This sun is killing me! Help!

[photog1107]

I am shooting a lot of mid-day sun sports lately and cannot seem to counteract mid-day sun exposure issues. Here is a sample shot--straight from the camera.



My exif are: ISO 400, f.5, 1/6000. My camera is set to center-weighted average metering, so I generally am metering for the player, not as much of the field around her.

I have had to spend quite a bit of time fudging around with the overall exposure balance in LR3 to make these shots palatable. They are much better now, but still, wonder what i need to do to get better results in camera. Would a circular polarizng filter do the trick? What tricks can anyone share for high-contrast day sports shooting. (I have pushed ISO to 400 to enable a superfast shutter speed, likewise a relatively large aperture to do the same, as well as to decrease depth of field.)

Thanks for any helpful tips and ideas!

[kirbinster]

A CP will only help if you are 90 degrees to the direction of the sun, or close to that. I don't think you need to shoot that fast, and dropping your ISO to the camera native level would give better quality images. Also why F/5? I would think you would want to be sharp on the player / ball and have the background out of focus. Assume you have a lens hood, if not use one. Other than that you are sort of stuck with the sun if that is when the game is.

[photog1107]

Ok, I am shooting with a Canon 70-300 mm 4.5-5.6 IS, so I am shooting with the widest aperture available for the focal length. This shot was 190 mm so I think the camera went to 5.0. I went up to ISO 400 to increase my shutter speed from around 1/250 to more like 1/1600 to really stop action.

You make a good point with the lens hood, b/c I did not have that on, but beyond helping with stray directional light, I am not sure how that would help the overall exposure.

This particular game was at 12:00 noon; you don't think the polarizer would help? Unless I am not understanding, that would actually be 90 degrees, as you mention.

[kirbinster]

Ninety degrees would mean the sun is due west and you are facing due south or due north.

Assuming you were at ISO 200, Raising it to ISO 400 would take your shutter from 1/250th to about 1/500th not 1/1600th.

[photog1107]

No, my original ISO was 100; I raised it to 400 and it took it from 1/250 to 1/600, at least for this shot.

Ok... thanks for the clarification on the polarizer. However, I am getting the feeling that for conditions like this, there IS no better fix other than lots of PP?

Here is my PP result of the same shot btw. Just wish I knew if there was a way to capture this in camera under midday sun conditions.

[RichardTaylor]

The only thing you can do is position yourself so you can use the sun to best advantage.
ie: Move so you are not shooting directly into the sun for most of your pics.

It can be a bit of a balancing act trying to have clean backgrounds and close to the action shooting positions etc.

In motor sport photography we call it "following the sun"

Shooting RAW may help with the PPing.

.

[sk66]

In your first post you said the exif SS was 1/6000 and later 1/1600..which is correct?

There are several things but the two biggest that I think might be relevant here is not being at the lens's best aperture and not using the hood.

Stray light can significantly impact an image, especially if it is glancing across the objective lens. At any setting wider than the lens's best aperture you are loosing contrast and clarity.

[photog1107]

Thanks, will definetely try the hood next time, and see if there is improvement. (And sorry, it was 1/1600, not 1/6000.)

Thanks!

[sk66]

Then I think you might have been better pushing ISO further and getting a better aperture. Wide open is almost never "best".