metering black and white subjects

[jakobl]

Hi,<br/>

I have recently shot some football games. <br/>

At one game the one side had white shirts and the others had black shirts. <br/>

This is of course sometimes troubeling the metering of the camera.<br/>

I tried it with m mode, read from a correctly exposted picture but

when the light's changing on the field that's also not working.<br/>

<br/><br/>

How do you deal with this problem?<br/>

<i>Jakob</i>

[david_wu6]

Since you are shooting sports game, there are usaually no much time to try to figure the correct exposure. But you can at least:

1 use AEB;

2 use raw and worry about the correct exposure later with software;

3 find gray area to lock the exposure (be careful about AF) and then compose.

[rodeo_joe1]

Get yourself a handheld incident light meter and learn how to use it, or get a grey card and meter from that with the camera. The only problem is that both the grey card and the incident reading method require that you meter the exact same light that's falling on the subject, and that might be a problem if you're sitting on the terraces and not on the football field itself.

 

Anyway, I think you're probably making too big a deal out of the colour of the shirts. The evaluative metering mode on EOS cameras is extremely good, and will pick up on the highlights or shadows of a scene and interpret them correctly.

 

Have you tried just setting the camera on shutter priority and letting the evaluative metering sort the exposure out? You might be surprised at how good Canon's automatic metering software can be.

[mark u]

There are several approaches in variable lighting:

 

1) set exposure for the brighter, or the darker conditions and concentrate on shooting when the light is right - this doesn't preclude shooting when the light is wrong, but will leave you a lot of post processing work to produce a half usable shot if the variation in light is more than 2 stops. It's usually better to set for brighter conditions rather than have blown highlights. Shoot RAW for maximum post processing flexibility - which applies generally.

 

2) set the camera up for two different exposures in M mode and toggle between them, if your camera offers a C mode on the dial or other means of achieving this. That can allow different ISO to be set for a similar aperture/shutter speed. If you are working in M mode with a camera that lacks these capabilities be sure to set exposure adjustment to half stop clicks rather than 1/3rd stop so that there are fewer clicks required to change

exposure. Set base exposure for the darker conditions so that there is adequate shutter speed and more than adequate in bright light.

 

3) shoot wide open in Av mode at an ISO that gives a good shutter speed in the darker conditions (so it will be even faster in bright conditions), and trust automatic metering, perhaps with some override from rapid exposure compensation tweaks. Shoot looser compositions so that there is more mid tone grass in the image to help the metering and crop in post processing.

 

4) wait for a better day with more constant lighting.

 

You have to accept that when conditions are difficult you may get fewer keepers.

[ronald_moravec1]

Find a mid tone subject, set the exposure and shoot on manual. Manual keeps the

exposure from jumping all over based on the uniform colors which would give in correct

exposures. Check the histogram on a few samples and shoot away. I did this with some

figure skating pictures last week. All were right on. Film photogs did this forever.

 

It is a myth exposures can be fixed in raw with top quality.

 

An incident meter is another way, but the meter has to be in the same light as the subject,

something not possible if you are in shaded bleachers.

 

Set the WB to daylight.

[jay a. frew]

Hello:

 

I agree with Ronald Moravec...meter a mid-tone in the scene.

 

Quite often, green grass is a very good, readily available mid-tone to meter. I would do some tests with the surface of the football field and see how it turns out.

 

Cheers! Jay

[William Michael]

There are two issues: one is the white / black shirts; the other is the changing light.

 

I would shot manual and, after having established my shooting parameters on a skin tone:

 

Then I would adjust only for the changing light conditions: in this regard also the team`s shirts would cause me to not deviate from this procedure.

 

If for that change in light, a new skin tone was not readily available, I would use the grass.

 

So really what I am saying is the team`s colours would be of little relevance to me, I generally meter from a skin tone of a close player, ref, or my extended left hand: This technique only becomes tricky when there is different light patches across the field, itself: that`s when I meter the grass, in that area I wish to shoot.

 

I shoot RAW + JPEG (L) and use a 20D and a 5D.

 

WW

[colinsouthern]

My guess is that up until now you've probably been using evaluative metering - you're picking up some direct light - and you're getting severe under-exposure of the players as a result.

 

Personally, I'd suggest using either partial or spot metering - and shoot RAW. Manual's not going to work for you in changing light conditions, and an incident meter is going to be totally useless (unless you want to run to the centre of the filed - meter the player - set the exposure in the camera - run back to the stand - and take the shot all before the player moves to an area of different lighting!).

[jakobl]

Thank you all for the answers.<br>

First I forgot to say I'm shooting with a 20D, 100-400L, AEB, AV and M.<br>

Many of you told me to shoot raw, usally I do so but the 20D buffer for raw files is very limited (maybe I should get a faster CF card :)<br>

I think after about 5 or 6 shots I have to wait for some time and I could miss some of the action in meantime.<br>

I allready considered most of the suggested, so I think I have to live with some overexposed pictures (about 10%) and fix them in PS.<br>

<p>

thanks again<br>

Jakob</p>

[William Michael]

> Many of you told me to shoot raw, usually I do so but the 20D buffer for raw files is very limited (maybe I should get a faster CF card :) <

 

. . . or learn time your shots better. If I use continuous shooting, I pop off about three at the most. I think that is a better option with the `limitation` of the camera.

 

. . . or try different exposure techniques and shoot JPEG only.

 

. . . or if you want a machine gun, get a 1 series.

 

WW