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07/14/2007 08:59:42 AM · #1 |
| I am going to be shooting at a nighttime sports event and am wondering what benefits a light meter such as the Sekonic L358 will give me. Is this the sort of situation one of these meters will help or are they only really benefical in the studio environment? |
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07/14/2007 09:26:19 AM · #2 |
Will the lighting be even across the entire floor/field and unchanging throughout the event? If so, you could meter the light, set your camera on manual and then shoot the entire event.
However, lights being the way they are, I've never found a situation where the lighting doesn't change from one area of the floor/field to the next. When the player is right under the light, it is bright. Out along the edge of the light ... not so bright.
Plus, in some cases the players will have a stronger light on their backs, sometimes on their fronts. So if you put the camera on manual, you may put some players into silhouette.
The other option is to just letting the camera meter the players. However, even that is fraught with difficulties. Some players wear white, some players wear black (and all ranges in between). Sometimes they have light tops and dark bottoms (or vice versa). And the point is, whatever your camera sees just before you press the button will set the exposure.
So if you can get an evenly lit scene, go for the light meter. If you can't, let your camera set the exposure because you won't have time to be thinking about the light. (if this were anything other than sports, maybe you could take the time to set the exposure, but sports moves too fast to be messing with settings on your camera)
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the subject.
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07/14/2007 09:34:01 AM · #3 |
Thanks David for your thoughts.
It is actually a hockey pitch from the 2000 Olympics - so the lighting should be fairly good. I have played on this pitch many times and the light is fairly even when playing but photographing it may be different. Given the nature of the sport ( on this surface the ball travels very quickly) I will be positioning myself in one place for an extended time. I will be standing near one of the light stands (with it to my back).
If I were to go with the light meter would I meter off one of the players standing in the centre of the field or meter off the turf?
Message edited by author 2007-07-14 09:36:19. |
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07/14/2007 10:06:28 AM · #4 |
Personally I dont think the added expense of the lightmeter is necassary. I'd prefer to take some test shots reference the histogram and decide wether I can stay with AV mode(which is what I shoot most sports in) or wether I need to go to manual mode(mostly when lighting wont change much) I have found that on some fields you cant really use manual and get perfect exposure in every corner of it. You will have sweet spots in lighting and then dark areas and everything in between. Depending on the sport and wether I can use flash also makes a difference of how I shoot.
Some examples of my night time shots can be found in my sports port.
Sports
MattO
ETA since you have the MarkIII I'd go as high as needed with the ISO to keep your shutter speeds where I need in the darker spots and shoot AV mode with a +1/3 to +2/3 EC. Even ISO 6400 on that thing is amazing from what I've seen. And I'd use your fastest lens wide open. ie 2.8 lens.
Message edited by author 2007-07-14 10:35:20.
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07/14/2007 09:27:10 PM · #5 |
Many thanks Matt for your thoughts
I had a look at the link to your sports shots - very well done! Do you use Neat Image/ Noise Ninja? I really liked the shot of the baseball player throwing the ball straight towards you.
I had been planning on using AV mode and playing around with the ISO and the +1/3 to +2/3 EC. To date I haven't been in any situation to bump the ISO right up but Monday night will give me this chance.
Fiona |
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07/15/2007 01:13:05 AM · #6 |
Originally posted by Hifi:
Many thanks Matt for your thoughts
I had a look at the link to your sports shots - very well done! Do you use Neat Image/ Noise Ninja? I really liked the shot of the baseball player throwing the ball straight towards you.
I had been planning on using AV mode and playing around with the ISO and the +1/3 to +2/3 EC. To date I haven't been in any situation to bump the ISO right up but Monday night will give me this chance.
Fiona |
Thanks Fiona
I do have and use Neat Image and Noise Ninja, however for most of my stuff that goes to print I never use it, as with newsprint it doesnt really help that much. I've found with my 1DMKII that if I shoot at 1600 or 3200 ISO and overexpose according to the meter by 1/3 or 2/3 stop I dont have a real issue with noise. Those baseball photos I linked to are 3200 ISO with EC at +2/3 and havent been run through either. The 1 series(after the original 1D) handles noise so well its amazing. And the 1DMKIII that you have is the best of all. If you need someone to test it out for you some time we can swap cameras for a week or 2. :-)
MattO
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