Youth Football First Attempt - could use some advice

flipperpics

Apologies for the length of this - hopefully someone will have a few minutes to read and chime in

Tried my hand at some football today during my son's game. After reading through some threads and taking advice from them (shoot low,sun at back, f2.8 and 1/1600-1/2000) I went out and shot a good 1200 or so pics. Most were ok but I ran a few issues that maybe some of you pro's could weigh in on:

Focus - Using a 7D and 70-200L 2.8 I was able to get close enough to the action. I shot in manual mode with the ISO @ 200 and the shutter speed at around 1/2000, burst mode and AI focus. I often ended up with the 'non-action' closer to me in focus instead of the subject. I thought about selecting the single point focus option and going for just the center dot but the 7D wouldn't let me do this (had done so with my 20D for swim team shots) 7D folks can it be done??

Blown Out - Shooting at ISO 200 and 1/2000 as the action got closer to the sidelines (when using burst mode) I would find the whites getting all blown out - is there a technique to avoiding this.

I'd really like to improve my skills - I've volunteered to get pics at the games and we have 4 left - all daytime games so thankfully I don't have to deal with night shooting just yet.

Thanks in advance for any direction you can give and for CC on the pics.

D

Pic1
http://flipperpics.smugmug.com/photos/i-6f5jPbm/0/M/i-6f5jPbm-M.jpg

Pic2
http://flipperpics.smugmug.com/photos/i-rX9fdsS/0/M/i-rX9fdsS-M.jpg

Pic3
http://flipperpics.smugmug.com/photos/i-zbf234p/0/M/i-zbf234p-M.jpg

jmphotocraft

1200 pics from one game? Dude, get it down to 200.

The pics you've posted actually look quite good. For Pic2 you'd probably have to shoot prone to do any better. Pic2 looks a little over exposed, but the face is exposed well enough and that is usually what matters. The other two look properly exposed to me, so I'd say you're on to something here. Adjust your settings to taste. Shooting manual under consistent light and exposing for the players is the right move. This prevents the camera from getting confused by varying backgrounds. In bright sun set contrast to -1.

7D can definitely be shot in single-point or single-point with expansion to avoid confusion with closer objects. Read the manual.

JimKarczewski

" I would find the whites getting all blown out - is there a technique to avoiding this."

Know the true exposure. Goes back to a reason either a separate incident light meter or a grey card is nice to have.

With a Grey Card, shoot it under "Av" at the aperture you're going to shoot. See what the shutter speed is. Set the camera to Manual, dial in the Aperture and the given shutter speed given with the grey card and forget about it.

I think the only cameras that have an RGB filter (that don't see only in greyscale) is the 1Dx series. A meter wants to overexpose black to bring it up to grey and typically wants to underexpose white to bring it down to grey. Be it close or far, unless they are running under a tree, the exposure should be the same pretty much throughout the game unless they are shooting in a time where the lights is converting like Day->dusk, Dawn->morning.

flipperpics

jmphotocraft wrote: »

1200 pics from one game? Dude, get it down to 200.

The pics you've posted actually look quite good. For Pic2 you'd probably have to shoot prone to do any better. Pic2 looks a little over exposed, but the face is exposed well enough and that is usually what matters. The other two look properly exposed to me, so I'd say you're on to something here. Adjust your settings to taste. Shooting manual under consistent light and exposing for the players is the right move. This prevents the camera from getting confused by varying backgrounds. In bright sun set contrast to -1.

7D can definitely be shot in single-point or single-point with expansion to avoid confusion with closer objects. Read the manual.

Thank you Sir, I'll dig out that book and see what I can find. I didnt try any prone shots this weekend so I'll be giving that a try next weekend.

flipperpics

JimKarczewski wrote: »

" I would find the whites getting all blown out - is there a technique to avoiding this."

Know the true exposure. Goes back to a reason either a separate incident light meter or a grey card is nice to have.

With a Grey Card, shoot it under "Av" at the aperture you're going to shoot. See what the shutter speed is. Set the camera to Manual, dial in the Aperture and the given shutter speed given with the grey card and forget about it.

I think the only cameras that have an RGB filter (that don't see only in greyscale) is the 1Dx series. A meter wants to overexpose black to bring it up to grey and typically wants to underexpose white to bring it down to grey. Be it close or far, unless they are running under a tree, the exposure should be the same pretty much throughout the game unless they are shooting in a time where the lights is converting like Day->dusk, Dawn->morning.

Thanks for the great tip - I'll give this a try this coming weekend.

johng

On whites getting blown out. Personally, the ONLY color that matters is facial tones. If you have good action, good composition and faces are properly exposed no one will notice or care that uniform highlights are blown. The reality is in bright light you don't have the dynamic range to get both right. You can lighten facial tones via curves (I prefer the dodge tool) to some degree but if you're having to adjust every photo to get faces correct you're wasting time IMO. Experience will be your guide - but if I have to sacrifice highlights in white uniforms I don't sweat it much. Highlights are blown in the uniform here but no one other than pixel-peeping photographers even notice:

mercphoto

johng wrote: »

On whites getting blown out. Personally, the ONLY color that matters is facial tones.

Precisely right.

Icebear