chipc wrote:
I am a novice and learning my way around my Canon 7d. I would like to know the best way to Overexpose. I do mostly indoor sports including hockey and my friend says I need to overexpose. He has a nikon and can't help. Suggestions appreciated.
Hi chipc,
First, I own and shoot a NikonD800. Secondly, I have shot many high school hockey games in the past having had 4 sons who played ice hockey and became the team photographer. Do NOT overexpose . . . if anything, under expose by just a little.
What I used to do that worked very well, was to always shoot in RAW, and to focus on the goalie pre - game while he was in goal to get my settings. Then, whenever and wherever I shot a player skating on the ice, the settings were good for lighting most all the time. Now, I would have to rapidly make quick adjustments for focusing, but seemed to get pretty darn good at it after all the years I did that.
I most always used a 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens and would actually rapidly change my focal length as needed. Once you do it for a little while, you can get really good, but you don't usually 'see' much of the game, depending upon how many shots you take per game. I would then make my own web sites with my own URL and post the full size images downloadable for all the parents who wanted action shots (or still shots during face-offs, etc.) of their player(s). Setting the camera to 'follow' the movement, or a single player, never worked for me - I always did better on full manual and making my quick adjustments as described.
Practice, practice, practice and you will soon see improvement and some really good action shots. Oh, I would usually use a fairly wide area for the shots (shorter focal length) and not zoom in real close, and then I would crop if I wanted to in PP'ing, but with my D800 (36 MP), I could easily do that and not lose quality or get any pixelation. If I wanted a specific player on a specific shot, I would then zoom in much tighter.
Lastly, if you want correct white balance, you can always do a custom white balance in your camera before the game begins; or in PP'ing, you can always click on a 'grey' area or the ice with an eye dropper, or possibly get a player to hold up an X-Rite Color Checker, pre-game maybe during warm-ups, and take a shot of it and the player on the ice. Once you get it for an individual rink, you can always use that for all the games during the season for that specific rink.
Best Regards,
Tom