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best way to shoot football parent's night in the rain?


john_e2

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<p>I'll be shooting about 200 players and parents in a rushed parent's night on Friday. The forecast is for rain and the school has said they will proceed rain or not. What is the best way to deal with this situation. I've dealt with slight rain in the past and found using flash created streaks and made the rain obvious. my camera will sinc up to 250. Would it be better to try to shoot with no flash at high speed? the largest print will be 5x7.</p>
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<p>You're shooting photos of the parents with their player(s) as they stand on the field right? If possible - ask if they (school) and set up a quick tent for you and the parent that you're shooting to move under - then they leave the tent, next set comes in. </p>

<p>If they can't / won't do that - then next best is to go without flash. At night under the lights and adding flash to it - you're going to see the rain drops coming into the frame. </p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

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<p>set up a tent? Not a chance. I've got about 20- 30 minutes to shoot 180 to 200 sets of parents and students on the field. If game doesn't start on time, the home team gets penalized. they plan this right before kick off. very stressful situation and they want it done fast.<br>

Thanks for the tip. about what settings would you suggest?</p>

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<p>Let's get this straight ... you've got roughly 10 seconds to shoot each portrait, and that's if you shoot one every 10 seconds <em>without pause?</em> That's simply not going to happen rain or not.<br /><br />On the other hand, you can se up a 10x10 canopy (which takes about two minutes, before-hand) off on the sidelines, and recruit four people to help you walk it out onto the field in a matter of seconds. Then you can at least be out from under the rain, and a white-topped canopy happens also make a terrific large reflector for a bounced flash.<br /><br />But it sounds to me like your biggest problem is the completely impossible task of moving each set up subjects into place, pose them, shoot them, and move them out ... in 10 seconds.</p>
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<p>Matt: Parent's night is always hectic. Coaches hate it and wouldn't do it if they didn't have to. I usually get told to speed it up during the shoot. I'm shooting each group in ten seconds or less. there's no posing involved. the parent's are told what to do. If they follow directions fine if not to bad is basically the situation, if it's windy hair is flying all over the place it's ridiculous, but that's the way it is and I have no authority to tell them what to do. they tell me where to stand , how the parents will be organized etc.. the announcer announces the parents, I snap a pic and they step out of the way for the next group. It's usually not this many but they've decided to include JV and freshmen. it's going to be windy and raining but the school will proceed so I have to do the best I can with the situation. usually it's just varsity and I get about 15-20 minutes. </p>
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<p>John - </p>

<p>Matt echoed my suggestion perfectly - and did a better job explaining it... Thanks Matt! </p>

<p>I'll shoot at the highest shutter speed possible with an ISO of no more than 800. Let the f-stop fall where it may. </p>

<p>Since you're dealing with wind and rain, put a plastic bag over your camera body and just have the lens poking through, unless you have a body that is completely sealed like a D3, D4 or Canon 1D xx . </p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

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<p>Under the conditions imposed on you, I would simply turn down the job. But since you've already accepted, I would most definitely shoot flash. High school football fields are poorly lit and without flash you're likely to end up with too slow a shutter speed and too wide an aperture to guarantee sharp pictures under these conditions. Recycling is not an issue -- you're not going to be far enough away from the students that the flash needs to do a full pop. Use a battery pack if you have one. As for rain drops in the picture, well if they are forcing you to work under unworkable circumstances, they clearly don't care about details like that. Just do the best you can.<br />All that said, I would encourage the school to entirely re-think this, at least for future years. There are multiple ways you can do a good job of this, either on the field or inside in front of a backdrop or maybe some banner with the team logo. </p>
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