I need help! Indoor sports

red_ice

Hey, im doing a project for an gokarting arena atm with my new camera (d60) and im very new to photography. Only at it since christmas, and im really only starting to get to use the camera now.

So im taking pics for a website im working on and i cant seem to get a good shot. Im using hi1 iso (its close to 3200 afaik) and opening the aperature all the way, and speeding up the shutter speed. 1/60 and f5.3 with hi1 ISO (have a very vague idea what that does). Now the colour is alright, but it could be better. The lighting is halogen i think... Its that orange plastic cover over it at least.

The aim is to try and get as much of the arena in the shots as possible and keep the karts in focus. I can focus on one kart, but the others in the back are just pants. The only time i can get a clean shot like im looking for is when the karts are coming right at me. Otherwise i have to pan and shoot, which blurs the background, but gets the person in focus.

heres some pics from the other day, im just in from a session now, havnt checked the photos yet. Ill resize and upload later..

Any tips? Should i be manually focusing? What can i do to bring out the colour better and get a cleaner shot?

Cheers

Calina

The wider you open the aperture, the less field you have in focus. This is why you are having problems getting more karts in focus.

I'm getting that you're not using flash? If they are not racing, maybe you could.

Also, what focal length are you shooting with? I'd play with a wide angle under those conditions, not a million miles from what the skateboarders do.

af_thefragile

Its a bit too yellow/orange imo...
Maybe you could fix the white balance a bit more...
The 1st pic is decent... the 2nd one looks a bit crammed.
Though i'm just a beginner myself, can't give you any decent advise!

mrboswell

I really like the composition of the 1st shot, not so much the 2nd one - the driver is in a dark patch so unless you use a flash it will probably expose on the rest of the scene.

You should read up in the manual about how to preset your white balance for those lighting conditions - very handy if lights are giving you an off tone.

Reading and getting advice is very useful but there is no substitute for practice.

Don't forget that as you go up in ISO the grain gets worse, so in the darker areas on the track it might just be better to avoid taking pictures there.

Boz

PCPhoto

if you are interested I can come and help next weekend - as previous posters have mentioned its practice makes perfect - I have a selection of lenses and flashes that you might find enjoyable to play with (for practice shots)

Dodgykeeper

PCPhoto wrote: »

if you are interested I can come and help next weekend - as previous posters have mentioned its practice makes perfect - I have a selection of lenses and flashes that you might find enjoyable to play with (for practice shots)

+1 We could make it a mini meet!

red_ice

I was going in tomorrow as i need to get the content of the site on the go asap. Thanks for the offers, would defo take a load off my back - only problem is that the weekend isnt an ideal time for this, customers need to use the track and you cant get in the way. Ill look into it and talk to my client about it anyways, but you wont have the freedom to get onto the tracks!

There are 3 tracks, and i did a track today, ill do one tomorrow, and one on friday.

Other than the shots i take, ill see about getting you lads booked in for a GP over the weekend or something if you like? The more content the better as far as im concerned.

PCPhoto

sounds good.

will see you both at the weekend. (dont think they would have too much of a problem in a couple of photographers turning up to do the job).

Definately wouldn't get in the way of traffic on the track.

red_ice

i might have worded that wrong, the weekend is a bad time to go down. TBH, if you really want to get some good shots, come with me on the friday because you can go anywhere you want for the shot. If you go when other people are on, you will have 1 spot on the track to take your shots from

Tactical

For something that's promoting a business to the general public I'd be considering "staging" the shots.

Bring in some additional lighting, stationary carts (with driver) and most likely a tripod.

That way you could get good depth of field and not need to push the ISO any higher than you need to so as to keep noise to a minimum(unless you're looking for a grain shot).

Everyone will have their own ideas but if DOF is important to you then this is just one way the shot could be achieved.

I think the reflection of the sodium lighting on the ground is very distracting and may be causing you metering problems.

PCPhoto

will PM my number to arrange suitable time and where to go. (Fri evening should be ok - cant do daytime ...work always gets in the way)