Canon 50d Metering Mode

JackW

Relatively new to all of this, learning more each time I visit this site, Thanks

Looking for suggestions on which metering mode to use to shoot a college football game in good sunlight.

johng

I almost always prefer manual exposure - so metering mode is irrelevant. The reason manual exposure works well is because anytime you leave metering up to the camera the metered exposure could shift wildly depending on the colors in the metered portion of the frame. And, typically in sports you have a team in light and a team in dark. Add to that the shadows created inside a helmet and you've got a nightmare situation for a camera to figure out how to get the face inside the helmet looking good.

"good sunlight" is possibly the toughest condition to shoot in because the dynamic range is often too great. And you often have deep shadows inside the helmet.

So, unless the sun is moving in and out of clouds I advise manual exposure. You just need to make sure you change your exposure as game goes on and as you change positions (i.e. exposure will be different if you switch from sideline to endzone or to other sideline because of the position of the sun).

If you're in a panic over shooting with a manual exposure I suggest using partial metering (puts emphasis on the center of the frame) with AV exposure and exposure compensation to adjust for shadows in the helmet. But seeing as you need to adjust the exposure compensation as you move and the game goes on you might as well just shoot manual

JackW

Thanks, appreciate your response.