high contrast and exposure help needed

[jrueter]

I know someone can help, but I'm new to photography, so please keep your advice simple (thanks).

I have been taking pictures of my son's baseball team with my new Canon Rebel XS with the 55-250mm IS lens and have been really happy with what I have been able to achieve as a beginner using the Sports mode and occassionally dabbling in the Creative modes.

I took a bunch of pictures over the weekend of my son's new team. I think their high contrast black and white uniforms are making getting the exposure balance right harder - a lot of my pictures are washed out in the light areas (pants and the dirt basepaths).

My question is: to get the best balance taking photos (generally in bright sun), which settings should I try to fix manually and which should I let the camera choose, since I am not ready to go full manual to capture the action (yet!). If you know which mode that is on a Canon, that would help too.



Thanks so much!!!

[wamplers]

I would advise turning the contrast down and enabling highlight tone priority (HTP). HTP is done via a custom function and contrast is in the picture styles. Also, if you'll shoot jpeg, you'll have more leeway for adjusting the whites and blacks in software after the fact.

[gturner]

Your metering mode is the problem
The camera is on matrix, trying to correctly expose all parts of the image, even the dark benches behind the player.

Set the camera to PARTIAL metering off the bright grass or pants (NOT the black shirt)
EXPLANATION - Canon Rebel XTi (400D) Partial Metering: Diagram

Then set the mode to Tv. (shutter priority) at anything over 1/1000 - sports mode is not your friend!

Always keep the sun at your back or even better at a slight angle so that you are not getting the harshest direct bounced light coming back at you.

[jrueter]

wamplers - I will definitely play with the contrast; it might take me a little longer to figure out the HTP in the custom features, but I will give it a shot.

gturner - I suspected metering mode would help, but in sports mode I can't change it and wasn't sure which of the other semi-manual modes would be my best option. I have played with them some and had occassional success with Tv. I am pretty sure you are right that the black shirt is throwing everything off - my son's last team had orange jerseys and grey pants - colorful, but not high dark/light contrast and I never noticed this problem. And thanks for the reminder about the sun - I am usually so focused on trying to get the action I forget about that, although these were taken pretty much at midday.

[gturner]

the dark batting enclosure is a bigger problem than the shirt.

put it on Tv, spot meter on his white pants and put the centre dot on his pants, not anywhere else and see what happens

[sk66]

If it's consistent, just dial in a little minus exposure compensation...