How can I improve night sports photos with a Panasonic Lumix FZ18 without using flash?
Asked 11/29/2011
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I’m trying to photograph soccer matches and races at night without flash, but most of my images come out blurry. I’m using a Panasonic Lumix FZ18 point-and-shoot. Are there camera settings or shooting techniques that can help, or is this mainly a limitation of the available light and the camera?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
7
Actually, shooting with a compact camera rather than an SLR is part of the problem. Basically, shooting a game at night means that you don't have enough light for decent exposure times. As a consequence, your exposures are long and the moving objects are blurred. The field's lighting are rarely enough to allow you to capture moving subjects with ISO low enough so noise is not a problem. In this case, the options are to:
Add lighting (e.g., use a flash - but in your specific case there are 2 problems: your camera does not support an external hot-shoe flash, which may be solved by an optical slave, and more seriously, typical compact flashes just don't have enough power to light a soccer field effectively but it may be just fine for a race track if you can get close to the action).
Use a lens with large maximum aperture (small F-number). Your camera offers F2.8 which is not bad for this purpose, but in the SLR world you have lenses with bigger apertures.
Use a camera with more sensitive sensor. P&S cameras typically have far smaller sensors compared to SLR's. In the digital world, the bigger the sensor - the better its light recording ability. Pro sports shooters use full-frame, or at least APS-C bodies for the advantage in high-ISO low noise images they have over P&S cameras. You can dial up the ISO in your camera but the images will become very noisy/grainy vary fast. Also note that your camera is pretty old (2007 model?) which means that even for this form factor, you can expect better ISO performance from newer technology.
So, as you see, SLR camera will certainly help you to achieve better images in these tough conditions.
On top of all - remember to always use a tripod there and a remote release if possible. Even if the players and the ball end up somewhat blurred, at least the field and the background will remain sharp.
Originally by user1024. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1024
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Night sports are difficult for any camera, and a small-sensor point-and-shoot like the FZ18 is especially limited because there often isn’t enough light for a fast shutter speed.
What you can do:
- Use the highest practical ISO to get a faster shutter speed, accepting more noise.
- Shoot when the subject passes through the brightest areas, such as under field lights.
- Use burst/continuous shooting to improve your chances of catching one sharper frame.
- Try black-and-white if high-ISO noise looks bad in color.
- Handhold when tracking action; a tripod only helps for camera shake, not subject motion.
What likely won’t help much:
- Flash usually won’t reach far enough to light a soccer field, and the FZ18 doesn’t support a standard hot-shoe flash.
Bottom line: blur is mostly caused by low light forcing slow shutter speeds. Better timing, brighter parts of the field, high ISO, and burst mode may help, but there are real limits with this type of camera. If stills remain too blurry, video may work better in the same conditions.
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