Linda Roina

I have a Nikon D500, had it since it came out. I shoot a lot of kids' soccer games and track. Never had a problem until now. These are the settings I have always used: Manual, Shutter speed 1250, aperture F4, auto ISO around 600-800 with a Nixon 300mm F4. All of a sudden faces on players and runners are way too dark. Have the camera set on spot metering. I do not know if I have somehow moved a setting or what. I would appreciate any ideas you might have.

Thank you ahead of time.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Spot metering is probably the cause. Here's a post of much the same issue: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-591315-1.html

The 'spot' is just a small percentage of the frame. If you point that 'spot' at a dark spot (say a dark jersey) in an overall bright scene, the camera will tend to overexpose. The opposite could occur too, the white pants of a player in direct sunlight will cause all the other darker shades to possibly be underexposed.

If you're shooting in manual, this shouldn't be so much a problem as you can adjust the exposure to your needs. Adjust the images until the highlight warnings just begin to blink. Leave it there or drop the exposure back 1/3 to 2/3 a stop. This is relative to the highlight warnings, not the zero-mark on the meter.

You might also reply to your post and attach and store 1 / a few examples for analysis and suggested adjustments.

swartfort Loc: Evansville, IN

A flier here.... Is your exposure compensation set to zero? If that has been shifted down (negative), you will experience similar symptoms. Just a thought

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

LOL, been there and done that! Smarter now!

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

Consider center weighted average or even matrix metering mode. Spot can be hard to keep on a moving subject that changes direction and speed often.

If you had a handheld meter you could take an incident meter reading and if the same light is falling on the field as where you meter set your exposure and shoot away. If clouds are randomly changing the lighting this is not as easy as if the light is consistently sunny or overcast. Sunny 16 rule is the same idea...

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Take off spot. Use center on matrix. Also if auto iso goes above or below settings, over and under can result.

sandiegosteve Loc: San Diego, CA

Could it be that there is more light, harsher light and thus the shadows? As I shoot more daylight coming into spring faces get harder. I need to make the choice to expose for the overall image or more for the face.

I choose the face and thus the background gets very blown out. I shoot "manual" with auto ISO and exposure compensation. If the sun is at the side, I keep exposure comp at 0 or +.3. If they are back lit +.7 to +1.0. If blinkies show the sky blown out and the face is good, that is ok with me.

Clouds are your friend.

tomcat

I run into the same situation this time of year. The sun is higher in the sky and creates a low of shadows for me when the players are backlit by the sun. When the players are facing the sun, the images are spectacular. I get around this by switching to matrix metering and bringing up the shadow slider in LR. I've also found that the shots that are backlit are bluish and require a touch of warming with the slider.
Did you make any adjustment in the Active-D lighting menu? Too high of a setting can reduce the exposure somewhat. I don't think anything is wrong here because it happens to me frequently and I've found it is dependent on the lighting of the players by the sun.