Night Action Woes

[drgibson]

For those that don’t know I shoot Flat Track racing, it involves an oval dirt track and a bunch of guys on motorcycles of all kinds going very fast. Occasionally they race at night and I hate night races, the lighting is poor and uneven, the riders all take a different line which makes using a flash difficult, auto-focus sucks, the strobe effect of the flash tends to stop all motion so everyone looks like they’re sitting still… well enough ranting.
Saturday before last I was at a night race and knowing what I was in for I took along a second flash thinking I would slave it using the Nikon Commander mode to gain more light. So here is my setup; D700, 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom, SB900, and a SB800.

First off I forgot that I was going to need to mount the second flash to something (like a tripod) and all I had with me was a Gorilla pod and there is nothing I can attach it to. So in the pits I connect the flashes and test them to make sure that they are communicating and install fresh batteries. I take my gear and setup on the inside of the track figuring that most of the riders are going to want to stay low which will keep them closer to me.

I set the second flash (on the Gorilla pod) on the ground and retest but once I start shooting I notice that the second flash isn’t firing. I am less than a meter away and it isn’t working so I check out the flash and test it again… working I take three steps away… no worky. (*%#*@*) I get closer two feet and it starts working. More tests: standing or kneeling, in front, from behind, facing, facing away, or to the side. I try various channels and about two feet is my limit. I know I have used this setup from a lot further distance but in this environment it wasn’t going to let me do it.

So what I ended up doing was shooting like normal but occasionally I would aim the second flash and stay within range so I could play with some shadows. Here is a sample of what I ended up with.

Pleas tell me that you think..


Without Second Flash


With Second Flash and the main flash turned down to -2.0.

[Fireball]

Hmm, they still looked stopped to me. I would really like to see some motion blur to get a sense of how fast they were going. Can you not up your ISO to the highest setting and get anything without a flash using a panning motion? It would be quite the challenge I'm sure, and I admire anyone able/willing to set up speedlites on location. I'm still learning them just in my home.

[drgibson]

No there isn't enough light, the optimal slowest shutter speed on this smaller track is about 1/360. It isn't just a simple pan shot due to all the bouncing around, for example when I have shot Road Racing I was able to shoot with a much slower shutter speed (down to 1/100) because the track surface was very smooth and the riders aren't moving around on the bikes as much. combine that with the fact tha the tracks are lit very unevenly and it just makes it impossible to do it without a flash.

But to make you feel better here is a motion shot, or two.

On a mile track they are hitting 130mph


This little one is only doing 30mph


And into the turns on a 1/2 mile track at about 80mph