Sports Lowlight

[krish_g]

Hi

I want to take pictures of a cycling race that will be held at around 7pm when the light is at its lowest. Moreover I will be very close to the action as it is held on the streets. In this case what kind of setting should I use on my camera to get the freezing shot, motion, pictures where except for the cyclist face everything else will be blurred etc. I am using a Canon 50D with 18-200MM lens.

Thanks

[Jim Bryant]

Depending upon the track lighting you'll need to use a very high ISO. Start out at ISO 800 and if that doesn't give you the correctly exposed photos, then raise it to 1600. You need to use a high shutter speed of 500th of a second and your lowest f-stop, but with the lowest f-stop of your 3.5-5.6 lens, I highly doubt that you'll get to use a fast enough shutter speed to capture the action at f5.6. Good luck! What you want to do is set your camera on manuel and keep changing your shutter speed starting at 500th and move downward until you can get the exposures you need. The problem is: With the limitations of your lens at f5.6 at 200mm range, most of your photos will be blurry. However, it's a decent enough lens when the races are in daylight.

[krish_g]

Thanks Jim. I will try that. What lens would you suggest?