Shutter speed in low light

I have a D600 and struggle to capture dressage horses hoof movement clearly when indoors and in poor light.I have the WB on florescent and the camera on A settings but try as I might cannot get the shutter fast enough on S settings - its too dark Suggestions please

What is your aperture setting and the lens that you are using? Bump up your ISO to auto ISO 6400.

Use Auto ISO with a max ISO of 6400 and the minimum shutter speed to the slowest acceptable speed you can use and shoot away. Also, shoot as open as possible (f/5.6 or below if possible). The D600 should be fine even at high ISO.

Exposure mode: Auto
Focal length: 300.0mm
lens 28-300mm f3.5-5.6 set on F5
ISO: Hi

The answer is in your question: "Poor light". Under poor light, miracles don't happen. You could use a flash (not sure if this would be good with horses though) or get a prime faster lens. Your 28-300 is a great lens but is kind of slow at 300. You might have to resort to spending more $$$ to get a fast (2.8) telephoto lens. Fixed focus lens (primes) are almost always faster than a zoom but the 70-200 2.8 is an exception for it's quality and responsiveness.

Hope this helps even if it's not the answer you were looking for... Nikon Acquisition Syndrome at work.

gwilliams8 said:

Exposure mode: Auto
Focal length: 300.0mm
lens 28-300mm f3.5-5.6 set on F5
ISO: Hi

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On the long end of your lens, your aperture should be at f5.6. A kit type zoom lens normally don't work well with moving subjects at night.

Like what Marcel have mentioned, you'll need a bigger aperture, use flash, or slow your shutter speed since your ISO is already maxed out.


Sent from my iPhone.

Marcel said:

The answer is in your question: "Poor light". Under poor light, miracles don't happen. You could use a flash (not sure if this would be good with horses though)

Click to expand...

That's the problem, I cant use a flash as the Riders and horses don't like it, plus I use bursts of 7-8 frames

Marcel said:

or get a prime faster lens. Your 28-300 is a great lens but is kind of slow at 300. You might have to resort to spending more $$$ to get a fast (2.8) telephoto lens. Fixed focus lens (primes) are almost always faster than a zoom but the 70-200 2.8 is an exception for it's quality and responsiveness.

Click to expand...

Have thought of the 70-200 just not sure if the sigma or Tamron would be better (cheaper) option than the Nikon??

Marcel said:

Hope this helps even if it's not the answer you were looking for... Nikon Acquisition Syndrome at work.

Click to expand...

And its to far away for birthday and next Xmas!!

It's one stop darker, but you can save some money and get the 70-200mm f4. I use it very comfortably with my D600. That said, I've used the 28-300 with a D600 shooting concerts and it's a usable combination.

Here are a couple non-equipment related things. You're shooting horses indoors at a distance, and you want to shoot in bursts, so that's going to demand setting the camera so that it either works for you, or just gives up and shoots dark. I recommend setting up your camera as follows.

• Turn the lens VR on
• Set the camera to shutter priority and set the shutter speed to 1/125sec, IMO the slowest reasonable speed for trying to capture what you're trying to capture.
• Turn on Auto ISO and set Max ISO = 6400 (other settings won't matter in Shutter Priority)

Fire away. The camera will probably always set your aperture to wide open, which may cost you a little sharpness, but you'll stop the action. Check you pics for both light and motion. If they are too dark then step down your shutter speed to 1/60 and try again. If that doesn't work step down to 1/30, etc. At some point you'll either find a usable shutter speed or realize that it's just too dark to shoot with what you have.

If you hit this point (i.e. blurry when exposure is right, dark when motion is stopped) then you need to determine if this is "fixable" with a new lens. Take note of the shutter speeds that fix each problem - the max speed where exposure is right and the min speed where motion stops. You're zoom is a f/5.6 at the long end, so let's assume that's the aperture the camera used. The 70-200mm f/4 will be one stop brighter, and the f/2.8 will be 2 stops brighter. What that means is that if the difference between the two shutter speeds you noted is 1 click then the f/4 will work for you, if it's 2 clicks then the f/2.8 is what you need. If it's 3 or more clicks then you're in an unworkable situation (i.e. you can't get glass fast enough to shoot that fast in that light) and the best you can hope for is to shoot RAW and fix them in post as best you can. Fast glass is nice, but don't go spending money on lenses to fix a problem you can't really fix.

Wow thanks "Backdoorhippie" I think I've got that will certainly note the settings down and give it a go next time I'm out!

On past experience I know that at 300mm 1/125 is going to struggle to stop motion but will try again

I always shoot in RAW but the blur is unfixable, or is there something I don't know when using PS6??