Baseball - Face Shadows

[Leroy_Photography]

Does anyone have a technique for shooting afternoon baseball that would

eliminate face shadows? Or, does anyone have a technique for correcting face

shadows using Capture NX? I use a Nikon D50 with a Nikkor AF-S VR 70-300

f/4.5-5.6 G IF ED lens (I know, it's not the best set up, but I'm an amature

with a very limited budget). I try to shoot from different locations and

sometimes I'm limited to shooting into the sun. I've tried using the "sports"

setting, but find that the contrast and color seem to work better in "program"

mode. Would a different setting help?<div></div>

[tri-x1]

Yep:

 

Geta REALLY powerful flash and hit 'em in the eyes just as they release the ball or swing the bat. It's baseball. They don't even play in the rain. They need to have to deal with distractions sometimes. :)

 

Kidding aside, there isn't a whole lot you can to because if you want detail in shadows on a sunny day, everything else will be overexposed. If you are shootng raw the D-lighting feature in Capture NX can soften the shadows and of course the D300 and D3 have it built in--although I use Capture NX instead.

[ShunCheung]

Well, even the D3 cannot avoid issues with shadows. One "solution" is to concentrate on overcast days and/or late afternoon games. :-)

[wing8]

Like Wayne, I suggest you try the "D-lighting" settings in NX.

[kevin_jones2]

I have shot a lot of baseball and without flash. IMO, flash is inappropriate for most sports even though it yields better results. Incidently, the previous poster is correct, it would take alot of flash to effectively shoot baseball. I was unable to resolve the hat shadow on the face other than to take advantage of overcast days early in the season and shoot more late in the game when the sun was lower.

[elliot1]

Try decreasing the contrast setting of your camera. The shadows can easily be corrected in Photoshop or similar software.

[ShunCheung]

I am sure Wayne was completely joking about using a strong flash. Doing so would really bother the players and get yourself kicked out of the game.

 

But shadows can be your firend, too. I know it is a different sport, but I think some of my tennis images work because of the shadows. At least that is why I like them myself.

[douglas_greenberg]

You can use the shadows/highlight adjustment in Photoshop to adjust the shadows as your wish. Too much adjustment creates an unnatural look, but some minor adjustment can be quite effective. Just about all post-processing programs have a function equivalent to this.

[Jerry_]

You might want to keep in mind that your are shooting sport images and not studio portraits. The shadows are part of the baseball atmosphere and unless you end up with pure black under the hat, no one will mind some areas of shadow in action shots.

[andrew_luke2]

I've shot my D70s with an SB-28 (+ pocketwizard) on the shadow side aimed at the pitcher at high school games to get the sync at around 1/500 to 1/1000 (if the PW allowed it...noisy areas prevented this sometimes) for better action-stopping... but I do have to shoot way open to get the extra reach of the flash and sometimes an ND filter was required on really bright days to prevent the overexposure from shooting f/4 and 1/500... the DOF can be a real hindrance though.

 

I always try to overexpose a third stop shooting film... actually i loved shooting velvia and pushing it that third to half stop.

[gglatz]

Laura - if you wanted to lighten the facial shaadow area in NX you could try 2 methods; place a color control point with a small selection and then apply d-lighting or levels change by moving the highlight and middle slider(to the left). Also, you could click the "add step area", paint a mask on the shadow area with a small brush and lighten it by d-lighting, curves or clicking to "screen" the area. If too bright then you could decrease the opacity as needed. Adjust the feather to smooth out the change. Best of luck, Greg

[Peter_in_PA]

the photo looks just fine to me the way it is.

 

In fact, it looks really good!

[Leroy_Photography]

Thanks Y?all. I always appreciate your help (and clever comments). I?ll try your suggestions. I haven?t worked much with the D-lighting but will pull out the manual and give it a go. Thanks again.

[tom_luongo1]

To change contrast on the D50, go to the "Optimize Image" menu and select Tone Compensation and set it to Low Contrast.

 

Shooting RAW makes post processing adjustments easier, but may slow down the speed of your shooting.<div></div>

[Leroy_Photography]

Thanks Tom. The adjustments you made look good. I shoot in RAW for baseball and haven't had much of a problem in catching the shots. I tried using RAW in football and missed too many shots so I had to jump back to JPG. I'm not sure what my camera's tone compensation is set for, but will check and try it on low. Thanks again.

[tom_luongo1]

When you are shooting RAW, the tone and saturation settings are only for the embedded jpeg preview and the RAW data will be unaffected. As long as your image processing software reads the RAW file directly, you can make the tone changes after you shoot.

 

This is one of the benefits of being able to shoot RAW instead of jpeg. However, if shooting jpeg only, it is to post-process from lower to higher contrast than vice versa, thus the recommendation to set tone compensation to low.