Night Cycling

[TC]

During the Track cycling meets at night, I used a SB600 on camera, ISO 800 @1/500. This is one of the better pic that I took. Many of the pics were underexposed.


next time I will try with another flash nearer the track. Any suggestions on these type of fairly fast subjects in low light?

[Mr Darcy]

Getting your lights nearer the track is a good idea.
However, some things to note.
1. Check your sync speed. Most cameras will not synch at 1/500 (D70 is an exception) Even if it will handle it on paper, it is a good idea to do some tests.
2 Your second photo does not appear to be lit by your on-camera flash. Look at the shadow. The light is coming from camera right. You may be too far away for your flash to be having much of an effect, or maybe it did not fire at all. This would explain why many of your shots are underexposed. You may have "borrowed" someone elses light.

The SB600 is not good for distance photography. its zoom stops at 85mm. The SB900 goes to 200mm This gets more light where you want it. You can boost the range using a fresnel lens, but it is much easier to use another flash.

If you do go to off camera flash, you will need an SB900 (or 800) on camera to act as controller, then another one or two flashes trackside in slave mode. Go down early to set up & test. Even the night before for testing. Choose your spot to photograph & work out the best settings. Set this manually on both camera and flash & wait for your moment.

Check out Strobist for detailed ideas. I am sure David has covered this sort of thing thoroughly.
Another ($$$) idea is to get a camera that is good in low light & go for available lighting.

[TC]

thanks Mr Darcy. I have thinking about the SB900 for a while already.

[Mr Darcy]

Slight mistake.
You can use most of the Nikon cameras as controller for your flash system, but the range of the onboard flash in commander mode is very limited. Still it might be worth experimenting with this before blowing hundreds of dollars on a new flash.

[idleowen]

Hi

For track work,try using a slower shutter speed and rear synch with the flash and pan with the rider, this will give you some movement/blur rather than just a 'static' looking bike shot.............

I've had pretty good success with the d300 built in flash as a remote trigger for both sb900 and sb600's..........will work to a reasonable range in low light and its even worked in extremely bright daylight over 10m (not 100% of the time but the majority of triggers worked)..........

The SB600 is more than capable if close to the action.

thks,Nigel