action photography questions..

Are the action lines in front of the photo because the flash is going off as soon as the shutter opens, and then the sensor is picking up the bright stuff moved along with no flash? The blur would look cool maybe if it was behind the shot.. they werent jumping backwards! Its weird because turning the shadows down removes some of the blur, and turning them up brings it out. Im pretty sure there is a setting to make the flash go off at the end of the shutter opening, right?

Next, I have an olympus pen epl-5, with just the kit lens and little flash that comes with it. I struggle with low light action at Galby and now I am out at this place at night all the time... Not trying to go pro, or anything, would a better flash help me out or do I need a super fast lens or both? Mine goes to f 3.5.

http://i1260.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8muicw84.jpg

http://i1260.photobucket.com/albums/...pszh8llphk.jpg

also, I set the camera to under expose the picture enough to speed the shutter speed up.. then bump it up in light room. I know thats not pro or anything, but Im just trying to look rad on facebook.

Yes, the flash fires as soon as you open the shutter, then the subject moves forward and blurs it. Your camera probably has a flash mode called "rear curtain sync" which will fire the flash at the end and you'll get more normal looking motion blur.

A faster lens will help out, but really, there probably isnt enough available light to do much without flash. If you can find a way to get some flash triggers (even cheap $35 ones) you can put a flash anywhere you want and you can start to experiment with some different angles.

I'm sure some of the more accomplished action shooters will have more/better tips.

I havent been to galbraith in close to a decade but there is a covered jump track now? Sweet.

Nooo that pump track is private

so my flash options are auto, red eye, fill in, red eye slow, slow, slow 2 and manual value.

I tried slow 2, but didnt have people sessioning tonight.

It seems better, but still has the action lines in front of the picture.

http://i1260.photobucket.com/albums/...pskevnw3t1.jpg

The weird thing is that this aborted jump did at action lines where they belong, but I didnt change anything?

http://i1260.photobucket.com/albums/...psq8jpl7ix.jpg

I'm going to take a guess that the flash is too powerful which is why you are getting the light trails. If you can lower the flash power, the actual flash will be faster.

Trying the same sort of thing here, quite low flash power to get the shortest flash possible, and a 30 second shutter speed I think.

https://500px.com/photo/144352857/sk...ser_id=4204726

I don't think a faster lens would help much unless you are trying to freeze the action with the lens and not the flash.

Here's the deal. You need professional lights for a night shoot like this. Try stringing two, big fluorescent led panels at 5600k on either end of the photo shooting toward the biker, plus a light shooting from the bottom / back. Three point lighting.

The other, perhaps obvious, thing to say is that those great looking night time flash pictures that you see in magazines weren't taken with a cheap point and shoot camera. There's a limit to what you can do with the equipment you have, unless you are willing to invest a lot more money.

Its not a "cheap point and shoot" camera. Its compact mirrorless. Im probably not going to get a bunch of external flashes to do professional like night shots at Ladies night at steve's, just trying to figure out how to do the best with what ive got. I will see about adjusting the flash. Its a pretty small flash, so it seems odd that it would be too strong.

it might also be that the light is weird, because the jumps are actually really well lit from an eye standard. I might try going outside and shooting towards inside where it is bright rather than shooting from the bright towards the dark.

The best (cheapest/easiest) option for you is probably to try and use your largest aperture and the highest ISO you can to try and just freeze the action without using flash. If it's well lit inside there you MIGHT be able to just make it happen, then use something like Lightroom to help reduce the noise. I'm not sure what the low-light capabilities are on your epl-5.

You can also try tracking the subject matter, which will result in a blur of everything else...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mtngirl79

it might also be that the light is weird, because the jumps are actually really well lit from an eye standard. I might try going outside and shooting towards inside where it is bright rather than shooting from the bright towards the dark.

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Sorry, didn't mean to insult your camera choice by calling it a cheap point and shoot. But compared to a sports action camera like the Canon 1dXii and whatever the Nikon equivalent is these days, it essentially is. Low light action photos is not what your camera was designed to do, so you need to set your expectations accordingly. So don't expect your pictures to look like something you might see in Sports Illustrated. Never going to happen without sinking large amounts of cash into it.

That said, I'm sure you can make marginal improvements with the equipment you have. Just keep plugging away at it. And no, I don't think the problem is that your flash is too strong.

An interchangeable lens camera is hugely different from a point and shoot, and if you read the thread, you would see it says I'm just looking to improve with what I've got or minimal investment so your post was essentially useless, but carry on...

Essentially you either want all of your light to come from ambient light, or all to come from flash. In between is troublesome and produces the blurs. Your shots above are at 1/25 - 1/30 sec. To get rid of as much ambient light as possible, I would push this as high as your flash will sync to (usually 1/250 - 1/320 on the Canons I'm familiar with). Your light exposing the rider is already all coming from the flash anyways, so this won't change how much the rider is lit up (but might reduce the background lighting).

As mentioned above, I'd recommend getting a flash trigger and off camera flash. There are plenty of Chinese brands available on eBay or similar that will get you started with off-camera flash for less than $100 (I used to play with Yongnuo, but there are others). Introducing additional light from different angles will really help make the pictures pop more.

A last idea that can be fun to try but is difficult to implement properly: try a very long shutter speed (like 30 seconds) with flash. The goal here is to expose the background and terrain with the long exposure, then pop the flash exactly where you want the rider to appear. The rider then needs to get in and out of the frame as fast as possible to avoid being shown as a blur. This probably won't work at the pump track unless you have control over the lighting there, but is better for outside at dusk.