Last night was the start of the High School playoffs. A Tuesday night game under the lights. This team took the "State Championship" last year and started off with an easy 35-14 victory last night.
I took another lesson from Dennis with using flash (thanks again). I then decided to mount flash underneath the lens. All pics taken with the 400 and Mark III. Iso at 800, 2.8, 250ss, manual setting. I used the 580ex flash set on ETTL high sync with EC of +1.
I hope this helps others and you enjoy the pictures. I try to crop tight catch the face while shooting thru the play however tough with only one shot using flash.
Please cc are welcome as I want to improve pictures I take.

Thanks John

Here are three more

Last one

jrf37 wrote:
All pics taken with the 400 and Mark III. Iso at 800, 2.8, 250ss, manual setting. I used the 580ex flash set on ETTL high sync with EC of +1.

You used HSS, but only at SS=1/250"?

I understand the EC +1... at first I was distracted by the overexposed whites, but when you look at the faces, they're really exposed (and captured) well.

I'm just learning this flash stuff. So I might be off. The flash was set on ETTL, high sync, +1. On my camera I left SS at 250, 2.8 iso 800 Manuel mode. Does this make sense. Dennis might be able to help here. I got it off an old thread he talked about.

I'm pretty sure HSS only cuts in when your shutter speed exceeds 1/250s, so it's a moot point here. You can leave your flash in HSS mode all the time (though I wouldn't suggest it), and if John had been in a program mode like Av, and had bumped up his ISO, this would have driven the shutter speed faster than 1/250s and HSS would have "kicked in". The fact that he was in manual exposure mode and set his shutter speed to 1/250s meant he kept the flash out of HSS mode.

John, the faces look good, but the rest of the images appear a bit hot. I might have dialed back the FEC just a bit. You got a bit of a funky shadow on number 4 which is a little distracting. Watch out for red-eye in "extras", like the player on the left of number 3.

All in all, a solid set of images. I might number them next time, to make them easier to comment on.

jrf37 wrote:
I'm just learning this flash stuff. So I might be off. The flash was set on ETTL, high sync, +1. On my camera I left SS at 250, 2.8 iso 800 Manuel mode.

dmwierz wrote:
I'm pretty sure HSS only cuts in when your shutter speed exceeds 1/250s, so it's a moot point here. You can leave your flash in HSS mode all the time

Ah... that makes more sense now. Dennis is correct... HSS only pulses when SS is faster than xsync. So even though you had it set to HSS, it was really just using the regular strobe with ETTL. That explains why you didn't get motion blur at 1/250... the stadium lights must've been fairly dim, so the flash was able to overpower ambient to freeze motion.

I agree with Dennis... +1 FEC might be a touch too much... maybe +2/3 or even only +1/3 would be sufficient for the faces without blowing out the white jerseys.

And although I prefer having the speedlight above the camera, having it mounted low really helps you get some light into the helmet. The usual monster shadows aren't bad at all since you cropped nice and tight.

Thanks guys. Now that I look at the pictures after hearing you talk about the EC/+1 I agree its to hot. The lighting is very bad at the high school. Next time I will dial down more to see results you are talking about.
Question for you should I keep these settings and dial down; or got to av mode and higher ISO?
Thanks for all your help.

John

jrf37 wrote:
Question for you should I keep these settings and dial down; or got to av mode and higher ISO?

Fine tune what you did above. Just bump FEC down a little.

Plus, IMHO, don't use Av mode with flash... it'll try to expose for the background ambient and you'll get really long shutter speeds.

Sometimes I think it's easier to flash when the field lights are dim... less for the flash to overpower... less risk of motion blur from the ambient.

White balance seems a little blueish to me........maybe my monitor.

If you are going to be shooting with a flash for action then AV isn't going to do much for you. It will either dump your shutter speed as clarence points out, or you can set the shutter speed for Av to your xsync speed - which is pretty much the same as shooting manual anyway.

The mkIII has a sync speed of 1/300th. By simply copying settings you shorted yourself some shutter speed.

They look blue to me too

I'd change the white balance to get rid of the bluish tones and also maybe use a flash diffuser of some type or move the flash to the side of you so the bounce off the helmet, which is evident in shots 1 and 2, is not as harsh or so that it is not straight on. Good action shots and great exposure on the faces.

skyvan wrote:
...use a flash diffuser of some type or move the flash to the side of you so the bounce off the helmet, which is evident in shots 1 and 2, is not as harsh or so that it is not straight on

I've never seen this recommended for Sports. Seems like it would rob a lot of flash power, decrease coverage distance, and cause longer recycle times between shots. Can you provide sample shots?

Cliftonyte wrote:
White balance seems a little blueish to me........maybe my monitor.
My first thoughts also...a bit on the cool side.