Hapkido low light fast movement

[bradzo66]

I have been taking photos for a Hapkido Website and had some trouble getting my settings just right for the shots last night , its in a hall which has fairly bad fluro lighting , and as you can imagine with 7th dan black belts their kicks and movements are extremely fast , as I'm only new to manual settings I'm struggling a little and am actually in the car now on my way to the second shoot . Ive read everything I could today to try to make a difference but was hoping someone could help ? The shots from last night were not bad but I'd like therm to be better .

[oldwolf]

So do you want the motion to be blurred?

I'd get some type of flash and set your your camera to second or rear curtain sync. Put your shutter speed at your max flash sync speed and let it take care of the f/stop. Shoot in as low of an ISO as possible but you might end up bumping your ISO all the way up to 1600 if your f/stop can't go low enough.

If you're not allowed to use flash then go with the highest ISO you're comfortable with, set your f/stop as low as possible (2.8 would be nice) and tweak your shutter speed til your get the proper exposure.

I'd seriously try to convince to let you use flash though. You can get some very cool dramatic effects with rear curtain sync. See if they'll let you take a couple shots after class so you can show them what can be done with flash.

[bradzo66]

Hey oldwolf , they let me use flash but I only had on camera which I ran in 2nd curtain and ran at either 1250 or 1600 ISO, the shots are 10 x better than last night helped by white floor mats and much brighter lighting , thanks so much for yr help and valuable input . All the best

[oldwolf]

No worries. Sorry, I didn't catch the thread in time. I love taking shots of martial artists. Just wish I had more time to do it. hehe

[bradzo66]

Thanks for yr advice mate it was really appreciated , unfortunately I will be off the air for a while sorting out some business with my Dads will , so will make contact once I'm in the clear . Cheers