Morning's light on soccer

[photog1107]

I am looking for advice on camera settings to avoid this overexposure. I shot this with my 7D at about 9 in the morning, under bright sunlight conditions. I shot it with with shutter priority at 1/500, thinking that the aperture would stop down accordingly, but my aperture stayed open at a steady 5.0, so that my entire batch of shots from that morning were pretty overexposed.


I was using spot metering mode... would evaluative metering have been a better choice? Any ideas on improving exposure are welcomed!

[Drkranger]

Not saying what lens you were using (looking at your sig, I see the 75-300 4-5.6 listed), I'd say the aperture was "constant" because of the zoom level you were using. However, if the photo is over exposed at 1/500 and you're shooting sports and the key to sports is stopping the action, upping the shutter speed would be logical. When I shoot sports, I shoot as fast as light will allow. I've gotten to 1/4000 in some cases, but that's really, really bright.

The other options are to set the EV to -, like -3, -7, etc. With the shutter at 1/500 and the aperture at f/5.0, a negative EV, will attempt to close the aperture so less light enters. Also looking at the ISO could be necessary. Were you shooting at 400, 800? If so, setting to 200 would help there too. Finally, look at shooting manual: set both the aperture and shutter to what you want. If the light is constant (no overcast clouds to sun problem), then once set, you should be fine.

Another thing to consider here is the different shades of jerseys. It will be challenging to get both the dark green and bright white jersey with perfect exposure. Get the white one good and the green will be dark and vice versa. I too use spot meter, but with the above info on jerseys in mind, I look for a happy medium...and focus on the faces getting those exposed properly.

Good luck.

[danbaileyphoto]

This scene has an overall mix of tonal range, so an evaluative or matrix meter would work fine here. And, you could always go back and reduce the brightness a bit in post in order to richen up the shot, especially if you shot the image in RAW.

This shot can definitely be salvaged, as the only thing that's totally blown out are the white sections of the building across the street, but they're not very prominent in the shot.

[Jim Bryant]

Also cropping down from the top and from the right hand side, such as this would also help.
If you know how to work in curves instead of levels that might help as well.

[gturner]

Spot metering caused the problem here. It is a TINY area that is used and if it is picking a dark bush in the back it will meter for that ignoring the rest of the image.

If you have bright subject AND a mixed background, the use matrix. evaluative and them dial down the exposure compensation. That will save the very brightest areas being completely blown.

If it is really bright you can also go up to 1/1000 or more.

[youknowhat]

hi I would like to share some experience with you

Don't use S (shutter priority) mode, use Av , or use M (sound scary isn't it ?)

and use centred-weight matering system. and start looking at the EV bar .

Using M is particular important shooting indoor , outdoor , I would use AV

and always shoot in RAW! (using a really fast card) then you have got approximately 1 stop to play with after you take the shot.

and increase contract by using the curve.

Sorry my English isn't really good, hope you understand what I am trying to say...

and one last thing . Knee down (taking from lower angle) when you shoot sport, it gives you more impact in your photo.!!!!