low light sport photography nikon d5100

[chloewindle1]

Hi, I've posted about this before but can't find post. Right, I have nikon D5100 (soon to upgrade) and nikkor 70-300mm and 15-85mm. I photograph equine so fast moving objects BUT my problem is I CANT SHOOT INDOORS!!!! I find it impossible


I shoot with my 70-300mm lens as obviously you don't want to be too close and especially when you don't know what directions they are coming in.

This lady (my sponsored rider) has just built an indoor which has three walls and an open wall where you can see in so there is daylight but the school isn't very well lit. VERY low light. I shoot manual so I change the shutter speeds and aperture ect but I can never find the right settings.

PLEASE help D:

 

[CdTSnap]

Whats settings would you use? And what do you mean you cant shoot indoors? Are the pictures blurry or you cant focus?

 

[tirediron]

You're going to need (1) More light; (2) A faster lens; or (3) A better camera body. That's all there is to it. This is one of the relatively rare situations where gear does make a difference. Given the irrational fear that most of the horsey set seemt to have of flashes, I'm guessing that options 2 & 3 are your only choices. If I were doing this, I'd want to be shooting with a relatively new, FF body and a 70-200 f2.8 lens, and probably up around ISO 6400.

 

[robbins.photo]

I'd have to agree with TiredIron here - trying to shoot action shots indoors is difficult at best even with the right equipment, but without fast glass and a body with good lowlight characteristics it's going to be very difficult if not close to impossible to get usable results.

A full frame camera of some sort is a great option for much better low light, but of course they are also rather expensive. As to lenses, well in this case probably your best bet again would be something in the 70-200 mm F/2.8 range, which again are expensive. If you think you can get away with an 85 mm 1.8 that would save you a a few hundred (assuming your buying the 70-200 mm sigma/tamron and used) but of course it won't have quite the reach or versatility of the 70-200 mm 2.8. You can probably get away with faster glass to start with, though upgrading the D5100 to at the least either a D5200 or D7100 would probably be a good idea at some stage.

Unfortunately the shooting conditions you describe just sound like they are more than an F/4.5-5.6 aperture lens is going to be able to handle effectively.

 

[chloewindle1]

I normally try to have my shutter speed 1/800 +and above, ISO 1000-2000 and higher and they start going a different colour (more orangey)??! Aperture is normally set at 1/2 - 1/10.

Going to be upgrading to the nikon d600 body and continue to save for nikkor 70-200mm but as you all know.... EXPENSIVE

 

[robbins.photo]

I normally try to have my shutter speed 1/800 +and above, ISO 1000-2000 and higher and they start going a different colour (more orangey)??! Aperture is normally set at 1/2 - 1/10.

Going to be upgrading to the nikon d600 body and continue to save for nikkor 70-200mm but as you all know.... EXPENSIVE

I can't imagine you'd have anywhere near enough light for a shutter speed 1/800, in fact my guess is unless the lighting in there is a whole lot better than I'm envisioning your going to be pretty lucky to get 1/200 with any kind of ISO that isn't sky high. Also your aperture is set by the lens, as far as I know on the 70-300 mm assuming it's a nikkor the best aperture you can possibly get (widest open) is going to be 4.5, and that's with the lens at 70 mm. Extend to 300 mm and your lowest aperture is going to be 5.6. So I'm a little confused by the reference to 1/2. Apertures are actually expressed as fractions, so in this case most likely your widest aperture would be 1/4.5 at 70 mm, or 1/5.6 at 300 mm.

The D600 will help, being a full frame camera it will have much better lowlight characterstics. I've never used one myself so I can't say for certain if that alone will be enough to deal with the lighting with the slower lens.

 

[robbins.photo]

One other thought, probably your best bet would be to try some shots in Shutter priority mode - it sounds like maybe your using a manual mode and not realizing that the shots are most likely being underexposed. So what I would try would be to change the camera's menu settings so it will automatically select the ISO, switch to shutter priority mode and see what kind of ISO the camera selects. I'd start with a shutter speed of 1/500 and see what ISO the camera says you need for proper exposure. Take a few shots, then try adjusting your shutter speed up or down and see what that does to the ISO.

That will help you get a better handle on what kind of shutter speed you can reasonably expect to be able to get with your current setup.

 

[chloewindle1]

OR views on the D7100? Especially in low light conditions?

 

[table1349]

No matter the body, in low light you are going to need faster glass. The 70-200 f2.8 or even an older 80-200 f2.8 would be much better than the 70-300 f4-5.6.

 

[chloewindle1]

Yes will most definately save for the 70-200 2.8 BUT Nikon D7100 seems to have great reviews and for the low light situation??

 

[robbins.photo]

Yes will most definately save for the 70-200 2.8 BUT Nikon D7100 seems to have great reviews and for the low light situation??

Honestly at best a slight improvement. You'll get a bit better low noise at higher ISO ratio, but I doubt it would really be enough of a difference in the situation you describe to really make a major difference to you. You'd see a more significant boost in lowlight with a D600, since it's full frame and the sensor is... well going from memory roughly 2.5 times bigger - but again really in this situation even with a full frame it's fast glass that will make the most difference.

 

[goodguy]

The D5100 is not a camera made for sports but that doesnt mean you cant get some sport action done with it.
The AF system of the D5100 might limit you but the low light performance of this camera should be very close to any new crop sensor camera you will find new today.
I think your main problem is your lens.
The Nikon 70-300mm VR is a wonderful lens for outdoors but it pretty much sucks for low light.
You need to get a 70-200mm 2.8 lens for this type of photography.
The Nikon 70-200mm VR I or VR II are the obvilous lenses to choose but they are expensive so you can go for the Sigma 70-200mm OS which is a very impressive lens and will cost considerable less then the Nikon version.

Upgrading to FX body will of course will make you low light performance even better but considering you currently have the D5100 fast lens will make a big difference.

Good luck.

 

[astroNikon]

as everyone mentions .. faster glass.
the 70-200/2.8 which will work on your body.
the 80-200/2.8 was mentioned which will NOT work on your body (only d7x00 and above)
but a 2.8 lens will make a world of difference

set your WB for Auto too .. that might fix your orange ??

the 5300 has the same focus points as the d7000, which may make it better for sports if it has the same AF functionality .. something for you to check.
BUT, assuming at some point you;ll be taking portraits of people and their horses which probably will include OCF (Off Camera Flash) at some point you'll need the CLS of the d7000/7100/600 etc.

Also doing sports, the dual wheels is so more convenient, thus going with the 7x00 and above is nicer.

you won't know the exact low light capabilities for your setting until you try one of those cameras. because "low light" could be everything from close to pitch black to slightly less then total sunshine .. we don't know. Unless you have a light meter. You could try one of those iphone/android light meters which will give you a good approximation, then we'd have a better idea (maybe). But I'm just ... well, I'm probably not a newbie anymore .. but I feel like it.

 

[table1349]

as everyone mentions .. faster glass.
the 70-200/2.8 which will work on your body.
the 80-200/2.8 was mentioned which will NOT work on your body (only d7x00 and above)
but a 2.8 lens will make a world of difference

set your WB for Auto too .. that might fix your orange ??

the 5300 has the same focus points as the d7000, which may make it better for sports if it has the same AF functionality .. something for you to check.
BUT, assuming at some point you;ll be taking portraits of people and their horses which probably will include OCF (Off Camera Flash) at some point you'll need the CLS of the d7000/7100/600 etc.

Also doing sports, the dual wheels is so more convenient, thus going with the 7x00 and above is nicer.

you won't know the exact low light capabilities for your setting until you try one of those cameras. because "low light" could be everything from close to pitch black to slightly less then total sunshine .. we don't know. Unless you have a light meter. You could try one of those iphone/android light meters which will give you a good approximation, then we'd have a better idea (maybe). But I'm just ... well, I'm probably not a newbie anymore .. but I feel like it.

What he said. Sorry, forgot the 5100 doesn't have a focus motor.

 

[tirediron]

as everyone mentions .. faster glass.
the 70-200/2.8 which will work on your body.
the 80-200/2.8 was mentioned which will NOT work on your body (only d7x00 and above)
but a 2.8 lens will make a world of difference

set your WB for Auto too .. that might fix your orange ??

the 5300 has the same focus points as the d7000, which may make it better for sports if it has the same AF functionality .. something for you to check.
BUT, assuming at some point you;ll be taking portraits of people and their horses which probably will include OCF (Off Camera Flash) at some point you'll need the CLS of the d7000/7100/600 etc.

Also doing sports, the dual wheels is so more convenient, thus going with the 7x00 and above is nicer.

you won't know the exact low light capabilities for your setting until you try one of those cameras. because "low light" could be everything from close to pitch black to slightly less then total sunshine .. we don't know. Unless you have a light meter. You could try one of those iphone/android light meters which will give you a good approximation, then we'd have a better idea (maybe). But I'm just ... well, I'm probably not a newbie anymore .. but I feel like it.

What he said. Sorry, forgot the 5100 doesn't have a focus motor.

Just to clarify, the Nikon 80-200 will work just fine on the D5300; it will not auto-focus, but everything else including exposure information, will work.