todays challenge

[shed301]

I'm photographing some rc stockcar action this evening inside a gym. My challenge is..1) low lighting situation, 2) fast moving small cars. to give you a example of what i'm up against here's a sample taken with a sony cybershot h2



I'll be using my k200d along with my trusty 28-80 mm lens. what i'm concerned about would be the ISO.. which one shall i use?. i know i'll probably have to use the shutterspeed of around the 125-160 mark ( or even smaller) depending on how good the light is etc. I know panning will be a must in this situation so at least if everything else fails i'll be able to brush up on the panning. I was thinking of having it on manual mode but with auto focusing etc?.... any other thoughts i may have missed or could do?

cheers
Grant

[Clicker]

*turn off image stabilizer

*spot meter

*you might be able to get away with Sv preset choosing the ISO...camera sets the shutter and aperture

*otherwise full manual or Tv but you'd have to shoot a few frames to get the right setting unless you have a hand-held light meter and get the right exposure needed of that.

*you might want to boost the EV +1.5~2.5 (you might get some noise issues)

*most will probably disagreed with me here but shoot fine JPEG vs RAW

* you might want to set shutter to continuous and bracket in full stops.


Also i've never shot those RC cars before

[kmccanta]

this is exactly the kind of situation I would use manual metering AND manual focusing for!

the lighting isnt going to change in the room..
and the track isnt going to move, so if you are waiting to get a shot of the car in the near corner.... guess what? you already know the distance. Just prefocus.

I would recommend upping the ISO and using noise reduction later. You will get better shots with a little more depth of field. Especially if you are panning. With the pan, you cant time the release to the car entering the focus plane.

You may fiddle with the flash to stop the action, and use the ISO to balance the ambient lighting. I havent figured out how to get expected results with the flash however, so maybe someone else will chime in here.

[Marc Sabatella]

Originally Posted by shed301

I'll be using my k200d along with my trusty 28-80 mm lens. what i'm concerned about would be the ISO.. which one shall i use?

The lowest one that allows you to get the shutter speed you need with your lens at the aperture you want. Chance are, though, you'll need to turn up the ISO all the way and still might not get the shutter speed you need even with the aperture wide open - that lens might be trusty, but it's not fast. So you'll either have to compromise on shutter speed, or just let the shots be underexposed (even at max ISO, max aperture, and the slowest shutter speed you can stand), and hope to be able to fix them in PP. Shoot RAW if you care about the results.

[Canada_Rockies]

I would be tempted to use the TAv setting. Set the aperture to f/5.6 and the shutter speed to 1/500. Let Mr. Pentax set the ISO for you. Even in ghastly mixed lighting ISO 1600 will give you a shot. There is an uncorrected one on my Flickr site - check out the fire shot. This in a film camera would have been the perfect situation for Tri-X pushed to 3200.