Nikon Photographer Forum

[Sonia96]

Hi all. I'm a 37 yo female. I am the photographer @ my local dirt track. I have been since 2001. I moved to digital photography about 2 yrs. ago. I still cannot get the big picture on using it. Any help on setting up my new Nikon D70 for this type of photography would be greatly appreciated. I shoot fast dirt track race cars at night. The track has very poor lighting. I also drive a race car there and believe me there is not much light at all even for racing in. I wanted to know what to set my dials on as well as my SB800 flash and menu settings on the camera. I can send samples for you to help me find my problems if needed. They just seem so drab. Dull. Boring.

Thanks so very much!
SoniaSonia96

Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:54 pm
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[JDMils]

Hi Sonia,

This is the photographers nightmare! Fast moving subjects in low light.

Use of your flash will be limited to subjects within say 6 metres of you which would preclude most of your subjects. Your best bet is to set your camera to a high ISO. What value? That's up to you to try from the highest down. Take a shot and see which has the best reproduction with less grain. Next you need to set your camera to Shutter Priority and set a fast enuf lens speed to capture the moving subjects with as less blurr as possible. This setting will enable the camera to set the Aperture, which I'm sure will be wide open. Now, if you Zoom in on any moving subject, you will find that less light is captured, unless you are using a constant aperture lens. The 18-55mm kit lens (on my D60), as an example, is a 3.5 to 5.6 aperture lens. as you zoom from 18mm to 55mm, your max aperture goes from 3.5 to 5.6- not good for night shots. So try to keep your lens zoomed out.

You will now find that the above setup is still not getting you the right results. It's now time to purchase a faster lens, one with a wider aperture. I have a Nikon 50mm F1.4 which works amazingly in low light, but it has no zoom! You should look into an F2.8 lens with zoom. These lens have a constant, wide open aperture thru out the zoom range. Be prepared now to pay for the priviledge!

Good luck.