rthompson10

Hello all,

This bumbling photographer is struggling with shooting outdoor sports in the middle of the day- very contrasty and depending on where I can stand and direction of play having mixed success. Didn't experiment today maybe I should this weekend but maybe I need to change me exposure settings? I'm on evaluative now(Canon 7dMKII) Maybe center weighted or spot to ensure players face is at proper exposure?

Thanks!

RT

Carl D Loc: Albemarle, NC.

Set it on auto and don't worry about it for sports.

GraveyDave

The guy who says set it on auto and don't worry about it is probably right. Most people don't really care as long as it's in focus and there's good action. However, it will be the one in a million shot you get that will have the shadows or highlights completely blown - especially on lower prosumer type cameras. Good mid range or high end cameras have wider latitude and can probably still give great files on auto. Don't know about Canons but with my Nikons I can go to Set Picture Control, then Neutral, than adjust the contrast so it is way down, contracting the scene brightness range to a more readable file. It will look odd because of toning down the whites like it does, but the predominantly West Indian soccer team players wearing their away (white) jerseys will at least take you seriously next time you're there. Contrast can be lowered more if necessary in lightroom and made to look better with highlight, shadow, white, black. I keep the focus/exposure center weighted and ALWAYS keep my finger on the focus button. You can't just click it and expect it to be perfectly focused. Sweat on faces and sun on a white helmet just can't be helped. I have an sample in the bright sun, unfortunately it's not a very good on but I got the white jersey holes visible as well as details in the black jersey. I'll see if I can upload here

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

You'll find many articles recommending not shooting in the middle of a sunny day - very contrasty. Use Auto and P and experiment. Then use software to improve your shots.

Camerant Loc: USA

If your camera has this option use RAW, and adjust your pics later if needed.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Great idea Jerry! If you've got a job to do, the customer wants it done regardless of light and time-of-day. For sports shooting, this is where experience and proper equipment com into play. Sometimes you have to shoot into the sun to get the needed background and you are still expected to get the shot. Shooting sports can be difficult and expensive equipment wise. Watch what the pros do at a game and see if you can emulate that. Check out Sports Illustrated to see what counts as a good/great shot, and get shooting. You WILL get the hang of it. Having some knowledge of the sport and the specific team is also helpful. Long lens, wide open, on a monopod, at least 1/500, no VR, auto ISO should be a good start. Best of luck!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I used to shoot a lot of bicycle racing, sometimes at mid-day. The riders had their heads down so their faces were in shadow, and often wearing white helmets which were in the sun. I shot RAW of course, but even then I found sometimes it was better to let the whites blow out a little in order to get plenty of detail in the faces. I could often recover some of the highlights in post, but even losing some highlight detail, the critical detail was in the faces.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Use fill flash and shoot TTL if you can...
If you an get enough shutter speed to freeze action.
High speed sync might be needed but will really limit your range with a speedlight...

Best,
Todd Ferguson
Harrisburg, NC

Carl D Loc: Albemarle, NC.

In talking to some sport pro's, they only shoot in jpeg and auto. Also the ones that shoot concert events. A few of them said they only shoot in auto and jpeg for everything.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

This is a difficult one, because if you expose for the faces you'll be over-exposing other parts of the image.

I shoot RAW with my 7DIIs, use Evaluative metering almost exclusively (when I can't set a manual exposure) and at mid-day,when contrast is the strongest, I'll usually set +2/3 Exposure Compensation (regardless of whether I'm using Av, Tv or P... I usually use Av). I do not use Auto ISO. Earlier or later in the day I find +1/3 E.C. is enough. When time allows, I further fine-tune Exposure compensation depending upon subject tonality.

I have not gotten as good result with Spot Metering (that requires more careful E.C.) or with Center Weighted (which is too broad an area being metered and averaged a lot of the time).

Evaluative metering puts the primary emphasis on the active AF point, wherever that might be. It also considers the rest of the image area, but mostly sets exposure according to the reading right around the AF point(s) being used at the moment of exposure. Because of this, you might get more consistency using Single Point AF and being sure it's right on your subject's face at all times. (You will likely then still need to tweak E.C. a bit, depending upon each subject's skin tone.)

I also often move to shoot from a different location, trying to keep the lighting "behind" me as best possible.

Other times, when the light is especially contrasty, if I can do so I might limit to shooting in the shadows only (less E.C. needed).

All the above applies to using Auto Exposure (Av, Tv, P or Auto ISO with M).

Whenever possible I don't use A.E. I set exposure manually. However, that's only possible when light isn't variable for one reason or another. Light might vary if I'm following moving subjects in and out of shadows... or if the day is partly cloudy and the sun is peeking behind clouds intermittently.

My favorite shooting conditions are moderately overcast skies, which make for more even illumination and lower contrast.

In spite of all the above, when faces are in shadow I often have to do a bit of dodging in post-processing.

The ideal solution would be to use fill flash, to "open up" the shadows a bit. In fact, I use flash more often in full sun than in low light conditions. But that really slows down shooting, waiting for the flash to recycle. Flash is also not permitted at some events or might pose a problem for the competitors.

Pros who shoot JPEG only very likely are working for a magazine, website or other media that requires immediately usable images. I have time to post-process my images, so I shoot RAW almost exclusively.

I do see folks using "Full Auto" or even the "Sports" preset at times... even some "pros" (or so they call themselves). But I also often hear the same people using the wrong focus mode and can guarantee that a very high percentage of their sports shots will be poorly focused.

Anyone who "shoots auto only" or "manual only" just doesn't know how to use their camera very well. There are times when some form of A.E. is necessary, while other times manual is the best choice.

Which form of A.E. is partly personal preference. I like to use Av (aperture preferred), but have to keep an eye on my shutter speeds. Some sports shooters prefer Tv (shutter preferred) and I occasionally use it too. But the aperture is generally of more concern to me. I rarely use P... mostly just for a quick shot in radically different lighting when I don't have time to think about it and don't really care what aperture or shutter speed is used, and/or want to be able to switch back immediately after. I really don't use Auto ISO... but might sometime as I can see it's usefulness, though only with M (makes no sense to me to combine Auto ISO with the other A.E. modes).

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Doesn't sound like any pro's I know!