HS Football at night problem

Skorri

Been to this stadium before with my 200mm 2.8, but tonight I noticed almost every other shot looking like these 2. It was on 1 end of the field more than the other. Insight ?

http://www.shotbyacopphotography.com/Sports/Football/Lighting-Issue/19652032_GKCgSS#1540984710_K8TmMtT

JimKarczewski

Just you shooting with a high enough shutter speed to get the lights cycling. Using AWB will be your best bet usually in these instances.

Older lights seem to have this issue more than newer.. at least around here.

pipster

Oh the trials and tribulations of shooting with ambient light indoors and outdoors at night has raised its ugly head yet again.

I have found that the only true solution to controlling cycling lights is learn to use flash or strobes so that you control the light.

With a good eye for color you can save a lot of shots in post processing but little or nothing besides slowing your shutter speed to 1/60 or slower will really help with the white balance and cycling lights. Unfortunately 1/60 or slower cannot stop much motion blur from happening.

On the bright side it was nothing you were doing to create the problem It happens to all of us who try to shoot sports under the lights.

jhefti

When this first happened to me, in an indoor gym, I thought there was something terribly wrong with my camera. Thanks to others at this forum, I discovered the 'joys' of 60Hz cycling!

There really is no easy way to deal with it. I shoot raw to give myself the best chance at obtaining good WB in post. I also usually set the WB to a fixed temperature (though not sure this is any better than AWB). I also tend to shoot to the right on the histogram, even if it means pushing the ISO higher than I'd like. This gives me more headroom in those really oddly colored shots that occur near the bottom of cycle. I don't let the shutter get too slow, as motion blur is impossible to deal with. Then, I just pick my best shots and spend some time getting the WB right on each individual shot. Here's an album of a night soccer game (high school) under really bad lights that were cycling like crazy. The colors are not perfect, but compared to SOOC WB they're at least acceptable: http://johnhefti.com/p1001521971

JimKarczewski

Unfortunately shooting RAW isn't always possible either. I shoot for a local newspaper and between deadlines and finding a place to transmit, there is no way in hell I could also go about processing RAW files to correct for bad color. Sometimes you just have to deal with it the best you can, especially if you are working on a deadline. After the fact, sure I can go back and make them look pretty, but I'm also not going to shoot raw as with my current setup it's 11 shots RAW and 99 shots JPG, something to be said for long action sequences. :P

jhefti

JimKarczewski wrote: »

I'm also not going to shoot raw as with my current setup it's 11 shots RAW and 99 shots JPG, something to be said for long action sequences. :P

Not sure what you mean by this... Are you talking about burst mode? I shoot long action sequences in raw all the time, though seldom in true burst mode.

JimKarczewski wrote: »

Unfortunately shooting RAW isn't always possible either. I shoot for a local newspaper and between deadlines and finding a place to transmit, there is no way in hell I could also go about processing RAW files to correct for bad color.

I convert from raw to jpg when I export the shot from LR to Photo Mechanic for captioning, and it doesn't take long at all. Of course editing can take as long as you choose, but WB is usually done in a few seconds--and much faster in raw in my experience. My rate-limiting step is captioning (or FTP transfer), not raw-->jpg conversion. But maybe that's just my workflow...

JimKarczewski

I'm lucky enough if I have time to download the card, select 3 pics, caption them and get them off for deadline. Our games are at 7 and usually run till 9:30, deadline, 9:30. Usually I'll call it at the end of the 3rd unless the game is close... But we're always fighting deadlines it seems.

jonh68

Even with jpg, you can adjust the WB. In a play, you can usually find something white like a jersey, sock or towel to make a WB adjsutment. You can make a custom WB reading, but since the lights cycle anyway it doesn't do much good. Shoot AWB and adjust later if you need too.

jhefti

JimKarczewski wrote: »

I'm lucky enough if I have time to download the card, select 3 pics, caption them and get them off for deadline. Our games are at 7 and usually run till 9:30, deadline, 9:30. Usually I'll call it at the end of the 3rd unless the game is close... But we're always fighting deadlines it seems.

Ouch! that is tight!!

Skorri

Thanks for the advice. I had been to this stadium before and didn't seem to have an issue. Just wanted to make sure I wasnt missing something. Most were shot at 1/500, 2.8 and 5000 ISO. In post I have been able to correct some of the problem.