fast action in low light

[Kaecha]

I've been asked to take photos of a barrel racing competition here in our small town. It's still cold here and the competition is inside the riding arena.

I have an Olympus Evolt 500 with two lenses: Olympus Zuiko 40-150mm, and Olympus Zuiko 14-45 mm.

I've just ordered a new flash (hasn't arrived yet, but should be here in a couple days) FL-36R as I already tried taking photos in riding arena and they turned out awful.

Here's a link to a couple of them, one is an action shot of a team roping practise and the other has almost no action at all. She is almost standing still for me.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/photo/...eat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/photo/...eat=directlink

(I hope I linked these properly, I just downloaded the picasa program a few minutes ago!)

[inkista]

Can't see the photos, sorry. But I'm guessing your problem is that you're using a very slow telephoto lens (f/4.5-f/5.6). Indoor sports is one of the most demanding of subjects, lenswise, because it typically requires telephoto lenses with a wide maximum aperture (f/2.8 or more). In combination, these two things tend to be very expensive. And even more so in a zoom than a prime. I'd actually recommend looking at the 150mm f/2, but have no idea how expensive that would be.

Remember, stabilization doesn't help stop subject motion, only camera shake motion. And to stop camera-shake blur, you have to use a shutter speed of 1/focal_length or faster (without stabilization). The longer your focal length, the faster your shutter speed has to get, and if you've maxed out your iso, aperture is the only way to get it.

Another trick you may want to consider is digital push-processing. Shoot in RAW, underexpose, and then adjust the exposure in post processing. But this will introduce more noise than using a higher iso level.