Advice on Sodium Lit Carpark (Nikon D200)

VanhireBoys

Hi Guys
New to the photography game and learning fast.. I am getting lessons as well..... I bought a 2nd hand Nikon D200 chancey on eBay and have since bought an 18-55 VR lens, Santa brought me a 35mm f1.8 fixed lens... I got an SB-600 flash off the bay as well ...

Happy boy making bad pictures and seeing what I done wrong.....!

Tonight is the start of the Galway Rally Weekend and there will be a fare buzz about. I intend going to the boy-racer haunts to see if I can catch some action.... Problem is any time I have taken shots before at night in car-parks there is an awful orange cast on the pictures. This comes off the sodium lights. The cars flare and reflect very badly if you use the flash.... And you have no roof to bounce the flash off ..

I was looking for a wee bit of advice on what I should set the white balance and ISO etc to.... Which lens would best suit and should I use the flash...? Or should I just go and give it socks and experiment

Thanks in advance lads...

Fenster

Use a polarizer - you lose about a stop of light but the tradeoff is well worth it and up your ISO - and a custom white balance setting while shooting raw. I had no idea there was a rally of any sort on in Galway City (and I live here). Give me a shout if you want company: [snip]please PM all personal Details[/snip].

CabanSail

The White Balance is the easy part. Shoot in RAW and then adjust the White Balance in Post Production.

melekalikimaka

raw solves all, iso... low as possiblt to keep it sharp. d200 noise aint amazing

PopeBuckfastXVI

Use a white card maybe to balance after (as said, shoot in raw). I've haven't balanced SV to my satisfaction before (mind you I didn't spend too much time on it either), black and white might be your friend here.

Alternatively, embrace it, get some strobe on the cars and leave the background all orange and menacing.

Fenster, there's signs up all over town!

Fenster

After almost three years in Las Vegas I am conditioned to ignore street signs and flyers.

VanhireBoys

Fenster wrote: »

Use a polarizer - you lose about a stop of light but the tradeoff is well worth it and up your ISO - and a custom white balance setting while shooting raw. I had no idea there was a rally of any sort on in Galway City (and I live here). Give me a shout if you want company:

Thanks a mill Fenster... It would be great to have someone with a bit of experience along with me for advice....

I'll be out at around 10 or so Details PM'ed

Fenster

And this was the high point of our night's excitement:

ThOnda

Fenster - picture like that always makes me happy and smiling

cnocbui

You can't adjust for a sodium lit scene by much due to the very limited spectrum of the light source. There is almost no green blue or red spectrum in high pressure sodium lighting.

Polarising filters usually cost you at least 1.5 stops.

VanhireBoys

Fenster wrote: »

And this was the high point of our night's excitement:

That boy in the BM got well roasted. Serves him right for trying to show off in a 316i with no LSD..

I have the same picture but mine has a feckin great windscreen pillar and a dashboard..!

My pics were not as bad as I expected - the advice and tutoring definately help. There wasnt as much action as I envisaged. The Black Box was being watched and the Headford Rd Shopping Centre was too busy....!

Thanks again Mark for keeping me right....!

oshead

If you plan to use flash you could try and gel it as close to the colour of the sodium lights as you can. Maybe start off with a full CTO and go from there. You could then try and fine the balance in Lightroom or Camera raw, thats as long as you shoot in raw.