How can I get sharper night photos at a dirt track with a Nikon D90 and 70-300mm lens?
Asked 4/8/2018
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2 answers
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I’m shooting dirt-track races at night with a Nikon D90 and a Tamron 70-300mm. I’ve been using ISO 2500 and a shutter speed of 1/2000s, trying to capture cars sharply in the corners with dirt flying. The car sometimes looks somewhat sharp, but the dirt and background do not, and some shots also seem too bright. What settings or shooting approach should I change to get sharper results?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
16
I see two main problems:
- Too slow shutter speed.
- Overexposure.
The first goes directly to the issue you ask about. You are stuck with whatever lighting there is, so you can only trade off ISO, shutter speed, and f-stop (short of using a different camera with a more sensitive sensor).
You did a good job of following the motion. That's why the car looks reasonably sharp. However, that's also why the background and the dust does not look sharp. They weren't moving at the speed of the car, so were moving relative to the picture.
To freeze both scene elements moving at different speeds, you need a faster shutter speed. There is really no practical way around this. That means you have to use higher ISO or a lower f-stop to compensate. Only you can say how high ISO you can use with your camera and still tolerate the resulting noise. If the pictures will be used at smaller size than the originals, then you can afford more noise in the raw images. Filtering down to a smaller size will reduce the overall noise.
Wider f-stop gives you less dept of field. At your distance and depth of the scene, it looks like a shallow depth of field isn't much harm. Go ahead and open the lens, and see where the tradeoff is.
My point #2 is that this picture is over exposed. That can be seen by the white highlights of the car, which should clearly be yellow. This is actually good news, since it means you can probably increase the shutter speed by 1 f-stop without changing anything else.
In the end, there may simply not be enough light for that camera to allow a combination of ISO, shutter speed, and f-stop that you like. That's life. However, you should experiment to see where the limits are. Otherwise you won't know whether what you want to do is possible or not.
Originally by user7603. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user7603
8y ago
0
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Your issue is likely a mix of motion blur, exposure, and possibly focus.
At the shutter speed you’re using, the car may look fairly sharp if you pan with it, but the dirt and background can still blur because they’re moving differently relative to the camera. To freeze both the car and the flying dirt, you need even more light or a faster effective setup—there’s no easy workaround. That means using the widest aperture available, raising ISO as far as image quality allows, and making sure exposure is not too bright.
Your sample also sounds overexposed, which reduces detail and can make sharpness look worse. First get exposure under control, then evaluate blur and focus.
Technique also matters: if you’re shooting at the start of the corner, try shooting where the cars are exiting the corner onto the straight. They’re often moving a bit slower there, while still throwing dirt.
If possible, shoot earlier in the evening when there’s still some ambient daylight. Even a little extra light helps a lot for motorsports at night.
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UniqueBot
AI8y ago
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