First Crack at low light action...HELP!

[shutterbughsv]

I have been asked to shoot barrel racing so I went out tonight to practice. I was in an indoor arena with halogen lighting and very dark dirt in the arena.
My shots were blurry and focus was pitifull, I was shooting in manual mode since AF kept moving in and out if I got off the subject.
I am using a Canon 40D, a Canon EF28-135 zoom, 1:3.5-5.6
You cannot use a flash so you don't sppok the horses.
I was shooting in manual mode most were shot with 1600ISO 13-15shutter and 3.5-5.6 f stop.
Any suggestions are welcome and needed


Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 1/15
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 120 mm
ISO Speed: 1600


Sample Pictures

[JoesPhotos]

Please read the rules for posting in the Critque section. In order to be the most help, the EXIF info on the shots are needed.

Have you tried shooting in Sports mode? Change White balance to Flourscent, shoot in RAW (to make changes easier).

I'm no Canon buff, what's the highest ISO you can shoot in?

[shutterbughsv]

Thanks, I've added information.

[smc1377]

Unfortunately, when you hit the limits of your equipment, you'll just have to get creative.

You could crank up your ISO to "H" or 3200 to help. A lens with a bigger aperture would also help, but since that's probably not a possibility, here's where I would purposely shoot in RAW and underexposed and then bring up the exposure in post-processing. Also, do you have IS on? If you're purposely panning to follow the horses, turning off the IS would yield more predictable results.

[oldwolf]

Change to Tv mode when shooting. Try setting your shutter speed at about 1/100 or 1/125 to start out with. You might have to increase this later.

Now set your autofocus point to just the center focus point and set your AF mode to AI Servo.

When taking the picture you'll have to pan with the action so get used to that at first. When panning practice keeping the horse/rider on the center AF point in the viewfinder. Once you get that down pat then press the shutter release to see if the picture comes out nice.

Keep your ISO at 1600 or more.

Reasons why I suggested the above settings:

Tv mode - you want to dictate the shutter speed to stop motion

Autofocus point to the center point - if your camera is using all points then it gets confused as to where you want it to focus especially with moving subjects

AF mode to AI Servo - this supposedly tells your camera that your subject is moving and it should try to keep track of it and keep the focus on the subject.

ISO 1600 - low light conditions and moving objects. this will help you get you a decent f/stop to help with your exposure.

I'd shoot in RAW and underexpose by a stop or two like smc suggested.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[shutterbughsv]

I have tried shooting in RAW and can't seem to get it to open with Photoshop CS on my mac or with 7.1 on my pc. In doing this I will go from 400 shots to a very few won't I? Thanks so much for your information and help.

Originally Posted by oldwolf

Change to Tv mode when shooting. Try setting your shutter speed at about 1/100 or 1/125 to start out with. You might have to increase this later.

Now set your autofocus point to just the center focus point and set your AF mode to AI Servo.

When taking the picture you'll have to pan with the action so get used to that at first. When panning practice keeping the horse/rider on the center AF point in the viewfinder. Once you get that down pat then press the shutter release to see if the picture comes out nice.

Keep your ISO at 1600 or more.

Reasons why I suggested the above settings:

Tv mode - you want to dictate the shutter speed to stop motion

Autofocus point to the center point - if your camera is using all points then it gets confused as to where you want it to focus especially with moving subjects

AF mode to AI Servo - this supposedly tells your camera that your subject is moving and it should try to keep track of it and keep the focus on the subject.

ISO 1600 - low light conditions and moving objects. this will help you get you a decent f/stop to help with your exposure.

I'd shoot in RAW and underexpose by a stop or two like smc suggested.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[oldwolf]

Use the program that came with your camera. It's called Digital Photo Professional.

That's what I use and it opens the RAW files fine. I tweak it a bit in that program then save it as a TIF file or you can save it as a JPG file.

I know there's something out there for CS that you can use to read/convert RAW files but I don't know the name of it because I don't have CS.

[shutterbughsv]

I will try and find it Thanks

[(CMC)]

iPhoto works with RAW files just fine, and you should have that on your Mac. Just a thought.

[david335]

In doing this I will go from 400 shots to a very few won't I?

Yes you will have fewer shots. In my experience if you normally get around 400 shots with jpegs then you will get between 100-200 shots with RAW in the same conditions.