Night time runners

Mozziephotography

Mozziephotography

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Stephen
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Someone has asked me to take photographs of a local race which starts around 7pm. The runners run on the pavement lit by street lamps. I have a D500 and an SB700 flash unit. Could anyone help with settings for both the camera and flash unit? Thanks in advance. Never done any night photography especially with moving objects.
 
Can you pop along to the area and test your D500, see what sort of settings you’ll need, maybe, just maybe you could get away with camera only.

D500 does handle higher iso quite well, and some places could be plenty light enough, do you have a F1.8 lens ?
 
There are lots of types and colours of street lights, it's probably worth having a look before hand. Also I would imagine that catching them as they run into the light would be something to aim for so they are lit from the front with a darker background
 
scott199 said:
Can you pop along to the area and test your D500, see what sort of settings you’ll need, maybe, just maybe you could get away with camera only.

D500 does handle higher iso quite well, and some places could be plenty light enough, do you have a F1.8 lens ?
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Are they going to stop to pose? Probably not. For moving people you need a bit of speed.

With flash on they won't be enjoying the experience much. I can tell you that.

For a one off shot for something like a promo shot I would of course set up a few off camera lights in umbrellas. Otherwise there is really no need and no point if they don't have very strong flood lighting like in professional venues
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Are they going to stop to pose? Probably not. For moving people you need a bit of speed.

With flash on they won't be enjoying the experience much. I can tell you that.

For a one off shot for something like a promo shot I would of course set up a few off camera lights in umbrellas. Otherwise there is really no need and no point if they don't have very strong flood lighting like in professional venues
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Probably not going to stop and pose, but I manage to shoot lower league football, pitch has 3 very old lights run on a diesel generator and positioned in the right place I can catch a player at full sprint without motion.
So assuming it’s not 100m sprint and the street lights aren’t 40ft high, their is a chance of ‘acceptable’ iso levels in the right place.

I can only guess on the light, I can only guess what is ‘acceptable’ to the op, but my point was to go and “see” what the lights offer, most street lights are cleaner and brighter nowadays, so worth looking to see what’s available was my point.
 
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mossienet said:
Thanks everyone, especially @scott199. I'll give it a go next Tuesday.
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Also if it’s an organised event, they may add flood lights to part of the course or an area, maybe ask the organiser ?
 
@scott199 It's on road (unlit) and pavements. I've tried to sell my SB700 but no buyer so far. Find it hard to wrap my head around all the setting combinations. I'm a kinaesthetic learner and a manual rarely makes sense to me. Still unsure about movement with flash. If something is moving, say a runner, does the flash freeze the motion at 1/60th of a second? Tried to find something on YouTube but nothing about sports and flash units that helps me. I'm just a "thick" p3ensioner.
 
are you ok to use flash ?
most sports/sports people are or can be a little funny about flash use.

I couldn’t really help with that I’m afraid, I’ve never been allowed to use flash at sports events
 
I run for this particular club and I've taken 1,000's of images for them. Might try and put the flash on a tripod so that it comes from the side rather than head on.
 
scott199 said:
Probably not going to stop and pose, but I manage to shoot lower league football, pitch has 3 very old lights run on a diesel generator and positioned in the right place I can catch a player at full sprint without motion.
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Yes and those pictures will look great for photography where you can freeze the action when people are doing interesting things. Unfortunately, static shots of runners tend to look awful.

A couple of thoughts:
  1. Check out the place where they will be running - is it sodium lights (nasty yellow) or LEDs (whiter but with weird shadows)? Look for a point where there's plenty of over head light but the road is lighter or whiter than elsewhere. Even a little bounce light will help.
  2. It doesn't really matter whether the flash is pointed at their eyes or off to the side - if they aren't expecting it then it's going to be annoying. Don't take pictures on a technical bit (kerbs, bollards etc) - you can run blind on a flat surface for quite a distance but if somebody slips off a kerb near you then they will be upset.
  3. Most entry level runners seem to like pictures where they have both feet off the ground so work on those. More experienced runners won't want the pics anyway.
  4. Rear curtain FTW. Especially if they have head torches because otherwise at a slow shutter speed they will have light trails in front of them.
  5. Talking of shutter speed.....the speed needed for nice motion blur depends a lot on their running speed (obvs) but also on their angle of approach. If they are running across the frame you can get some nice movement. If they are running dead towards you it will just look blurry. Perfect would be to have them run top right corner to bottom left but good luck with that pan.
  6. Get paid in advance :) Runners are notoriously mean :D
 
Gosh I've taken 1,000's of static shots of runners. Must have been doing it wrong for ages. :D I know what you mean though.
Never been paid a penny but have managed to raise quite a bit for a couple of charities. MADNESS!
 
mossienet said:
Gosh I've taken 1,000's of static shots of runners. Must have been doing it wrong for ages. :D I know what you mean though.
Never been paid a penny but have managed to raise quite a bit for a couple of charities. MADNESS!
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Yes exactly. The average standard of running photography is fairly poor.

If you've taken thousands of images already, I'm not sure how any of us can help.
 
My running snaps are superb. :D:D:D The original idea was help with the flash gun I have. Can't seem to sell it to anyone and it's gathering dust. I appreciate your comments.
 
If they're running under streetlights, you'll want to gel your flash. I'd suggest to experiment with 1/2 and full CTO. Probably 1/2, so the streetlights still look orange in comparison.
 
There will be interesting places where the light is good and places where it is not.
I would walk the course and find the best spots, and take some trial exposures (take a friend as a stand in)
shots will most probably look best in the available light.
But it would be worth testing out using a minimum low level fill as well.
Many regions have changed top LED street lights now which are much kinder to faces. you can fine tune the white balance later with them. but with the old sodium lights you are stuck with what you have. they filter to nothing.
 
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