AUDIO TIP: USING FLASH TO FREEZE ACTION
Another way to freeze action in low light is by using your flash.
Like many parents today, I am faced with photographic challenges that revolve around indoor sports activities, many of which involve freezing motion in low-light situations. When it comes to indoor volleyball and basketball, I prefer to use the highest ISO in lieu of a flash. In the photograph you see here, I was at one of my daughter Sophie’s volleyball games. Handholding my Nikon D300S with my ISO set to 6400, I easily shot correct exposures at f/4 for 1/320 sec. with my 16–35mm Nikkor zoom lens. A no-brainer! Had I tried to light up the entire gym with my single Nikon SB-900 flash, I would have been assured of recording very cave-like exposures thanks to the inverse square law.
A high ISO froze the action in this dimly lit
gym.
16–35mm lens,
f/4 for 1/320 sec., ISO 6400
TIP: UNDERSTANDING THE INVERSE SQUARE LAW
As it relates to photography and lighting, the inverse square law states that an object twice as far from a source of light will receive a quarter of the illumination. So if you’re shooting your daughter’s basketball game or your son’s high school play, when the distance between your flash and the subject doubles, that subject receives only a quarter of the light, not half. If your hoop-playing daughter moves from 12 feet to 24 feet away, you will need four times the light to achieve a good exposure at the same camera settings. The light falloff around the subject will also be more severe, creating a cave-like look where the subject is illuminated but the surrounding scene looks like a dark cave. With the math and adjustments involved in good flash photography of moving subjects indoors, you can see why shooting with a high ISO versus flash is a lot easier and more effective.
I found myself in Doha, Qatar, shooting the Arab League Games in December 2011. I am not a sports photographer, yet there I was shooting sports—indoors. Fortunately, it was a well-lit arena. With my Nikon D3X and Nikkor 200–400mm lens mounted on a monopod, and with my ISO set to 1600, I switched the camera to Shutter Priority, chose a shutter speed of 1/500 sec., and fired away—trying, of course, to anticipate the next takedown.
This endeavor was made more challenging by the D3X’s slow burst rate. When shooting in raw format, the camera can shoot successive frames about as fast as a tortoise crossing the street. As great as the camera is overall, it was not the right choice for shooting fast-moving sports. Still, all things considered, I’m happy that I captured this action shot.
Switching to a high ISO was crucial for freezing this
moment.
200–400mm lens, f/6.3 for 1/500 sec., ISO
1600