Stop Motion Photography at Night

[John Hinton]

I need a bit of help, if anyone is willing. I am trying to shot a fair at night using a D30 with a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens mounted. I am trying to get the correct settings for stop motion with particular interest in the rides, and a secondary interest in general crowd shots. I realize that some motion blurring can be a good effect, but for my purposes I want to stop the action.


I have tried aperture, shutter and manual modes but I am having no luck. I used spot metering, locked the meter and reframed, but still no luck. it seemed to me that in shutter priority when I would set the desired speed, it would change as I moved the camera into position. The same thing occurred when I tried using manual mode.


Any tips on how to get what I want?


Thanks, Johyn

[bob williams]

John, What your asking for is very tough. You are wanting to shoot at night and stop motion with an F4 lens. The kind of images you are talking about are usually shot with much faster lenses, But there are possibilities. You can try bumping up your ISO to at least 1600 or higher. Unfortunately, you may see some noise or degradation of image quality.


Hope this helps,


Bob

[Alan]

John, Bob is right about what you're trying to accomplish with an
f/4. I went to our state fair with the same idea: stop motion, good
exposure, etc.


I took Chuck Lee's advice, and used a fast prime:
the 50 f/1.4. I stopped it to f/2.8, because at this aperture, the
images are tack sharp.


Invariably, though, to stop the action, I
had to use at least 1/320 second shutter. This required ISO anywhere
from 400-2000, and most often 800-1600. With the 5DMk2, these higher
ISOs are not going to show much degradation to the image.


With your 24-105 f/4 (an excellent lens, by the way), you will have to bump the ISO even higher. That's just the way of things.


Think
about a fast prime like the 50 f/1.4. It's very inexpensive for the
kind of thing you want to accomplish, and will give you exactly what you
are looking for.

[John Hinton]

Thanks all. Allan, i have the 50 f/1.4 and it has occurred to me to use that. I

[FWChoi]

I read somewhere that you can use your flash with a long exposure to freeze your subject. I haven

[neuroanatomist]

you will have to bump the ISO even higher

There's one problem with that, Alan - while your 5DII can push to ISO 25600, and produce useable images at ISO 3200 or maybe even 6400, John's D30 has a maximum ISO of 1600, and I would guess that's going to be very noisy, as the max ISO setting usually is.


A flash would work in close, but even a powerful flash is not going to be enough for rides, etc.


A fast prime is definitely your best bet - f/1.4 is 3 stops faster than f/4, meaning a 3-stop faster shutter speed.

Oh, by the way, I entered my first fair this year and took fourth and honorable mention in classification....go me.

That's great - congrats!

[Alan]

There's one problem with that, Alan - while your 5DII can push to ISO 25600, and produce useable images at ISO 3200 or maybe even 6400, John's D30 has a maximum ISO of 1600, and I would guess that's going to be very noisy, as the max ISO setting usually is.
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I realize that, but that's not his problem. His problem is stopping motion, and the 50 mm 1.4 at high ISO will do exactly that. If he doesn't stop to 2.8, and leaves it at 1.4, he'll likely get the ISO lower than 800.