Help needed shooting skydivers (with a camera)

BlueHoseJacket

Tomorrow evening I am attending the Virginia Tech @ Georgia Tech football game in downtown Atlanta. I have heard rumors that there will be Army Paratroopers jumping as part of the pre-game activities> Any one have any suggestions for camera settings. Game time kick-off is 6:00 p.m. so there should still be decent light.

ElginetPhotos

BlueHoseJacket wrote:

Tomorrow evening I am attending the Virginia Tech @ Georgia Tech football game in downtown Atlanta. I have heard rumors that there will be Army Paratroopers jumping as part of the pre-game activities> Any one have any suggestions for camera settings. Game time kick-off is 6:00 p.m. so there should still be decent light.

What are you shooting with?

BlueHoseJacket

I have a Canon Rebel XT with a Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8

Toshido

Feel free to look at some of the pictures I took on my day out at a drop zone. All images are available in original size. I also have a gallery of all the SOOC pictures so you can see how the setting affected the outcomes.

I shot mostly in shutter priority with a +EC of 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop. I also used spot metering. All in attempt to expose for the skydiver, not the sky.

http://tag-photos.smugmug.com/Sports/Skydiving

ElginetPhotos

BlueHoseJacket wrote:

I have a Canon Rebel XT with a Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8

6:00 pm here in Chicago it's starting to get dark already (SICK!).

If you have ANY sunlight, I would shoot it at ISO 400, Shutter priority with a minimum 1/180-200 speed and let the camera do the rest. Also, hopefully you're shooting in RAW. It'll give you a lot of latitude if the light is at all, iffy.

Last time I shot my kids (man...that sounds bad!) it was almost high noon and talk about light screwing with ya!

They're going again tomorrow and I just got a new D300s so we're going to play with the 80-200/2.8 and video! :ivar

ElginetPhotos

ElginetPhotos wrote:

6:00 pm here in Chicago it's starting to get dark already (SICK!).

If you have ANY sunlight, I would shoot it at ISO 400, Shutter priority with a minimum 1/180-200 speed and let the camera do the rest. Also, hopefully you're shooting in RAW. It'll give you a lot of latitude if the light is at all, iffy.

Last time I shot my kids (man...that sounds bad!) it was almost high noon and talk about light screwing with ya!

They're going again tomorrow and I just got a new D300s so we're going to play with the 80-200/2.8 and video! :ivar

HA! I just saw it said "tomorrow night" and it was posted last night!! lol! Well....hope you got your shots!