Take Photo's at Night

[rdjones]

I am just back from Le Mans and I tried taking some pictures of the action at night and they have not come out well at all.

Now am I using a Fuji Fine Pix digital camara. I tried shots with the flash on and off, auto focus on and off and manual focus on and off.

Now most of the pictures I took looked ok, when I looked at them trackside, but when I looked at them when I got home they all came out blured and out of focus.

Does anyone have any tips so I can take better photo's next year?

[jase]

Did you close one eye when shooting? at night and trying to pan with a digital look thru the eye piece and keep the other eye open so you can keep the car where you want it in the frame.

It'll take time but you'll get it.

How about posting a couple of them here aswell.

[bella]

s'also because you're using an auto camera. to get good night shots you need to be in control of all the settings on the camera.

[rdjones]

Ok here are a couple of the late night shot I took - comments please

This one was taken from the top of Big Wheel

[rdjones]

Bottom of the Esses:-

[rdjones]

The Pit Straight

[jase]

They all have, to me, the basic composition you need. What you are suffering from is unsteady hand.

At night, the shutter needs to be open longer to allow more light in, so any judder will be noticible.

Would suggest, if it is possible, balance the camera on something to reduce movement.

[KC]

Camera shake is definitely the culprit. You camera's auto exposure is trying to compensate for the lack of available light by keeping the shutter open longer. Unless you are using a tripod or panning the cars the image will be blurry. Looking at what you have I'd say you did a pretty good job keeping the camera still all in all. However, its about impossible to get a good static shot by hand when the shutter is open for a 1/3rd of a second or longer.

There are ways to compensate for this. Shoot a lot faster grade of film, say an ISO 800 or even ISO 1600 speed film, but be prepared for degredation in clarity and excess grain. Or, change the ISO setting on the camera and have the film developed to compensate for the darkness of the images. This works by fooling the camera into thinking that ISO 400 is ISO 800 or even faster. The pics will be dark, but can be push developed to bring out detail. This can get expensive as most discount shops don't like to push develop film and pro shops have extra fees for this. You also need to practice this method to get some familiarity with it so you know what settings to use to get the shop to properly develop the images.

As for your flash. Every flash has a guide number that is a figure used to describe its effective range. I don't think that any manufacturer makes a flash that will project light as far as you needed that mounts on the camera. A built in flash is usually a very low guide and is only effective up to about 8 to 10 feet. Pro shooters in the situation where they need flash to capture action will mount remote units close to the action to give them the light they need. Also, when using flash you need to know the autosync speed for your camera. My Canon EOS will not autosync faster than 1/90th of a second. This is fine because the brilliant flash freezes the image to the film.

The pros I have seen at night time and indoor dirt oval events use a huge flash unit on a long stalk with a large bowl shaped parabolic concentrator to project the light strictly at the passing car and they are pretty expensive. These guys are also about 20 to 30 feet away on the infield to get these shots. There is a company that sells a fresnel lens attachment for your high guide number flash unit to project the flash for a lot less than a strong parabolic unit but it is very large and bulky.

Getting good night time shots is an art unto itself for the action shooter.

[rdjones]

Camara shake is a possible - but all the daytime stuff turned out OK. After reading KC's comments above I reckon it was the shutter speed that caused the problem, I think thats something to do with the camara being digtial.

Might try and get some practice in before next year.

[jase]

As said in other posts it pays to practice, the better you know your camera, the better the results. With digital it isn't going to cost you more than a set of batteries.

[Crash Test]

I've been getting in a bit of taking a few pics with little digital cameras of late at night, and basically it's a case of practice and patience. Be smooth, and get in the right place with the right timing. You'll get **** shots a lot of the time, but every now and then you jag a cracker.

Pic 1- Subaru at the Noosa Hillclimb last Saturday night.

[Crash Test]

Pic 2- a wobbly old Datsun 1200 a little bit back down the corner.

[Crash Test]

Lastly, some micro sprintcars up at Toowoomba. Scary stuff

[Kelvin]

Invest in a lightweight monopod!!

[bella]

rdjones, it's not as much that it's digital, any camera will use a low shutter speed when light's low. if i'm doing slow shutter speeds i rest my arm on something to reduce the chance of getting the shakes. monopods do my head in, they're far too restrictive for general use and they're another thing to carry so i leave mine for use as a self defence weapon at home.

bit of a question for everyone regarding digital auto cameras - do they change the asa of the shot as well or do they just leave it at say 200 for everything?

[paul-collins]

Originally posted by rdjones
Camara shake is a possible - but all the daytime stuff turned out OK. After reading KC's comments above I reckon it was the shutter speed that caused the problem, I think thats something to do with the camara being digtial.

I think you'r right about the shutter speed, but your other two points aren't quite right.

Slower shutter speeds means that you have a longer time frame in which you have to hold the camera steady. So the same amount of quiver in your hand won't blur the photo with quick shutter speeds but will with slow shutter speeds.

It's likely that your camera automatically adjusts your shutter speed to compensate for the loss of light at night. With this automatic setting, you'll have slower shutter speeds at night than during the day.

All this is to say that camera shake is not a reflection on you or your technique, when shooting at night.

While digital cameras probably are primarily auto exposure, so are most point and shoot cameras. There were many entry level SLRs that had only a couple of automatic settings, and most cameras today have programs that are automatic in one way or another.

Higher end digitals probably also have manual settings. My SLRs only have one automatic setting (aperture priority) and the rest is manual, so I can choose my shutter speed and stick to it.

[vwpilot]

What happened was like what others said. Because of the lack of light your camera slowed down the shutter to allow in enough light, however when this happens unless you are on a tripod or something to steady the camera you will get camera shake no matter how steady your hand is.

Crash-test, those are some decent shots. One tip though, if you dont want to get the drivers really mad at you I would not shoot while they are still coming at you like in that first pic especially. Your flash will destroy the drivers night vision and could really make them upset. Try to only shoot from the side or as they are going away with flash. Or at least from an angle where they are not likely to be looking. The inside of a turn near the apex is not a good place to be as the driver is likely looking right at you when the flash fires.

Here are a couple from Sebring this past year.

http://www.motorsportsimaging.com/Pr...s/DSC_7004.htm

http://www.motorsportsimaging.com/Pr...s/DSC_7867.htm

http://www.motorsportsimaging.com/Pr...s/DSC_7916.htm

http://www.motorsportsimaging.com/Pr...s/DSC_7848.htm

[kdr]

rdjones...firstly the little screen on digital cameras always seems to make everything sharp on first inspection!

secondly what kc says about pushing film is correct. i'm not sure about your camera but i was shooting with an old nikon d1 this year and the iso ranges up to 1600 on that. but like pushed film it gets grainy...this picture is very broken up in real life, although the camera was just plonked down on a wall and fired off!

my only real tips....get a better digital camera that has manual settings, get as high as possible to avoid the fences(those new grandstands after the dunlop bridge and into the esses for example...or even in the trees at tertre rouge), and perhaps rather than a monopod...invest in a clamp - not as good as a tripod but a lot easier to lug around.

experiement with your exposure times and look for light trails, etc...stock action pictures can be done during the day...it is a 24 hour race after all!

[rdjones]

Well last night I went off and did some rallying in the dark - mainly to get used to my camara in time for Le Mans. But before I went I re-read this thread and took on borad what you guys said and I got some much better results.

Including

[rdjones]

and this one, yet another Escort

[pplater]

Very nice. Did you do any long-exposure ones?

[stefan]

A monopod is no good for shooting at night - use a wall or better still - a tripod. Also a good tip is to use a cable release or self timer to reduce the shake when pushing the button.

Looking at your second image I'd guess the shutter was open for about 1/2 a second - you can only really hand hold up to 1/60th - and if you're zoomed in even less - maybe 1/125 or 1/250th of a second.

It would exactly the same case with normal camera as opposed to digital - the same rules apply.

Some of the other images have been taken with a flash. You need to be quite close to the action to be able to light up a car - an external one is necessary really.

You might check whether your camera has a fill in flash mode - this allows you to have a flash and a slow shutter speed too - giving great, if somewhat random results...

http://www.pbase.com/image/7329865

http://www.pbase.com/image/5221549

[Aysedasi]

Interesting, I hadn't spotted this thread before. As far as I'm concerned, being a biut of a night-shooter at Le Mans, a decent tripod is essential. Flash is generally a waste of time for the ordinary spectator, as all you'll get in most places around the circuit is beautifully lit shots of debris fencing.

I've been carting a tripod around with me during the night at Le Mans for the past 10 years. For example:-

night1

night2

night3

[Aysedasi]

There's always multiple exposure though.....

lotsa

[stefan]

I like the one of the porsche in the pits Ayse.