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...C & C welcome.
All taken at f9, ISO 800, AV, time mid-afternoon....it was an overcast day.
Batavia Muckdogs vs. Lowell Spinners 8-9-09
1/500, +67
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...tor/3rdout.jpg
1/250, +33
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...3groundout.jpg
1/250, +67
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...htstealing.jpg
Thanks for any input
Bill
What camera/lens combo?
Why f/9 and ISO 800?
Are those numbers showing exposure compensation? What method did you use to choose your EC values? Unless you were having trouble "exposing to the right", I'd drop your EC to 0, open up the aperture of your lens, and drop the ISO (as far as you can without pushing your shutter speed too slow).
Definitely good timing skills to start!
I knew I left out something Peety......40D, 100-400. We were sitting so close to the field I didn't have to zoom any more than 250 for infield action.
I started off shooting (experimenting) w/higher F stops and ISO 400, but as it became closer to game time the heavier, darker clouds moved in (there were breaks, but also darker skies w/rain) necessitating me to increase my ISO, drop my F stop, to maintain suitable shutter speed....experimenting, during warm-ups, showed me low 200's to 500 seemed suitable.
I noted w/the EC at 0 the faces were coming out too dark (shade due to hats and helmets) for my taste and PP skills.
Timing skills???? I think it's more the 40D's AI Servo, hi-speed ability. LOL
Hope this additional info helps Peety.
Regards
Bill
The 100-400's inconsistent max aperture makes this tough. Regardless, I'd have gone for wide open (or a lot closer to wide open), which would be f/4.5 until 130mm and f/5 until 250mm. I'd zoom to 100mm, set aperture to f/4.5, zoom to 250mm or longer, check shutter speeds, and walk ISO down to the lowest possible value that still gave you the shutter speed you wanted.
Good call on using EC to fix faces. You may want to experiment with other metering modes...I still 'experiment' (in the purest sense of the word!) with this all the time. I'd recheck ISO after adjusting EC or metering mode...don't want to drop shutter speed too low.
Somewhere along the line, Daniel Browning mentioned that the "in-between" ISO settings (i.e. those other than 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600) all lead to sub-optimal image quality, so I've set my cameras to full-stop ISO settings. So far, I've been very happy with the results.
Peety; what's your reasoning for wide open aperture settings in this situation?
My reasoning for a more closed down aperture was 2 fold; first the bokeh on the 100-400 isn't great (IMO) so I wanted to negate bokeh as much as possible. Secondly, shooting outdoors with varying light conditions I wanted to maintain the DOF (AV) w/varying shutter speeds. F9 consistently gave me shutter speeds (200-500 at ISO 800) and decent crispness to background info.
To me this (beneficial) effect is most apparent in the first photo where the 2nd baseman is relatively in focus and the capture wouldn't be as effective (IMO) if he was lost in lousy bokeh.
Your (anybody's) thoughts on how I addressed my baseball experience?
Please don't think I'm debating your suggestion Peety after asking for C&C...I'm just trying to understand your reasoning for (close to) wide open aperture.
Your statement "walking ISO down" is fully understandable and shooting at "tweener" ISO's is interesting...I'll search for DB's entry on this subject.
Thank you
Bill
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill W
Bokeh seems to have different meanting to different people. That said, at f/4.5 and the distances I'm thinking you were shooting at, I don't know if you'd actually be exceeding DoF amongst your subjects; the spread subjects might force you to "focus" on one of them, but even then I don't think your backgrounds would be that blurred. And, lousy bokeh tends to show itself in highlights, and there aren't many point-source highlights in your backgrounds.
To me, it's an optimization problem. Assuming you have enough light to keep shutter speeds up for stop-action, opening the aperture allows lower ISO and therefore more light (as Daniel Browning says, less underexposure) and a cleaner image. The cleaner image will lead to better crops, etc. When shooting sports, I let DoF be the guide, as well as the sharpness of the lens (i.e. I keep my 50/1.8 at f/2.8 unless I REALLY need the shutter speed help).
DB presents it well, though he comes at it from a different slant. In manual exposure mode, at ISO 100 and 1/8000th, choose the aperture that suits your desired photo. Take a series of test shots while walking the shutter speed down - the histogram will (eventually) start appearing with real data. Stop changing shutter speed either when you hit the artistic limit (in this case, the edge of stop-action sports, so somewhere around 1/250th to 1/1000th to taste) or when you are just about to lose important highlight detail. If you aren't about to lose highlight detail, now walk the ISO upwards (and separately he says to do so in full-stop increments) until you're just about to lose that detail. In real life, I think it's a case of a more-automatic exposure mode (I use Av at least 95% of the time), management of exposure compensation (which you're doing, though to a different taste), and keeping ISO as low as possible while preserving the shot.
Bill and Peety,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill W
The tweener ISOs on a 40D at 160, 320, 640, 1250 are better than the default 100,200,400,800,1600. ISO 160 is as good as it gets on a 40D. Read Thisit's for the 30D but pertains to the 40D as well. This is not true for the 5D where the standards are best.
Peety and Chuck...thank you for your input.
Between Peety's suggestion of experimentation and Chuck's ISO graph comparisons, I should be busy for awhile.
I have tickets for another game (same seats) in a couple of weeks....I'll try your technique Peety and the "tweener" ISO settings Chuck. It should afford me a decent comparison.
If anybody else has thoughts on photographing baseball...I'm listening.
Regards
Bill
Biggest other suggestion I can give is background control and perspective, but that can be tough when you're buying seats and don't have the flexibility/authorization to stroll around. I do a bunch of cycling photography, and find that my most-pleasing work is done with the camera no higher than half of the cyclist's helmet. This also pushes the background to a different perspective. I'm going to be riding in a large bicycling event in October, and I'm trying to recruit some (brave) individuals to do some photography from a minivan with the side door open, to get the perspective I'm looking for...
Yup, pretty tough w/assigned seating that is higher than the field.
Too bad we don't live closer Peety....I'd volunteer for that assignment....that's if you could get me off my bike. LOL
I just finished the Pan Mass Challenge....accomplishing my best century (107 miles actually) averaging 17.5 mph and best 2 day total mileage; 185 miles...not bad for a guy who just entered his 6th decade.
But my biggest accomplishment (satisfaction) was participating in a venue to raise money for the battle against Cancer in kids.
I'll keep your suggestion in mind for other events....
Thanks
Bill
<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana;"]IMHO...<o:p></o:p>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana;"]1) Use fastest shutter speed possible for stop action and lowest amount of blurriness. I regularly shoot outdoor softball in open fields around 1/2000.<o:p></o:p>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana;"]2)Later on in the day, with lightingstarting to disappear or diminish, bumpup the ISOagain, to maintain the fastest possible shutter speeds.<o:p></o:p>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana;"]3) Slightly over-expose toreduce shadows from the facefrom helmets or ball caps. That shadow is the worst part about shooting baseball/softball. Check out the softball or football galleries at [url="http://10fas.com]10fas.com[/url] for some examples. Its my buddies website but I'm adding some of my stuff on there and splitting the cost. Wealso team up for better coverage.
<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana;"]4) My personal preference is to shoot at full zoom and add as much bokeh as possible (ie. lowest possiblef-stop)<o:p></o:p>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana;"]I shoot about 300-600 pics a game, dispose of the blurred onces, and end up with about 5-10% keepers, so about 25-35 decent to good pics. We have different reasons and goals for shooting though so take these suggestions lightly... its all personal preference.<o:p></o:p>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana;"]Good luck and have fun experimenting.<o:p></o:p>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"]Dave