Lens Extender

Black & White Sports Photos are Beautiful at Night

Very often I'll just drag that saturation slider in Aperture all the way to the left to create dramatic black & white photos of my sports photography shot under stadium lights.  These two photos were shot under the lights of a high school stadium (meaning: not very good stadium lights).  I think the black & white affect is a dramatic usage of this conversion that helps to highlight aggressive sports effort particularly at night when high camera ISO introduces grain in your images.

These photos were shot with a Nikon D700 and 300mm, f/2.8 lens.  ISO: 6400

Frustrated with Stadium Photography Under the Lights?

I speak with many parents trying to capture photos of their kids at night under the lights.  Stadium light photography is a frustrating experience if you don't possess the right equipment.  A camera with good ISO performance (low noise at high ISO settings), and fast lenses with apertures at f/2.8 or larger are most useful for this type of photography.  Of course the problem with this equipment setup is obviously the price of the equipment.  Unfortunately I don't see any other way around the need for this type of camera equipment if you want to capture decent photos at night under the lights.

Additionally, your camera settings matter as well.  For these photos above (shot with a Nikon D700 and 300mm f/2.8 Nikon lens) I shot with the spot meter setting (to have the camera's metering system not over-expose the image due to the dark background); at -0.7 exposure bias (to compensate for the bright white uniforms that have a tendency to be over-exposed); manual setting for shutter speed and aperture (set at 1/800 for shutter speed and f/2.8 for aperture); and using the Auto ISO setting on the camera (used to allow Auto ISO to get proper exposure, with Auto ISO set to top out at 6400).  The top photo was automatically shot at 4500 ISO.  The bottom photo was shot at 3600 ISO.

More Settings for Night Sports Photos Under Stadium Lights

This photo was taken at 7:50 PM eastern time in Michigan on September 28.  It was very dark at this outdoor stadium lit by traditional high school stadium lights.  Using a Nikon 300mm f/2.8 lens attached to a Nikon D700 camera body, I used the following settings to capture this photo.

• D700 set to auto ISO and manual mode.
• ISO 6400
• Aperture f/2.8
• Shutter speed 1/800 sec
• +0.67 exposure compensation
• Center weighted metering

This photos was cropped, slightly sharpened and exposure adjusted using Aperture.

Use Center Weighted Metering When Shooting Under Stadium Lights at Night

Many digital SLRs have multiple metering systems to choose.  The very advanced and mostly standard matrix metering setting is appropriate for most sports shots.  However, I get better results at night under stadium lights (properly exposed subjects) using the center-weighted metering setting on my Nikon D700. Center-weighted metering gives me more shots with the subject properly exposed.  The matrix metering setting seems to over-expose the subject I imagine because the camera is accounting for the dark background.  I've even used spot metering at night for very good results.

 

A Grainy Sports Photo is Better Than No Photo

 
I captured this image during a nighttime track meeting on an area of the track not well lit by the already notoriously inadequate high school stadium lights. To get this shot, I cranked up the ISO of my Nikon D700 to its maximum of 25,600.  Using a 70-200 f/2.8 lens, I manually set the aperture to f/2.8 and the shutter speed to 1/400s.  The resulting photos was then transformed to black & white during post processing with a little Noise Ninja thrown in to minimize the resulting graininess when using such a high ISO.  The resulting photo is at least interesting, which is better than capturing no photo under the above conditions.

Confusion about Capturing Soccer Under Stadium Lights

There's always confusion about what camera settings and lens requirements are necessary to capture "under-the-lights," nighttime sports action.  Over on Photo.net there's a good discussion about this.  Really the only way to get decent nighttime sports action is to crank up the ISO and use a fast lens (preferably f/2.8 or faster...... ie. f/2.0).

Camera Settings for Night Sports Photography

One of the more challenging sports photography environments is capturing shots at night under stadium lights.  Getting the camera settings correct can be difficult.  You have to worry about getting fast shutter speeds, proper exposure, good colors and low noise levels. 

The most critical choice for attaining even decent night sports shots will be your lens choice.  Unfortunately, fast lenses (f/2.8 or faster) are a requirement.  These types of lenses are generally expensive - particularly those lenses that also provide generous reach.  The photo above was captured using a 300mm f/2.8 lens.  Yes, this is an expensive lens. You can also consider using a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens or the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 lens as well.

The first setting that I adjust for stadium light photography is the white balance setting to make sure that colors are correct in this type of lighting environment.  Stadium lights are notorious for creating inaccurate color reproduction with cameras set to the the auto white balance setting.  I use the ExpoDisc to easily and automatically help me set my white balance for night sports shots.  You can also use a gray or white card to make this adjustment as well.

I usually shoot in complete manual mode as well when shooting night sports photography.  I manually set the aperture to f/2.8 while setting the shutter speed to a setting that insures I'll be able to stop the action.  When experimenting for this setting before the game, I look at sample photos and the histogram to make sure I have the proper exposure.  This photos was manually set at aperture f/2.8 and shutter speed 1/500.

I also set the ISO to a level that allows me to get the proper exposure at the manual settings I require.  For this photo the ISO was set a 4000.  Of course this produces a lot of noise in the pictures.  But I'd rather get a photo with noise, than no photo at all.  The noise in this photo was also cleaned up with Noise Ninja.

Noise Ninja Pro Bundle Version 2.1 Software

The last camera setting that I adjust is to shoot in center weighted metering mode as opposed to matrix metering mode.  I choose center weighted metering to make the camera account for the intended subject more than the often dark background.  I find that matrix metering often over-exposes the intended subject because the camera accounts too much for the nighttime background.

A Tool to Get Your White Balance Right for Proper Colors

Stadium lights as well as indoor sports facility lights can cause your DLSR's auto white balance setting to produce colors that just aren't correct.  Although you can use a test target like a gray card, there's a product called Expo Disc that I now use to easily set white balance in strange lighting conditions.  The Expo Disc attaches directly to the lens to allow you to obtain a white balance measurement and obtain an incident reading.

Before the photo above was taken under high school stadium lights, I used Expo Disc to easily get a proper white balance setting on my Nikon D300.

Using Noise Reduction Software to Clean Up Your photos

One of the challenges of shooting sports at night under stadium lights is dealing with the noise in your photos that result from using high ISO settings.  The photos below were shot at ISO 4000 using a Nikon D300 camera and 300mm f/2.8 lens. Each are the same photo.  The top picture was not post-processed with noise reduction software.  The bottom photo was processed with Noise Ninja.

At the photos sizes shown below, the differences are not too dramatic.  However, when shown on my 24 inch monitor at home, the top photos shows a dramatic amount of noise that the bottom picture does not.

 

Weird Color Problems when Shooting Under Stadium Lights

Stadium light, nighttime photography can cause your camera to produce some strange image colors.  The best way to prevent this is to adjust your camera's white balance setting when the automatic setting just doesn't get the job done.  The first image below was shot using the "Flash" white balance setting on my Nikon D300.  Although the colors produced were better than when using the "Automatic" setting, there's still a yellow color cast within the image.

The second image below was shot using the white balance manual setting at 4000K on the D300.  Notice how this photo contains more natural colors.  The player's skin tone seem appropriate.  Also check out the color of the turf field.  It's a green field, and it looks green. but it's yellow-ish in this photo.