Dynamic photography skills

Remember to make sure that the settings of the fuselage are accurate before starting shooting. Let's talk about shooting mode first. No matter which shooting mode you are used to, in the field of low-light sports photography, you need to use a shooting mode that allows you more room for adjustment. Manual mode (M file) can give you more control over the fuselage, so shooting in this mode is a good choice. If you are still not used to using M-file, or the lighting on the shooting scene is unpredictable, you can also use aperture priority mode (A-file). Come and learn now. Let me take you to get to know it.

First, by using the M file, you can determine the exposure value by yourself. Some values may not be used in the automatic mode, but we will definitely use them at some point.

Second, use fast shots.

Next, we will face the problem of choosing a lens. Remember to use the so-called fast lens here, that is, the telephoto lens with large aperture. Low light environment means that you need to shoot with the aperture fully open in order to let more light into the lens. On the other hand, the target we shoot is usually far away from us, so we need to use a telephoto lens at this time. Personally, I prefer to use 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.

You may prefer to get extra focal length by using an extended-range lens. If you are not familiar with the extended-range lens, you may ignore it. It will increase the focal length of your lens by 1.4 times to twice, and at the same time reduce the light input by one or even two steps, which can be said to be quite precious in low light environment. Suppose you originally shot with an aperture of f/4, and your aperture becomes f/8 after using the rangefinder, then it is more economical for you to enlarge the subject by taking screenshots later.

Third, increase the aperture and improve the shutter.

Now it's time to start preparing for filming. The first step to determine the exposure is to find a suitable aperture. In fact, it doesn't need much struggle to choose the aperture size under low light conditions. Although the maximum aperture is used, let's embrace more light. But the disadvantage of this is that our depth of field will be very shallow. Fortunately, when shooting such a subject, we don't need to care about it, not to mention who doesn't like an image with sharp focus and proper background blur?

Then we need to set the shutter speed. The trick here is to use a faster shutter speed as much as possible. Even if your subject doesn't move much, we should consider the safe shutter range according to the focal length of the lens. According to the interaction between them, the safety shutter is inversely proportional to the focal length of the lens. Therefore, if we shoot with a 100mm lens, the shutter speed of the fuselage should be set at least above1100 seconds.

Things will be different when your subject starts to move. At this time, we can no longer just be satisfied with ensuring a safe shutter, but use a higher shutter speed to avoid unnecessary blurring of the subject. Don't be smart. Even if we don't find blur when we look back on the LCD, when you go home and open the whole photo on the computer, the clarity of the image may still disappoint you.

Fourth, appropriate use of high ISO.

Don't forget to test your exposure before the official shooting. In order to prevent our hands from accidentally changing the original exposure settings during shooting, such inspection is still necessary. And in those places where the light is changeable, we also need to check the exposure from time to time to ensure that we will not regret the exposure mistakes during shooting.

Before completing the exposure setting, we also need to determine the ISO. Because we have determined the aperture and shutter, ISO can help us get a suitable exposure value without changing the above two. Don't always be afraid to use high ISO. I often set it to a value like 1600 or 3200, and sometimes I even enable ISO 6400, because I know these ISO's are something I would never use under normal circumstances.

Fifth, wait for the opportunity

You may like to shoot on the stage all the time at the beginning of the performance. I know that many photographers have taken good photos in this way, but I personally prefer to predict the climax of the performance in advance and then carefully prepare for this moment. Usually, after the climax comes, I will take a group of photos quickly with the camera's high-speed continuous shooting mode, and then I will take more photos every time I meet an interesting scene. Trying to predict the "peak time" of the performance will help to get better shooting results.

It sounds strange, but the interval between performances is often a good time to raise the camera. The interval or interval I'm talking about here has two meanings. The first one refers to the moment when the action stops. For example, a gymnast will finish with the last position after completing a set of difficult movements. This situation also applies to scenes such as dancing and singing. The second kind of intermission really refers to such moments as intermission, intermission and intermission in sports competitions. If it is a sports competition, there will be some warm-up activities during this period, and I think these will also be good shooting subjects.

Sixth, pay attention to the accuracy of focusing.

Because we will shoot with the maximum aperture, we will also face the problem of depth of the scene. This means that the focus cannot be lost, and if there is a problem of out-of-focus, it is irreparable. So where do we need to pay attention? Assuming that the subject of our shooting is a character, there is no doubt that the focus should be on the eyes of the character. If the eyes are not on the same plane, it will be a good choice to choose the nearest one as the focus.

We can try to give more confidence to autofocus, which can make our shooting process more comfortable. Most cameras are equipped with single autofocus and continuous autofocus. Many photographers like to use continuous autofocus to shoot moving objects, because the focal length will be automatically adjusted according to the moving position of the objects. Personally, I'm used to the first mode, but don't worry, just choose what I like.

In order to help focus, we need to make another decision, that is, whether to use the "back key to focus". Usually, the camera will focus automatically after we half press the camera shutter. But we can also set the camera to focus after pressing the button on the back of the camera. Personally, I prefer the second way, because then the camera will not automatically adjust the focal length. In fact, both methods can be used, but focusing on the back button can give you more control.

Seven, don't forget to do some noise reduction later.

Everyone has their own set of post-workflow, so I won't make too many suggestions in the post-workflow. However, there are still a few points to emphasize, especially the dynamic shooting in low light. First of all, we need to do some noise reduction, because we use high ISO when shooting, so even for a highly sensitive and excellent fuselage, noise is still difficult to completely avoid.

We might as well try using Lightroom's noise reduction function and push the brightness slider under the noise reduction tab to the right. It doesn't matter if you are used to using PS later. Adobe Camera Raw has a similar function. I found that the range of 10- 15 is almost the same.

Summary: Dynamic image shooting in low light is a severe test for our photographic equipment and shooting technology. We need a lens with a large aperture and a camera with excellent high sensitivity and fast focusing speed in dark light. Make good use of some tips in this article, adjust the camera before shooting, ensure accurate exposure, and practice focusing skills hard. Finally, I want to say: 99% hard work plus 1% luck is 100% success.

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