HELP. Photographing 5K Race

Please help. My church as asked me to photograph a 5K road race. They want me to do several events including opening announcements,

warm-ups, race, and awards. Race is late September and starts at 8:00am. I have a Nikon D80 with 70-300 mm f4-5.6, 18-135 kit lens, 12-

24mm f4. Any advice regarding lens, ISO, shutter speed, etc? Photos will be donated to the church and not the participants.

 

Thanks, Bill

I would go wiith the wider lens, you can always crop the photos for the race, min ISO 200 depending on lighting I

might go higher, but I'd make sure the speed was 1/300 or better. The other events it should not matter as long as

you get the exposure rght.

Just to add to what was already said, I'd suggest using the 12-24 for the awards, opening and perhaps the warm-ups and then switch to the 70-300 for the race itself. It all depends on how close to the runners you can and / or want to be.

 

Use a shutter speed of 1/500 - set the camera on shutter priority and bump your ISO to 400-800. The D80 can handle that.

 

Watch for distractions in the background during the race. At this point you may want to go to aperture preferred setting an aperture of F4/F5.6 (and a min shutter speed of 1/500)

 

Dave

Tom and David, many thanks for your advice.

As a former sports PJ, the start is the most published picture. Take a ladder. Take as many pictures as you can as the start unfolds. Pre visit and figure out what wide angle you need from your vantage point. For the rest of it, get the winner, and placers. You have to be tight for actual awards and wide for the environmentals. Just depends on where you stand. What shutter speeds and apertures you use depend on the light. You can freeze motion in a road race at a 500th. However, a thousandth is better. Below is a swimming start I did a couple of weeks ago.<div></div>

Above 1/1600 f8 ISO 800