HELP, BLURRY PHOTOS

Night time and indoor shooting with poor lighting produces blurry pictures with

just the slightest move on the subjects part. Shooting at sporting events at

night seem near impossible. Even shooting sporting events in a gym (volleyball)

are difficult to capture. I am relatively new to my camera still. I do have a

Nikon strobe flash as well.

 

Also I take photos for a band, they had a show recently at a coffee house, and

the lighting wasn't great. I was able to get some great photos, but a good

percentage seemed ruined because a blur was created due to a slight move on

their part. PLEASE HELP!!

With quick moving indoor subjects, you need to use flash, and the more powerful the flash, the better. A Nikon SB-800 ought to be adequate for most purposes, but of course if the subject is far enough away, it will not provide enough light. There are a variety of technieques that action photographers have developed, such as following the subject as it moves. You might look for tuotorials or books on action photography.

I don't believe you have provided enough information to help. Do you have some examples? What were the settings used to take the blurry photos (ISO, Shutter Speed, F-Stop, Focal Length, etc.)? Without more detail, I could only speculate where to start to help.

You are getting blurred photos because, under low light, your camera is selecting a slow shutter speed. There are several solutions to the problem. Use your flash which will stop the action. Use a higher ISO so the camera will select a higher shutter speed or use a faster lens which also will allow a higher shutter speed.

Blur in a photo can also be used to your advantage to convey a sense of motion. Use your flash to "freeze" the subject and "drag the shutter" 1 or 2 stops under the meter reading to capture the motion.<div></div>

Having worked in the journalism field in the past, I can tell you that many sporting venues won't allow flash for the safety of the atheletes.

 

However, get yourself the fastest film you can find. I used to shoot with 3200 B&W. If you can't find it, find the fastest you can and push the film to that speed. That should at least be able to get up to something that you capture at night at a football game. Use a monopod to stabilize the camera to avoid blurriness due to hand shake.

A few sugestions:

Bump your ISO to 800 or higher. Keep in mind your photos will be noisier/grainer. Noise can be removed in post-process with programs like noise ninja or neat image. Get the free versions and try for yourself.

Shoot in manual mode or Aperture priority and choose the lowest possible f/stop setting possible. Full auto will also chose the lowest setting.

Shoot with a mono/tri-pod for camera stability. This will eliminate blur due to camera movement.

 

Good luck!

Kurt

I like to snap at my wife's volleyball games and my daughter's gymnastics, but don't use flash. I should be recieving the 50mm f/1.4 lens today in the mail and am going to try it out. I find that if you tell people what your problem is, the equipment your using, and possibly some info on an example of your problem, it helps. Indoor volleyball can produce quite the horrible lighting, although my 28-70 f/2.8 lens handles it well, I'm going to try the 50mm f/1.4 D, and see how it goes! If I'm shooting digital, I push the ISO to 800, noise is grainy and don't have a NR software, film I buy 1600. Good luck.

You may have a fast lens, yet be shooting at a much smaller aperture- time to read up on exposure, f/stops, and shutter speeds.

Stephen,

 

Do you have any recommendations as to how to gain good action shots of an indoor sport with no flash and poor lighting? I can get decent shots, but there is still blur in the movements, such as the hand and ball in volleyball... Please, I'm open to suggestions.

For instance, I am shooting with a D50, ISO at 800, lens at 50mm, f/stop at 2.8, shutter speed at 1/125, meter is showing its 1/3 under-exposed, but I shoot it to try and capture the action, but the hand and ball are still 'in motion.' I understand the triangle of photography... but only the basics. Again, suggestions welcome!

Robert, if you'll open your lens one more stop to f/2.0, you'll increase your shutter speed to 1/250, which might be fast enough to stop the motion and get rid of the blur. You can achieve the same thing by bumping your ISO to 1600, or do both and get 1/500, which should be adequate for motion stopping, even if fairly close to the action.

Obviously flash will take care of subject motion problems for subjects within flash range. If you are not using flash, I think a 1/60 shutter is usually adequate to freeze normal subjects. You need whatever combination of lens speed and ISO is necessary so that you can work at that shutter speed, and you need to set the camera so it does not choose a slower speed. If you are using any kind of zoom lens, you are in a hole to begin with. You will be much better served by a simple, inexpensive 50/1.8 in the coffee house setting. You will probably need to think a little more about metering than you normally do, but if you figure out the lighting/metering at the start, you can set the camera on manual at 1/60 and whatever (probably large) aperture and shoot the whole performance on those settings. <p>

 

When shooting musicians, it helps press the shutter button in those moments when the musicians are not moving much. With a minimum of practice, you can start to identify these moments (which almost always occur) and take advantage of them. With the right equipment you can get some acceptable shots at shutter speeds of 1/30 or 1/15 if you are careful about shooting when the subjects aren't moving.<p>

 

You should definitely read this Photo.net article on <a href="http://www.photo.net/concerts/mirarchi/concer_i">concert photography</a>.

"With quick moving indoor subjects, you need to use flash"

 

As others have said above, one hardly 'needs' flash. A combination of high ISO film / sensor

sensitivity and a fast lens do wonders for low light photography.

i had the exact same problem, i shoot for a newspaper and i am frequently covering indoor sports shots. my advice is use a higher iso, noise is not too much of a problem, there getting better at cutting it down in the new d-slrs, if not, it can be controlled with noise reduction software. ur on the right path with the flash to, maybe get a diffuser so u dont get the yucky highlights. other than that, read some stuff about white balance and learn how to use it to ur advantage, most problems with indoor shooting is color representation, white balance can help out.