Tips for Sharp Images in Low Light: Sports Photography Settings

If you struggle to get sharp photos in low light, then this video may just help you out. As sports photographers, we are often tasked with shooting in less than ideal situations. Knowing how to get sharp images in low light sports photography is vital.

By concentrating on some key tips, you can give yourself the best chance of succeeding when shooting in low light, giving you sharp images. This photography hack is simple and has steps you can follow regardless of the standard of your equipment.

So, using the sports photography settings I cover in this video, have a go at improving your low light photography and get sharp images every time.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Introduction
02:10 - Shoot in manual
03:12 - Always shoot RAW
05:52 - Shutter speed
07:55 - Large aperture
08:56 - ISO
09:45 - Reduce noise in post

[puckdropimages]

Manual, auto iso, low aperture, high shutter speed. Watch for shadowing, white balance changes. Run AI Noise but knock down to about level 32.

[Twobarpsi]

I'll take a noisy grainy photo over a blurry photo.

[Johnnyboy]

I tend to do what you have said in this video because i shoot football for a local non-league team and their floodlights are shocking. As well as what you said i also run my picks from Photo mechanic through DXO Deep Prime to get rid of the noise. You can probably get away with some shots as low as 500 sec dependent on your angle to the action, eg running directly towards you. I am lucky to have some wide glass too, I have a 50mm f1.2 which if you get closer to the goal can get those goal mouth shots quicker and just crop in using RAW

[rds]

Manual. Manual . Manual . Float your iso if needed. Don't let the image underexpose because you preset iso too low. The noise will grow exponentially. Better to bump up iso and properly expose. There will be not as much as if you underexpose and need to up the exposure in post.

[davebuttery]

interesting and very informative, I remember the days of shooting night football ate old div 4 grounds when I would 'push' tri-x 3 stops and still shoot at 125th sec max....it was a good apprenticeship :-) and YES i did get plenty of usable images (for newsprint) but in those days new print was graduated dots anyway

[richmck]

Enjoyed but, why not show pics, image settings and tips for better improvement of low light shoots.
I particularly enjoyed the opening scene of your video as the images were great for ideas for novices. I recognized a hotel ( which looked like one…) I stayed in and captured the same image but no way as bright as yours, on my iPhone. ( the ceiling with wooden surroundings…)
If I am mistaken, it is a listed building in London’s Shepherds Bush area…

[AndyGlavac]

Very good tips Night sports is a real challenge and this helps

[JoaoPaulo-knwe]

one thing i use to reduce the noise in post is going to Detail part in Lightroom and raise the mask bar up to necessary (you can check it by keep pressing the left ALT button while slinding the bar); also raising luminance up to 15 max, depending on how awful the noisy is. Really, this was game changing to me; i could be able to save photos taken with a Canon T7 + 70-300mm f4-5.6 on awfully illuminated pitches

[matejjustinic]

i get what you mean with saying raising iso, by raising iso if you are getting good exposure, meaning you not having to raise it in post, reduces noise in the final product

[PhotoSportiv]

thanks for this Talru! I shoot regularly in poor light at non league pitches, and always try to shoot 1/1000 when possible. The ISO goes up to 12800 and scared as hell to push it more! I also have trouble deciding what WB to use, and whether to use luminence or not.
Keep up the good work, look forward to the next vid!

[RevJock]

Good video, thanks for the tips. I always shoot JPEG for daylight games and RAW under the lights and use gentle AI noise reduction in Camera Raw.

[dronetheworldk]

i have subbed

i have a poor 480mm 1" bridge camera and i am strugglign to make it capture low light soccer match
1/200 SS wasn't always great, but it got me a few decent photos,
but now i am forced to increase to 1/500 or just get away with a few decent images at 1/200 SS,

my concern here however is that NOISE is so damn high, and hence i get less detailed images,
so coming to think about it again, i may have to shoot at 1/200, because Noise is a BIGGER problem to me and picture detail from blurry images due to slower shutter

i got two options now to mitigate or reduce the damn noise

1) I can set shadows to -5 and +5 for highlights
2) I can set noise reduction to +5 (maximum) and sharpness to +5

so can i set those two simultaneously to get lowest noise levels possible or should i stick to only one of them ? and which one ?

thank you,

[KeyzKieran]

Thank you for this video, Just came back from my first game doing football photography and it was very cloudy and raining. When i came back home the noise in all my pictures except the few at the start are too much. Now i know i needed to lower my shutter speed way lower and not to put my ISO to high.

In post i used a program called Topaz Denoize AI which has saved a lot of my pictures though it does make the player look a little photoshopped

[louis_hoornaert_]

I have a Sony a6700 camera with a Sony lens with an aperture of f/4.0. I shot some indoor basketball and encountered a problem where my footage was consistently underexposed, resulting in noise that made it unusable (it looked like it was filmed in 1990). The settings I used were 60 fps, 1/120 shutter speed, f/4.0 aperture, and ISO 800. I had the exposure set to 0.0 in S-Log, which resulted in underexposed footage. The issue arose when I attempted to increase the shutter speed, as it darkened the image further. Thus, the only solution seemed to be raising the ISO, but this introduced graininess. Is it possible that I cannot achieve good footage with my camera, or am I missing something?

[delmarray]

This is the first find i did a sport. Now that i know shutter 1000 aperture 2.8 what should you start your iso at

[JGZphotography]

Sharp photos, of any event, does not rely on RAW or JPG, but rather the triangle settings for best exposure with the optimum shutter speed to freeze fast action. RAW images include image noise, dependent of the ISO setting. Hi noise levels dilute the image quality. Noise reduction by shooting JPG or post-editing also reduces the sharpness when smoothing out the noise, like reducing the treble to reduce scratchy sounds from old audio records. There are NO exact rules to follow, but experimentation is the ultimate instructor. For those shooting with DSLR cameras, microfocus adjustments comes into serious play to correct for front/back focusing. and this cannot be ignored if photos lack sharpness, regardless of action shots or still portraiture. This is a common discussion among photography TouTube creators, so there is nothing new under the sun.

[sportsshooter]

Camera focuses better when shooting in RAW?? I work for two sports agencies and always shoot and send photos live in JPG. For what the images are used ( low res files for Instagram & other social media), the JPG files ( Canon R6/1Dx MKII) are very good for the purpose and the speed to transmit very fast. Good video.

[Anthony-dfbs]

So in reality, its better to underexpose in RAW to keep the details? and save the shutter speed? I just started shooting high school sports wnaht a nightmare gymnasiums are.

[pacocreates]

Lightroom's updated Denoise is so helpful with grainy photos. You have to find the right balance with it, though, or you'll end up with some creamy, even AI-looking images.

[frankoortwijn]

It is so easy, fast shutterspeed, biggest aperature, iso on auto. If light conditions remain the same set to required iso value. always raw. Using Canon r6 for 2 years now, no problems with iso 10000