shooting Football with an overcast sky on the day

[scott_southard]

Hi everyone.

 

I am shooting a highschool football team today. The sky is overcast.

 

Any pointers' on what I should set my Canon 20d SLR and Canon EF70-200mm F2.8l

IS USM lens atto get a great shot?

 

Also, what should my white balance be set at?

 

Should I use the Cloud icon?

 

Thanks.

 

Scott Southard

[josh_ross1]

The cloud icon is fine. If you pick the cloud and shoot RAW the shots will be a consistent color and you can later change them all to something different if you decide to. As far as what to do about the cloud cover there isn't a whole lot you can do. Put the camera in Aperture priority at 2.8 and hope the shutter speeds are fast enough. If not you might want to think about how you can creatively use some motion blur to enhance the shots rather than ruining them.

[ekoppel]

Perhaps the ISO should be bumped up to 800, along with shooting in Av mode at f/2.8.

[dcheung]

at ISO800 and f/2.8, there should be plenty of shutter speed to freeze most football motion....even when overcast.....unless you get such a thick cloud cover that day feels like night.

[josh_ross1]

yah I forgot to mention ISO. Go up as needed.

[jcmellen]

Be very very thankful that you have overcast skies! That just made your job soooo much easier.

 

Broad daylight = metering nightmare. Highschool stadium lights at night = poor lighting nightmare. Overcast daytime game = heaven.

 

I'd keep it on iso800. Might even stop down a half a stop or so, as lenses tend to be their least sharp wide open....even the Canon 70-200 2.8L. I'd keep it on 3.5 or so. You should easily be able to pull 1/500 shutter speed. If your pulling faster than that, I'd even drop your ISO down to 400 if you can get away with it.

 

When shooting HS football, i'm usually happy if I can pull 1/350...and am extatic if i can get 1/500. 1/250 is usually typical for most stadiums in my area.

 

If you look at the photos in this section - http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=554946 - the first 16 were all taken during an afternoon football game in overcast lighting. If i remember correctly, I was shooting with a 20D, 400mm 2.8L, iso800, and 1/500ish at probably f3.5. The next 8 photos were taken at a night game (with unusually good lights for the area) with a 20D, a 300mm 2.8L (think), and were probably at iso1600 at 1/250 or 1/350 @ 2.8.

[keith_lubow]

The best way to set it properly is to bring a grey card with you, put it in the grass facing the sky, and take a shot with it filling the frame, exposed normally. Then go to the menu, select a custom white balance. The camera will ask you to choose an image, and then you select the shot of the grey card.

 

I would not use any "priority" setting or shoot raw. There is no reason to use different exposures for each shot when there is fairly constant lighting. Rather, expose based on overall light level...also the reading that you got off of the grey card. if you do this, all the tones will fall into place correctly without relying on luminance readings. Nobody shoots raw when it comes to professional sports shooting.

 

Keith