Softball Day-game

rgbivens

Hey gang,

First thing is I have a question... It was my first time to shoot softball at the college level the other day and I found myself in a difficult situation. It was a day game and about the 4th inning on shadows started creeping onto the field. By the 5th inning of the first game the shadow was covering home and third and by the 6th the pitchers mound was covered. I found myself switching my white balance from 'shadow' to 'sunlight' depending on where I was shooting. Auto WB just wasn't working for me at all. This got really awkward when a play happened which went from the shade into the sun or vice-versa. By the time I could change my WB the play would be over. I was using a D2Hs and a 300mm/2.8 and a 70-200mm/2.8 lens. I was mainly staying on aperture mode making sure to keep my shutter speed above 1/500 of a second. So my question is...is there a better way to shoot in this type of situation?

Here are some un-edited shots from the game...C&C welcome...

-Grant

rgbivens

Firstbase catch

rgbivens

Out at second

johng

Grant,

First to your question - if the auto WB on your camera is having fits, switch to RAW. Trying to dial in different WB settings just isn't going to work. From my experience I have more issues with the dynamic range in those situations than anything - i.e. I have to keep changing ISO because I'll have a 5 stop range shift from heavy shadows at the plate say to bright sun in the field. I've found the auto WB on my Canon 20d does a very good job - but when it's having problems I just shoot in RAW and fix it later.

On the shots - I really like the 1st shot - it should clean up nicely with PP. The other two appear to be a bit soft. Were you using the 300? If so, where were you shooting from? Of course all that really matters is how they look after you crop and sharpen.

As to the colors - it looks like you're getting a yellow bias. So, if you adjust the saturation of your yellows you should be able to correct. If you've got a gallery of jpegs - create an action to do the adjustment. I get this a lot with nighttime football and the action approach has worked for me on the handful of shots that need it.

Seefutlung

#2 and #3 could use some tightening, better in the camera otherwise in the computer. If you haven't any deadline pressure ... than RAW, otherwise I would worry about color balance, ... action is more important than a slight shift to blue ... personally, if the color is way off ... I'd do a conversion to B&W.

rgbivens

Thanks for the feedback guys...

As far as shooting RAW goes it's really not an option. I'm a Photographer and Photo Editor at my school (Oklahoma State) paper so usually the games will be ran on the following days paper which means they are selected and edited the night they are taken. Being the Photo Editor I don't have time to deal with RAWs. I have anywhere from 2-4 photographers coming in each night to drop off photos and I have to go through hundreds of pictures in a very limited amount of time.

I found the day after that I could have went on the field. If I would have known that I would have had a TON of way better shots... I was limited to standing in a stairwell by third base. Which meant I was shooting down on my subjects the whole time. Next time I will have some waaay more 'personal' shots.

Thanks again for the C&C
-Grant