Night Sports Shooting

[CharlesLajeunesse]

I shoot with both a D-100 and D-70 for nighttime High School football, usually poor lighting, using either the Sb50 DX flash or the SB 600. So I usually can light up the scene pretty well.

However, I am wondering what focus settings are best for these low light situations. Need the data or advise on both units.

Thanks

[ArthurGentile]

For what it's worth, I shoot HS night games on both a D100 and D70 with an
ancient Vivitar 283, a Pro Eliminator battery pack and a tele adaptor lens
on the flash. I kick the ISO up to 1600 and with the 283 in the yellow mode
I get pretty good exposures @F4.5. My old 80-200 2.8 Nikkor works well with
this setup. The 283 is cheap, replaceable, seemingly impervious to water
damage (see 'replaceable' if it's not ) plus you can use a strong battery
pack since its not a through the lens metering flash . I use my SB800 for sideline
color on the D70 with a 24-85 2.8-4 Nikkor. Unless its raining! As a point of
perspective, when I started doing this I shot a Nikormat with a 300 F4.5
on Tri-X and a Graflex Stroboflash with a 510 volt non rechargeable battery.
The Tri-X was pushed to the limits of chemistry and the mark of a good exposure
was a one that showed a bit of detail in the black players faces. Do I miss
the "good old Days"? Not at all.

[Dennis_Stiff]

Last season I shot night games with the D2H and the SB800 on iTTL with a -.3 flash comp and a 80-200 AFS 2.8...a monster with the lens shade, WB was flash or sometimes sunny...1/250 at F2.8 or the next one up which I think is F3.2...ISO 800. Some stadiums are so dark that you may want ISO 1600. I was able to blend the stadium light in with the flash and flash shadows were muted. You need to extend the flash higher than you might believe is normal...on a stroboframe for instance. It looks funny but zombie eye and red eye are gone and the flash is even so the closest player doesn't get the majority of the light especially if the close player is running interference for your main subject the running back...or even if an unwanted stray "arm" enters the frame. Works well with basketball also.

Dennis S

[CharlesLajeunesse]

Thanks for the input, but what I think I need is what AF mechanism is best for low light football. It seems some images are out of focus and some not. AF does not seem to always bite good enough to get an well focused shot.

[Dennis_Stiff]

I use C Mode selection on the front of the camera...the second selection from the bottom on the back on the camera (the lever under the thumb pad or multi-selector pad)...and turn a4 OFF (focus lock) in the CSM. You can also set the flash at the 50mm mark instead of having it zoom out as you zoom out...spreads the light around. This is very usefull with Basketball. There will probably be some OOF shots no matter what you do.

Dennis S

[Dennis_Stiff]

Also I don't use closest priority or focus priority. With focus priority you may never get the camera to fire in fast action. So far I haven't had any wandering focus with a4 OFF because an object moves into the frame. I just take my finger off the shutter if I feel the focus start to shift and wait for my subject to appear again in the center of the focus point I'm using. Dim light situations need all the auto focus speed the camera can get. As to how to get the camera to focus correctly at least 75% of the time in these situations is still a mystery to me. You need to pick shots that look good and will have the best chance of being sharp...it's the law.

Dennis S

[GrantBlankenship]

I set up my cameras the way the last two posts described with the exception of where I put the AF activation. I use the AF-ON buttons instead of the shutter. That way, I can stop AF and still fire away without worrying if an errant back or ref will make the AF jump.