Re: [Leica] Shooting football with R7 and exposure problems

["Robert G. Stevens" <robsteve@istar.ca>]

Harrison:

I was afraid that an incident meter was the answer.  I do not own one and
was hoping I do not have to buy one.  I had thought of doing what Martin
Howard had suggested, meter off the grass and then meter the scene with the
players and set the exposure compensation dial until they match.  

In the last game, I was comparing my meter reading with that of a pro
beside me, and it was the same, but would fluctuate when the lighter colors
of the home team or the refs were in the scene.  He too suggested an
incident meter.  He was shooting negative film and said his Nikon multi
pattern meter seem to get it fine on auto.  I will probably have to bite
the bullet and get an incident meter.

As for shooting chromes, I am a member of a photo guild where our slides
are used for competition in the club and at PSA and CAPA organizations.  To
compete, they must be slides.  One of my Dragon boat pictures, that is not
on my web site ( http://home.istar.ca/~robsteve/photography/dragonboat.htm
), scored high enough in a Guild competition that it went away to one of
the international competitions.

Your photo http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto/backlit.jpg is very good.
Which lens and camera did you use for it?  It too shows how much white
jersey can be in a football photo to throw off the meter.

Regards,

Robert


At 01:26 PM 10/20/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Robert,
>
>When I shoot football on chrome (usually RDPII) I try to shoot from the 
>back lit side of the field and use an Incident meter, metering so that I 
>am exposing for the shadow areas.  I meter continuously throughout the 
>game, almost between every play.  If you ever see the shooters who work 
>for AllSport, SI, or other outlets who shoot a lot of chrome at the day 
>games you will see many of them doing this same thing.
>
>The reason I prefer the back lit side of the field is that I am exposing 
>for the shadows and the faces show up better, more apt to see the eyes, 
>also with the light hitting from behind there is a nice rim light to the 
>players and this helps them pop out of the background.  As far as how to 
>meter accurately with the chrome on the camera's internal meter you 
>should preferably shoot manual as chrome is way to unforgiving to allow 
>metering mistakes.  I would meter the grass and see what it was reading, 
>if shooting from the back lit side I would open up 1 1/2 to 2 stops.  Of 
>course this would require trial and error...for an assignment I would not 
>even attempt using the in camera meter for chrome I just don't trust it.  
>I trust my Minolta as I have run tests on it and have used it as my meter 
>of choice for almost 15 years now.
>
>I know some will say the incident is too slow, but for me there is no 
>other way.  For days where the exposure is bouncing all over the scale I 
>tend to shoot color neg.  I prefer to get an image and if it is 
>absolutely necessary to have a slide I will get a dupe made to slide 
>after the fact.
>
>I have uploaded 2 photos from the last game I shot using Provia (RDPII) 
>showing both angles.
>

>http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto/backlit.jpg
>is the photo made from the back lit side of the field.  If you look you 
>can see detail in the face of the fellow making the tackle, even though 
>he is a black person with very little light hitting his face.
>
>http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto/frontlit.jpg
>is a photo made when the play was going in the opposite direction on the 
>field and I had to shoot with the light.  As you can see the fellow who 
>has the light hitting him full in the face is fine, the other player with 
>the head slightly turned is totally black, no detail at all.
>
>BTW both of these photos were made with a Canon F1n & 4002.8 lens, the 
>front lit one with the 1.4 converter.  Both manual focus. Both shot with 
>the aperture wide open.  
>
>Now who said you gotta have AF to shoot sports? :) :)
>
>Robert G. Stevens wrote
>
>>The sky was cloudy and the
>>sun was  poking out every now and then.  This is why I shot on auto rather
>>than manual.  When I developed the slides, I noticed that any picture with
>>white jerseys in it was underexposed.  I had this same problem the previous
>>week but though it was because I was using spot auto.
>>
>>I guess my question is, should I shoot on manual, what should I meter off?
>>What did you do when you had the R7.  The press guys at the games use
>>colour print film around 800 asa and I assume its whide lattitude make up
>>for small metering errors.  The slide film is just not forgiving.  I am
>>going to try it with +1/2 compensation the next time and see if I get
>>better detail.
>
>
>Harrison McClary
>http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto
>new book at http://www.volmania.com
>
>
>
>
>