kind of "hot" lighting, you expect to burn out some highlights and to underexpose some shadows. The first shots gets this balance right.

As you've concluded, the D-Rebel is going to be overmatched for these kind of shots - even with the hack that allows you to select AI-servo. Given the speed of the subjects and the relatively small DOF (because you're in close with probably wide apertures), you need very fast and precise AF with excellent AF focus prediction algorithms. That's why Canon developed the 1D and its successor. Spend another $3000+, and you'll come home with a lot of keepers. We'll be getting reports on how the new 20D handles this kind of action. I have my fingers crossed. :)

[hipshot]

Well it looks like i have a chance to redeem myself tonight. This time its an indoor skate park. The lighting should be better, but I still only have my rebel flash. The solution is clear...spend more $$$$$ :twisted:

[awagner]

Get a monopod...should help a bit.

[Mark Kemp]

I think you are being a bit hard on yourself.

For a night shot the first one is impressive. I would crop a little of the background away to concentrate on the boarder a bit, but that sort of thing is quite routine for sports shots.

The second is blurred, but the boarder is moving across you and (I think) towards you as well, and tracking a moving target in two dimensions is very hard indeed.

So I think that you have done pretty well. I don't know what you hoped to acheive, but if you shoot night sports and get more than a few as good as the first one you will be doing very well.

[hipshot]

Thanks for the feedback Mark.
I expected more cuz..well.. I haven't shot that much night action and also it 'seemed' so bright there!
In many of them it actually looks like the AF grabbed the snow that was flying at me and the rest was blurred....made for some cool blur effect shots though.

[Mark Kemp]

I am not so sure about locking on to the snow. There would be flying snow everywhere, if AF missed the target by a bit some snow would be almost certain to be in focus.

The truth is all photographers throw away a proportion of their shots as duds and with night action its quite a high proportion too.

Still keep trying and the ratio of keepers to duds should get better.