complete newby here, need help! love taking pics of kids playing ball have always gotten decent shots on the sports mode function of my slr (canon 40d) but want to step it up and try Av or Tv mode, tried it yesterday,really overcast, shot in Tv mode with f stop of 4.5 wb was set on cloudy and some on house with shadow, center AF point,center weighted metering. my lense is a canon 70-200mm f/2.8.

should i take a step back and go on Program mode? try in Av mode?
taking a workshop starting this monday to try and get all the technical aspects down but my sons got 3 ball games this weekend and its going to be in bad overcast conditions so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

thanks

How do you set Tv mode with f-tsop of f4.5?

Just shoot wide opena t f2.8 or stop a bit in Av mode. Manual exposure will be better as you can set expsoure for the faces and not worry too much about the uniforms.

Being overcast should have been better as there is no harsh contrast between sun and shadows.

Post some pictures.

Beginner version:
Set the camera to AV mode, F2,8. then when shooting look at the shutter speed. If it's below 1/500 then increase the iso so that it's over 1/500. Go for it, and enjoy!

Take some shots before friday like this (even moving cars), post them up, and lets take it from there.

Merv.

what merv said

Shoot in "AV" mode, adust the ISO to about 400 and the shutter speed needs to be above 500. I normally adjust my shutter speeds to 2000-2500 when light permits. You should also adjust push to +1/3 of a stop so the shadows on the faces go away. It is always better to overespose then underexpose. I love to shoot when it is cloudy as the harsh sunlight is easier to deal with.

Good luck!

J. Anast

what rbranan said

What Pshizzy and rbranana said.

Overcast days are like shooting with a big 'ol soft box! I'd take overcast over harsh direct overhead sunlight any day of the week!

The only thing I would toss out is to not be afraid to bump up your ISO. 400 is pretty much what I use almost all the time as a baseline, even on sunny days. And you might shoot at f4 or even f5.6 (if you've got enough light) to give yourself a little more room with DOF.

Good luck.

The 40d does great with high ISOs so don't be afraid to make the most of that camera.

thanks so much guys, gonna try it all out tomorrow, let you know how it goes

Shoot in M mode. Take total control of your camera instead of letting it takes control. Experiment with different combinations of f-value, shutter speed, and ISO; use the values suggested by others above. You will learn more this way. Meter off the grass (neutral green) as reference.

should i use AWB, set it on cloud, shade or customize my own WB?

picchick wrote:
should i use AWB, set it on cloud, shade or customize my own WB?

Ideally, you would want to do custom WB for most accurate color reproduction. If you don't know how to do custom WB, I would suggest to just shoot RAW and use the presets (cloudy, sunny, shade, etc.) to start and then play with the color temperature settings (either presets or custom values) during post processing to get a feel of how color temperature changes. Once you have learned and get used to how color temperature changes, you shouldn't have problem choosing the right color temperature in the future. Avoid using AWB if you shoot jpeg because you never know what color temperature is chosen by the camera during AWB, and it will be a pain if you need to adjust WB during post processing because you don't know what color temperature has been used; but if you have used 6500K, for instance, instead of AWB, that will give you at least an idea or as a reference point of where to start in adjusting color temperature if needed.

Hope this help a little

bobbyz wrote:
How do you set Tv mode with f-tsop of f4.5?

Just shoot wide opena t f2.8 or stop a bit in Av mode. Manual exposure will be better as you can set expsoure for the faces and not worry too much about the uniforms.

Being overcast should have been better as there is no harsh contrast between sun and shadows.

Post some pictures.

I have seen several people suggest setting exposure for the faces. Can you please explain how to do this?

Thanks.

If the clouds are fairly consistent and not brightly sunny one moment and then overcast then next, you can shoot in manual mode. Like it has been said, you can meter off the grass to get a baseline (point camera at grassy area and see what you get). Then, because the faces are usually in the shadows due to hats, you can dial your shutter speed down a bit. You might overexpose some parts of the image, but your faces will be better.

Alternately (and perhaps easier if sun comes and goes), you can shoot in AV mode, set aperture to desired number for proper DOF and then set ISO so that you are getting a shutter speed fast enough to stop the action and then add in +1/3 to +2/3 exposure compensation to lessen facial shadows. Make sure when you do this that your shutter speed does not drop too low. To add exposure compensation, press shutter half way and then rotate back dial (clockwise) one or two clicks for +1 or + 2. I think that is how you do it for 40d. If not read manual.

Use an online DOF calculator to get an idea of what kinds of DOF you will get with your lens/camera combo at various distances. Sometimes 2.8 is great, but sometimes the narrow DOF makes it harder to get the whole person in focus.

marino420td wrote:

I have seen several people suggest setting exposure for the faces. Can you please explain how to do this?

Thanks.


Not an expert here but you could use spot metering to meter of the face. In my case, I just use start with sunny 16 rule. Last weekend for soccer, later afternoon sun, ISO gives 1/200 at f16 or 1/400 at f11, 1/800 at f8, 1/1600 at f5.6 or 1/3200 at f4.0. I was shooting at f4.5 and 1/2500 which gave me nice exposure on the face. White uniforms were blown out but I care less for them. Once you do these things couple of times, you can guess the settings pretty quick.

Are you telling me that it can be cloudy without rain? That is a foreign concept here in Sacramento. It is basically blazing sun (265 days a year) or raining (58 days per year). That leaves 42 days a year with some cloudiness. While this is fantastic for outdoor sports, it stinks for photographing them.

Anyway, I generally follow what has been said above. Mainly M, but sometimes Av with +2/3 EC.

Ideally I like to take baseball pictures at dusk (except for the black flies) or with cloud cover, it makes the exposure much easier. The worst is when you have a bright sunny day with a dark treeline behind the players talk about confusing the light meter.

My solution is Manual exposure.

thanks so much, great ideas, gonna check them all out tomorrow, let you know how i do...

got another question for you, currently have the canon 40d, with 70-200mm f/2.8 was recently offered a 1D, for under $1,000 was told i would get sharper images with 1D, what can you tell me?

also, can't afford a 400mm lense right now, thinking about getting the 2X extender any thoughts, will images still be sharp?

The 1d is a great camera. No doubt about it. I've got one, so a bit biased, but it is extremely fast to focus and fast fps. Also, it is only 4mp, but they are big, fat, pixels. I've blown up one of my images to 24x36 and have it framed in my office. They are quite capable cameras. I think you can get one for about $500-600, maybe les, which is quite a steal if you ask me. I am not sure about "sharper", but the 1d can make some stellar images.

Canon 10D wrote:
Shoot in M mode. Take total control of your camera instead of letting it takes control. Experiment with different combinations of f-value, shutter speed, and ISO; use the values suggested by others above. You will learn more this way. Meter off the grass (neutral green) as reference.

Yeah shoot M mode if you can guarantee that the lighting is even from home plate all the way to 2nd. You really don't want to be messing with looking at your ss after a hit and the batter begins to slide into 2nd do you? Shoot AV mode outdoors and for stop action keep the ss at least 1/1600 but higher if you can so increase the ISO and shoot wide open.

Take total control of your camera by manual focus too then I guess.

I wouldn't use the 1.4x or 2x extenders on the 70-200.