Sports under stadium lights Nikon D70s

I have a nikon D70S camera with a AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens. This combination gives me great action (football) photos with daylight. However, I'm unable to get action photos under the stadium lights.

I've tried the same sports setting used during the day,
also tried adjusting the ISO up to 1200
I've also tried going into "M" manual mode with an ISO of 1000 and using the meter to figure out my exposure speed but am still getting terrible blurring.

Any ideas for settings or suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by radtky

I have a nikon D70S camera with a AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens. This combination gives me great action (football) photos with daylight. However, I'm unable to get action photos under the stadium lights.

I've tried the same sports setting used during the day,
also tried adjusting the ISO up to 1200
I've also tried going into "M" manual mode with an ISO of 1000 and using the meter to figure out my exposure speed but am still getting terrible blurring.

Any ideas for settings or suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

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Motion blur is almost always the result of a shutter speed that is too slow. What shutter speeds are you using? What camera mode are you using other than manual? You do know that you only have to set the exposure once as the lights don't change enough to matter most of the time. You'll need at least 1/500s for most shots. That's easy in daylight, very tough under lights. Post an example.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Michael Fanelli

Motion blur is almost always the result of a shutter speed that is too slow. What shutter speeds are you using? What camera mode are you using other than manual? You do know that you only have to set the exposure once as the lights don't change enough to matter most of the time. You'll need at least 1/500s for most shots. That's easy in daylight, very tough under lights. Post an example.

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To be honest, I don't recall what my shutter sheed was.

I will post a couple of examples though.

2 of these are obviously under daylight with pretty good clarity and the other is under the lights.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by radtky

To be honest, I don't recall what my shutter sheed was.

I will post a couple of examples though.

2 of these are obviously under daylight with pretty good clarity and the other is under the lights.

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Yes, the bottom image is definately a shutter speed that is too slow. It appears that the aperture was set wide open or close to it as the DOF seems very small. That means you just don't have enough light. Your only choice is to boost the ISO as high as you can and hope it's enough.

You should be using shutter priority mode for this type of shot. Set the shutter speed to 1/500 and see what the camera sets the aperture to. I'd bet it will blink or do some "Nikon thing" to let you know it can't set what it needs.

All information about the images is located in the EXIF information stored with every file. The shutter speed is there as well. Read the EXIF and see what it says the shutter speed and aperture were set to.

If the lighting is as low as in the second shot, which I'm saying because of very little DOF, motion blur and high ISO, then I'd probably use Aperture Priority, shoot wide open, use a high ISO - and that way I'm getting the fastest shutter speed I can use. Do some tests with your camera and see what ISO level is acceptable to you (or clients). I've seen some ISO1600 shots with D70's that look pretty good. You could also use my above advice with a -1/2 stop exposure compensation for 1/2 stop faster shutter speed - but when you bring it back in Photoshop, you'll increase the noise. Probably not a good idea at ISO1600, but worth a try (and definately try noise reduction software).

Unless you're shooting NFL, I wouldn't use manual exposure from just one reading. NFL stadiums are lit not only to a higher light level, but also much more evenly than any small field. They are lit this way for best results for TV, and have the budget to do it. With a small HS, etc. field, it won't be anywhere near that even. Might look good to your eye, but the camera will see it differently.