Ask Me Help Desk - Shooting a nighttime baseball game.

Shooting a nighttime baseball game.

Hi all! I am new to this site, but I really need some help. I have 3 boys who all play baseball and the rules do not allow flash photography at night games... I have a Nikon d50 with a 55-200 lense. What settings do I use to get good clear action pictures?

You wouldn't want to use flash anyway, as you are probably too far away from the action for the flash to do any good.

If I were you I would simply set the camera on one of the automatic modes and see how the pictures turn out. You might try action mode first, although you may find that at full zoom the exposure time gets too long and the pictures get blurry (due to less light getting to the chip). A tripod can really help in this type of situation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsanders118

Hi all! I am new to this site, but I really need some help. I have 3 boys who all play baseball and the rules do not allow flash photography at night games...I have a Nikon d50 with a 55-200 lense. what settings do I use to get good clear action pictures?

Shooting sports in low light is one of the most challenging photographic endeavors. To do this successfully you need good equipment, you need skill to take the shot only when the light is in your favor, you need to push your camera to its limits, and you need a fair bit of skill with the post processing.

1) Equipment: You need a "fast" lens. Your 55-200 lens is not likely to be fast enough. You need f/2.8 or faster (e.g. f/2) to shoot sports in low light. If you don't have the funds to buy a fast lens, look at renting one. And also check with your nearest pro-level camera store. Many pro-level camera stores have rentals, and offer a better rental deal on the weekends - the pros rent during the week and then on the weekends non-pros can rent for 2-3 days paying for just 1-day's rental rate.

The fastest lenses are fixed-focal length lenses (also called "prime" lenses) rather than zoom lenses. It takes a bit more skill to learn how to compose with a prime lens, learning how to frame a shot when the player is "closer" (e.g. just player's torso and ball) and when the player is further (player's full body, with the opposing team member, etc.). This is part of what sets the pro apart from the non-pro shooter.

Avoid the temptation to buy an off-brand lens that "seems" like a good deal. The pro-level lenses are expensive because they have good glass. The cheaper lenses are... cheaper. The difference can be seen in the images. The lens gathers the light that becomes your image - your images will never be any better than the lens you use to gather the light.

You also need a large memory card, or several memory cards. It needs to be totally empty - you need to copy all your images to your computer and then reformat the card before the game.

2) Camera settings: For indoors sports, you need to set the camera to the highest usable ISO setting (do some tests indoors in similar light and check the quality of the images at all your high ISO settings). Depending on the ISO settings and quality for your camera, you may be shooting at 800, 1600, or 3200. Do not use "fractional" settings - on most cameras the fractional ISO settings (e.g. a setting between 800 and 1600) are not as good as the "whole" settings.

You will shoot in Aperture Priority mode or Manual Mode, using the widest f-stop for your lens (e.g. f/2.8). In Aperture mode the camera will pick the shutter speed.

In Manual Mode you set the shutter speed yourself, you can use the light sensor guide to help you determine if the shutter speed you have set will produce a properly exposed image.

Take some test shots, and look at the review image, and at the histogram. Focus on the quality of the image on the people - the shot may look "underexposed" due to the lower light levels in the background. That's fine, as long as the players are properly exposed. If you are shooting in Aperture Priority mode you may want to use Exposure Compensation to keep the camera from trying to expose properly for the background - you want a minus value (e.g. -1 stop) so that the overall photo "seems" under exposed, but is really correctly exposed for the players on the court. The amount of Exposure Compensation will vary depending on how bright/dark the background is, so you have to take test shots to determine the correct settings. Take test shots whenever someone is on the court before the game starts.

Shoot in RAW mode. (more on this later)

You will also want to set your camera to the fastest "drive" mode. I don't know what the D50's fastest mode is, but I suspect it's around 4-5 frames per second. This way you can shoot a burst when the action is hot and heavy.

Avoid the temptation to look at the preview screen and delete the "bad" shots - do that later, after the game. For now, keep your attention on the game! When there's a break in the action, look for people shots on the sidelines (cheerleaders, players on the bench, fans in the front row).

3) Light: Often the light is not even across the court. Shoot only when the players are in good light. Also, be mindful of the background for the best photos. When shooting on the sidelines you will need to change the shutter speed if you are shooting in Manual Mode - don't forget to change it back when you change to shooting on the court again.

4) Postprocessing: Always, ALWAYS shoot in RAW mode, not in JPEG. This is very critical when shooting in low light because you can use various noise-reduction settings when you process the image with the raw converter to make great improvements on the image quality over what the camera does automatically in-camera. I often shoot under-exposed 1-2 stops when I'm shooting sports in low light because I can recover these images with the raw converter software. This is not possible if you are shooting in jpeg mode.

The info from the previous user is EXCELLENT advice. I would add a couple of things. You might consider buying a 50mm f1.8 auto focus lens. (go to eBay & do a "nikon 50mm lens" search & click on the Buy it Now tab & you can buy them for $50-150.) Be sure it states AF or Auto Focus and not just "automatic". This will be a less expensive compromise than a more telephoto lens that will be very expensive that sports photographers use such as 200 or 300mm lenses. I have a D50 where I work that I use & a D70s personally and know it's hard to get a fast lens at low price. You need a fast lens (allows wider aperatures for low light conditions) for night shots which gives you a faster shutter speed that will help tremendously to 1. stop action & 2. enable you to hand hold with less need for a tripod. For your photo needs you will need a fast lens, set camera to high iso (see previous contributor's comments) and use your camera in the sports mode or aperature priority (recommend once you get some practice) mode where it is using the lenses' widest opening (ie 1.8, 2, 2.8 etc) which allows the most light possible to come through the lens which will give the maximum shutter speed. Note that when shooting a maximum aperature (needed in night shots) there is one disadvantage in that there will be almost no depth of field (amount of area in focus) but if you auto focus accurately on the subject it should be no problem to have everything else in front and behind the subject out of focus (actually helps to make subject stand out). Be sure to try shooting in RAW mode also. Hope this helps. Night sports photography is one of the most challenging types of photography (except maybe portraits of babies & small children & trying to get them to smile!)