Night time sports - possible?

robinph

There is a cross country race on this evening at Malahide Rubgy Club, unfortunately I've had to wimp out of actually running myself due to being a bit under the weather at the moment. But I was wondering if it would be worth my while taking the camera along to try and get some pictures instead.

I have a 400D, the kit lens, Canon 50mm 1.8, Sigma 70-300 and Sigma 10-20 at my disposable. The race is floodlit, but it looks as if the route goes around the edge of the pitches mostly (map) so not sure how much of the lighting would be directly over the route exactly but I guess one of you has seen how bright their lights are before, maybe?

Is it possible, and if so which lens gives me the best chance of getting anything worthwhile, or should I just curl up in front of the telly with a mug of Lemsip instead?

Paulw

Curl up with the lemsip.

I've no idea how close you can get, or what the light will be like. Floodlights are generally designed and positioned to illuminate the pitch playing area, and the light around the side will be very poor.

Most probably the 50mm would be best. You may need to shoot full open (f/1.8) and with a very high ISO just to get anything clear.

The 70-300mm might have better reach, but if it isn't f/2.8 you may struggle.

You will need to try to get a shutter speed around 1/250 to freeze the action.

robinph

I would be able to get very close to them and could just stand virtually in front of them as they run towards me. My 70-300 is what I've used for previous races, but they are all during the day and that is only the cheap f4 version of the lens which I have.

Paulw

I think the 50mm might be best, but bring the 70-300mm with you too. It will be a matter of trial and error, but you just never know what you'll get from it (aside from a worse cold).

robinph

Thanks.

Think I'll go along anyway just to see what I can come up with. Learning experience if nothing else, and I'll just OD on the Lemsips before leaving.

Zillah

Yup, F4 really isn't going to cut it. It really depends on the light but I'd imagine the 1.8 50mm should work alright if you bump the ISO a bit. There might also be some parts more brightly lit than others so you can have the 70-300mm attached and ready to shoot when they pass under the brightest part.

Bring a tripod and you could also get some cool shots if you track their movement over a slightly extended exposure.

robinph

How high would I need to be taking the ISO when your talking about "a bit", looks like it will go up to 1600 on the 400D?

I hadn't considered taking the tripod but that may be worth a go as well if I'm quick enough on the draw with changing things around before they come past each time.

jlang

I'd say try everything you can. The zoom will probably hunt for focus in the dark so manual focus will probably help - your location is fixed and you can time the shots for when the runner is in the best light. Also, a hundred runners running several laps gives you plenty of opportunities to muck up, try different settings and still have a few keepers. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I want to not run the race and just go to take pics!

Stephen

If you can get that close, would using a flash be frowned upon by the people taking part?

robinph

I'd be close enough for flash, but I would probably then get hit by them as they go past half blinded.

Zillah

robinph wrote: »

How high would I need to be taking the ISO when your talking about "a bit", looks like it will go up to 1600 on the 400D?

Really depends on the exact shot. Keep it as low as you can get away with. I'd say there would be plenty of shots where you can keep the ISO right down when you're using the 1.8, but with the telephoto lens you'll have a lot of trouble, even 1600 mightn't do it. You'll just have to muck around and see what works really.

robinph

Thanks for the pointers people. I did manage to get a handful of passable pictures of the race and although the spot I decided to stand in right under one of the temporary floodlights they had put up was bright enough, there really wasn't enough light across the rest of that part of the course for me to get anything other than when they were right infront of me.

I stuck with the 50mm 1.8 for everything, but there was a bit of messing around with different shutter speeds and iso's as I went along. It's pretty had to tell how clear the shot actually turned out from the small screen though but I did get enough that I'm happy with.





On any of the ones where I was attempting to pan the camera as they ran past but using a slightly slower shutter speed there is a curious effect of all the marker posts appearing 4 times. Cannot really see it in the one above as that is a metal fence behind him, but I messed up most of my attempts at that anyway just by having the focus wrong and being rubbish at keeping them in the middle of the shot.

Paulw

Two nice shots there. At least you are happy with some of the images captured.

You've learned a valuable lesson, so continue the learning and practice. Next time you'll be able to offer others advice and help.

Well done.

robinph

Thanks, just need to find more excuses to get out with the camera more often as so far I only tend to take it out when I'm "going somewhere".

I did just discover what the burning smell was that I noticed when putting my camera in the bag last night ... just found a hole melted in one of the pockets where my spare battery had shorted with some keys that were in there as well. Now have a slightly burnt looking spare battery, a hole in my bag, and yet another valuable lesson learnt.

Paulw

LOL, ouch. That's some lesson to learn. Well, they always do advise keeping the battery cover on it when not in use. Now you know why.

robinph

Hmm, I do remember seeing a battery cover now you mention it that would have come with the camera initially. No idea where I may have put that though, probably the bin.

Zillah

robinph wrote: »

On any of the ones where I was attempting to pan the camera as they ran past but using a slightly slower shutter speed

Awesome, glad you tried it, worked out quite well in this one. You brought the tripod I take it?

robinph

I did take the tripod, but didn't use it.

That and a few others were just trying to keep up with them whilst panning handheld as they went past to blur the background. I was having trouble mostly with the focus though. I'd tried to manually set it to where I was expecting to hit the button as they went past but never quite got it right, otherwise it would just lock onto them whilst they were still too far away. I do seem to remember something now though about needing to change some other setting in order to get the focus to change as your panning with a moving subject but not sure about where that setting was now .

I did get lucky in a couple of other shots though and manage to at least get their heads almost in focus and stationary:



...but then this one the focus was just off a little bit more, although not the worst of my attempts by any means:

Barname

off topic notes / points

1. whats with the Athletes numbers? there is no way there were 4000+ participants

2. Athlete 4004 is running barefoot - the rest are wearing spikes...

robinph

1. They just have a stack of numbers from somewhere and will use whatever is next in the pile for each race. There were a few with numbers aroun 190's then a load of 1900's and then a few in the 4000's. Was only actually 130 in the combined mens and ladies field last night, they often have between 250 to nearly 300 in a lot of the other races though which happen upto every other week.

2. I only noticed that afterwards, but I think that is someone from the Athletics forum who didn't have all their kit with them in Dublin and had been asking earlier in the day how rough the course would be to figure out if they could get away with going barefoot. My biggest fear if it had been me would have been the other runners with spikes on rather than the surface underfoot though.