grrrr.....frustrating

BBones

Shot at the track this week and had the worst time getting exposures right. Anyone give me a clue here for shooting in overcast conditions? Piece of clean xerox paper at a 45 degree angle for white balance? Or go out and buy an 18% grey card (not sure what to do with that though, never used one)

http://studio819.smugmug.com/Proformance/70118

Steve Cavigliano

Brandon,

I'm at work and I have no way of checking the histograms on these, so I'm not going to venture any guesses about what you could have done exposure-wise. But I did notice that the color seems OK, IMO. IOW, manual/custom wb might not give you that much help there. With bright colored cars, like the yellow Vette and the white VW, the exposures look to be decent, in most cases. The red, blue and silver car images look flat for some reason Maybe it's a case of too many midtones, resulting in most of the image being at 18% (or neutral). Possibly, a blast of USM with fog/haze settings (20/60/0) might help I think that would pep them up some, but it probably won't make the occupants any brighter, or easier to see.

Even though he's probably never shot races, I bet Shay Stephens could give you some tips on how to get the most out of this type of lighting. I'll send him a message and ask him to stop by

I know you weren't overjoyed with the results, but some of them are very nice

Thanks for sharing,
Steve

Shay Stephens

A few things here

1) Shooting in overcast conditions is similar to shooting with very large softboxes. The contrast of the entire scene will be lower than when a harder source of light is used. A scene that is typically seen using hard light (high contrast) but shot with soft light is going to look flat and blah. So adjusting contrast and color saturation in post may help.

2) The photos look to be about a stop under exposed. Combined with issue number one above, the photos are going to lack pop. Better metering can help here to get a good exposure out of the camera. A light meter can be a big help here in getting exposure help. But even without a meter, as you mentioned, a white card (or gray card) can be used in conjunction with the cameras metering system to get a good exposure.

3) In overcast light, place the white card facing up to the sky, aim the camera at the center at about a 45 degree angle, and spot meter (or partial meter) off the paper. Adjust the exposure in manual mode until the meter reads 1.7EV to 2EV*. With a gray card, change that to 0EV. The exposure should be a lot closer to ideal without having to rely on the camera to decide the exposure.

4) You could use the auto or semi-auto exposure modes. Try dialing in positive EV compensation to taste paying attention to the in-camera histogram on review. This will give you less control over the exposure, but may be more convenient than manual in fast changing lighting situations. In overcast conditions, the light intensity does not change very quickly though, so I would recommend using manual mode for consistency.

5) If the photos don't come out looking the way you envisioned them, post process them. If you have to brighten them up, adjust the contrast, and the color saturation, you have a better idea of what you need to do next time in camera (as an example).

* This is the basic zone system at work. I recommend studying the zone system (as it applies to exposure) for anyone struggling with exposure. It is powerful and liberating.

BBones

In overcast light, place the white card facing up to the sky, aim the camera at the center at about a 45 degree angle, and spot meter (or partial meter) off the paper.

On the 20D, which one (meter) is that? 35 area eval, center weighted, partial? I mean, which icon is it? the circle with the dot in the middle, the circle alone or the nothing (yeah, high tech terms I know)

Shay Stephens

Those icons are dreadfully confusing, as is the lack of spot meter, but I digress ;-)

The metering icons are explained on page 71 of the manual:

[ (o) ] Evaluative Metering
[ ( ) ] Partial Metering
[   ] Centerweighted Average Metering

BBones wrote:

On the 20D, which one (meter) is that? 35 area eval, center weighted, partial? I mean, which icon is it? the circle with the dot in the middle, the circle alone or the nothing (yeah, high tech terms I know)

BBones

The metering icons are explained on page 71 of the manual

Have the camera with me, not the manual, ah well.

So set the camera to the partial metering and then et the white balance and after that play with the shutter/Fstop/ISO until I hit +1.7/+2.0?

If so, I can go home happy, I already learned my new thing of the day and I have a photoshoot tonight from 10-3 at the club with Tommy Lee!!!

Shay Stephens

You got it :-)

Enjoy your shoot! Post some photos too.

BBones wrote:

If so, I can go home happy, I already learned my new thing of the day and I have a photoshoot tonight from 10-3 at the club with Tommy Lee!!!

ian408

Shay Stephens wrote:

* This is the basic zone system at work. I recommend studying the zone system (as it applies to exposure) for anyone struggling with exposure. It is powerful and liberating.

Any recommended reading?

Also, I'd recommend getting a good hand-held meter too.

ian

Steve Cavigliano

ian408 wrote:

Any recommended reading?

ian

A couple of good sites (I like em )

http://www.digitalsecrets.net/Sony/AdvancedKnow.html

http://www.cicada.com/pub/photo/zs/



Steve

BBones

Shay Stephens wrote:

You got it :-)

Enjoy your shoot! Post some photos too.

Linkie:
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=9038

mercphoto

BBones wrote:

Shot at the track this week and had the worst time getting exposures right. Anyone give me a clue here for shooting in overcast conditions?

When I shoot racing in overcast skies with my 20D, I bump up the exposure compensation by +2/3 stop. This helps brighten things up a tad. I also always shoot racing with Parameters 1, but in overcast skies you could also bump the contrast to +2, possibly even the saturation. The only thing is to remember to back those settings out as the sun emerges from the clouds.

Lastly, I've found in-camera JPG's of my outdoor racing to respond very favorably to an auto-levels adjustment as well. You might try that -- take 30 images and run them through auto-levels in a Photoshop batch, see if you universally like the results or not.