Lens Extender

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.  

 

Frustrated with Night Sports Photography

Below is an actual email I recently received about taking football photos at night.  This is one of the most perplexing problems for parents.  They've purchased a digital slr.  They have a few lenses that reach the action.  But when they attempt to get those sports photos in poor light conditions, it just doesn't work. In the note below, you even feel the frustration of this parent.

"I'm requesting some help.  I am a pharmacist, not a photographer by my husband and I have 3 boys who are very active in sports.  My oldest is 10 and plays soccer, baseball and football.  A couple of years ago we invested in a Nikon D80 that came with a 70-300mm/f4-5.6 lense.  I recently purchased an additional lense, 18-200mm/f3.5-6.3.  I have been able to get some really good shots during the day.  My problem is my son's football games this year are being played at night.  WOW what a difference.  I have discovered that I know much less than I thought.  I understand lower shutter speed allows more light but all my pictures are blurred.  I have only used the 70-300mm lense so far.  My other lense is faster but with less reach.  It also has optical stabilizer, should I leave that on or off? I use a pole to help stabilize.  I have began to experiment with more manual functions but still need a lot of help.  Please advise!  I am a parent who loves to take pictures for the team but so far will be to embarrassed to show what I have taken. I need a lot of help.  I have 2 more son's following this one who will be playing soon.  I need to figure this out before it's to late."

And here's my answer to Ms. Frustrated....

"Thanks for reaching out to me about your problem.  The issue you're having with night photography is one that troubles many sports-picture-taking parents.  The problem is with the lenses you're attempting to use for these nighttime (under stadium lights) shots.  The F-stop of these lenses is just too slow to allow you to attain a fast enough shutter speed to stop the actions without the photos looking blurred (f/4-5.6 for the 70-300 lens, and f/3.5-6.3 for the 18-200 lens).  The shutter speed that the camera is probably automatically setting is just too slow (thus the blurry shots).  The camera is attempting to set a shutter speed that also properly exposes the photos (photos that are not too dark).  Your lens won't allow the camera to do this AND maintain proper exposure.  Even if you attempted to manually set the parameters on your camera (shutter speed, aperture and ISO), you probably won't get good photos that a properly exposed and not blurry with either of those lenses. You have one good option that will cost you some money, and one free option that probably won't work.

 First, check our a recent post on my blog about this problem.  This describes the option that will require you to invest in a lens that will solve the problem.  This is the best solution.  Any lens with an f-stop of at least F/2.8 or better (lower number) will do the trick.  Of course lenses with these f-stops and enough reach to capture action far away as in football are very expensive. 

The other option that you can try is to adjust the ISO setting of your D80 to it's highest setting. For the D80, the maximum ISO is 3200 (or H1.0 in Nikon language).  How to do this can be found here.  Raising the ISO allows you to shoot at higher shutter speeds at a given aperture setting, and also have a better opportunity to attain proper exposure.  Your photos will be very grainy.  However, a grainy photos is better than no photo or a blurry one.  Even with this adjustment, your lenses may not allow your camera to attain the shutter speed fast enough to stop the night action.

Ultimately you want to get shots like this at night.  An investment in a lens that can help do the job is your best."