Arenacross

[zerodog]

As some of you know, arenacross is indoor MX. Usually in a horribly lit horse arena. I shot one a couple weekends ago and decided to give my Einsteins a workout to provide some more light. I used 4 of them, one in each corner of the arena. 3 were set up to bounce off of the wall, 1 was set up as a direct flash shooting diagonal across the arena. This proved to be an interesting light. By the end of the weekend I was really using it to add punch in certain areas of the track. My goal was to #1 stop action, #2 blend the ambient light, #3 not be annoying with the lights. I used my SB900 to fill under helmets and to control the Einsteins with my PocketWizards. In the end I learned a lot about using lights in such a big area. It was amazing the output of them using longthrow reflectors. I was mostly around 1/8 power. Sometimes down to 1/128. It all was dependent on where I was on the track.

I have shot arenacross in the past with only using on camera flash and 12,800iso of my D3s. These I think yeilded some more consistent shots and overall better color and detail. Still far worse than outside or even a well lit stadium for something like supercross.

Grabbed some random stuff off my site. What do you think?

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4. This kid looks so small in these whoops!


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[Photo-John]

I think these look pretty great - especially considering how horrible I know that light is. Personally, I think maybe you have a bit too much ambient. I kinda wish the backgrounds were a little darker to make your main rider pop more, though. What shutter speed and ISO were you using? Also, I'd love to see a photo of one of your strobes with the longthrow reflector. I don't even know what that is.

[zerodog]

I would have loved to try to isolate the backgrounds more but I had to work with what I had available. I was only using 4 lights for the whole arena. I really had to fall back on ISO to make it all balance out. I was using 1/250 f2.8-f4 IS0 I think was 6400. Yes this place was a cave. I didn't wan to get too crazy with the lights power either. I was photographing racing. Staged stuff is different. I am merciless with the lights for that.

[Photo-John]

I didn't wan to get too crazy with the lights power either. I was photographing racing. Staged stuff is different. I am merciless with the lights for that.

Right - I forgot that we're talking about racing and you don't want to blind the riders. Did you ask them if the lights bothered them? I guess it also makes a difference if the lights are pointed right at their face or coming from the side. Overall I think it looks pretty good but I'd love to see what you could do if you let the background go about a stop darker.