I enjoy doing night time car shots at the 'Ring and Silverstone 24 hour races and was at Silverstone the past 2 nights, trying to take as many shots as I could, as I am still learning my camera - Canon PowerShot SX1 IS (bridge): I cottoned onto how to get the Tv function to work at night, wound the exposure time right down to a quarter of a sec, or thereabouts, ISO on Auto, focus on Auto etc. Best (sharpest) on I got (which still isn't great IMO, but might be as good as I'll get from this camera?): Properties are showing: f/3.5 (sets automatically on this camera's Tv setting) 1/8 sec (set my me) ISO-200 (Auto selected by the camera) 0 step (I think this is the +/- option which I can adjust) Focal length: 8mm (pass - zoom? that's me) Max aperture: 3.625 (pass) Metering mode: Pattern (pass) No flash btw I have many similar shots where I've tried to do the same thing, but it's very hit and miss, although the light did vary along the pitlane according to where the shot was taken. On continuous, so trigger happy and giving it the best chance I could. Here's one which is out of focus, but sort of close - far too dark: f/6.3 1/4 sec ISO-80 0 step Focal length: 5mm Max aperture: 2.96875 Metering mode: Pattern And then real rubbish: f/3.5 1/6 sec ISO-200 0 step Focal length: 10mm Max aperture: 3.625 Metering mode: Pattern It leaves me gosmacked how the pros do it, except I know a couple of "Togs" and they've got the right cameras, point and get really good results (but I'm not prepared to carry the bulk of half a decent track car hanging on my shoulder!). Anyways! So apart from the camera limitations, what recommendations would you give to getting consistency out of shots like this? All hand held, no tripods.
Basically... you need to use the same Shutter speed as you would in daylight (so about 1/160 - 1/200 ish depending on car speed)... but you'll need to crank the ISO up massively to get the exposure right! The problem your having is that your having to uses such a slow shutter speed due to your ISO setting, that it will be virtually impossible to get a crystal clear shot unless your super human!
Thanks. The ISO setting goes from 80 to 1600 on this camera. What settings are avail on the big cameras? Btw on the first shot, I don't mind half the car being motion blurred, as long as it's sharp(ish) somewhere on the car!
Well you want to use the lowest ISO you can, but high enough so you get the shot. My canon 5DII goes up to 25600 ISO, never use that to be honest!
i find that once you get to or beyond 800 iso in simpler cameras (ive got a fuji 1500 bridge) the image quality suffers fast. take a couple test shots at 800 iso and see from there. if the quality is acceptable, add more ISO
So I need to adjust the ISO, but to what? The lowest I have is 80. Are we saying I need to try 800/1600? With an exposure time of 160/200? I'm happy to move away from the long exposures, but it was the only way I found of getting enough light in (and I won't have tried all the features, hence asking!).
surprised it's blurred mind? even with a cheapy camera with a slow shutter if i track & click the car is in focus.
you are tracking the cars right? not just trying to catch them going by? you don't mention it anywhere...
Yes I'm panning the cars. Tracking them from first sight, getting focus lock, button half pressed and then continuous shooting as they come into range.
Yeah, up iso then. more lights comes in, then you can use a faster shutter speed, i've got some half decent pics with a bridge camera (not on hdd anymore) failing that, get a light gun and light up the cars you want to shoot, probably not good for the driver though!
Do you remember film speed/grain from the old days chris? Basically *fast* film had more visible grain effects, while *slow* film gave a much finer image. Film speed was measured in ISO. In the digital world there is no spoon. All you're doing is turning up or down the Gain on the signal from the sensor. Gain amplifies noise as well as signal. So high ISO = more sensitive to light, but higher noise on the image. Posh cameras have much better sensors and processing, so better signal/noise ratio. Bridge cameras = less so. Camera phones = dog ****. The *rule* for hand held shots is shutter speed needs to be inverse of focal length or greater. So if you're shooting with a 100mm lens, you need 1/100s shutter speed. 300mm lens = 1/300s and so on. Most competent photographers can shoot at much slower than that without shake (and your camera has IS - so even easier) But for panning action shots you're still likely to want to be 1/60 at the absolute slowest, probably nearer 1/90, 1/125 or 1/180. To get that shutter speed, with the aperture wide open you will need to ramp up the ISO. Try 400 then 800 and see how you go. I would only ever use 80 on a very bright day if I wanted to use a wide aperture to help blur the background, with a slowish shutter speed for panning shots. Most modern sensors are good enough on iso 200 that you never need it any slower for quality, only ever for achieving effects.
do you have focus settings or modes? My sony has "continues" autofocus which helped me get better shots when I was after a similar thing. Keep jacking the ISO up, slightly grainy is better than blurry and can't see anything. You can also sort a lot of the poor quality from high ISO in photoshop or similar
As Dex says High iso more light sensative means more grainy photos Try increasing iso gradually 200 then 400 then 800 see what suits the conditions Does the canon have a manual ( aperture and fstop ) setting if so use that If it aso has front & rear curtain settings on the flash use then even for the fill in most endurance cars have reflective markings . Front curtain fires the flash at the beginning of the exposure and rear fires it at the end of the exposure Front curtain Rear curtain 2 sec exposure using a monopod Don't be dissapointed if only a few work even the pros I know expect 10% or less from night shots these were all iso 400 with a flash gun on a Canon 10d DSLR & 70-200MM F2.8 LENS
Hmm, keep the info coming, all appreciated. Mine has manual f-stop and ISO in the Tv setting. 80-1600 ISO. F-stop I don't think has the range of some of the bigger cameras, so sometimes the f-stop is the restriction. It really needs another night event where I can go and test the camera!
Just go to some busy (fastish) road near you and practice on there, but whatever you do, do not use flash and blind drivers. Panning, even in daylight, is very much a hit and miss affair, so add in the darkness factor and you're making it even more difficult. Even the more experienced ones on here will own up to taking a lot of rubbish shots whilst getting one or two good ones. Your last picture - the 'rubbish' one - is the best exposure-wise (F3.5 wide aperture, with ISO upped to 200). So the settings for that are worth repeating, just that you haven't quite panned at the correct speed for the car. The annoying thing is that you'll just get everything right and think you've cracked it, then the next time you try it, the background lighting will be different or the cars faster/slower and you'll have to reset everything. It might be a good idea to try panning in daylight (if you haven't already), to tr.y to get the hang of getting the car sharp/background blurred until you feel really comfortable with it
With my limited experience , i would suggest Be aware that using a compact however good will never yield the same results a a DSLR with a fast lenses for low light work , i would start at 800 ISO and try that , perhaps even manual settings for time and exposure (if it has them) and try a few shots , more practice panning may help , tricky to say . but you could be up against the limits of your camera , getting closer to the action will help and using the zoom less , mono pod may help If there are bright lights and your camera has the ability to fire the flash at the end of a long exposure that can mean you get the light streaks and then the car quite clear ( rear curtain as in above posts ) , but this could be DSLR territory for the settings and the flash power could be a issue and the feature may only exist for external flash units. This is the method i use for nightclub pics works very well
