Partial versus Centerweighted Metering

[Lynn Lopez]

I thought I would post this up to get some opinions from other sports shooters in the area. I will be taking photos as a contract photographer during some marching band contests this month. In an effort to get some practice in, I went to a local marching contest and took about a 1000 pictures of various band members.

These are all action shots. My direction is to take 100 plus photos of each band (individual shots) and try to come in as close as possible. I am standing on the sidelines near the pit (where all the keyboards and such are staged) using my 20D, 70-200 L IS 2.8 and my 1.4x extender. I have the camera on apeture priority at 4.0.

The first picture took at 1/1000 and came out under exposed. The second picture took at 1/800 and came out properly exposed in my book. My problem is, the bands are in diff uniforms with the colorguard being in one kind of uniform, drumline being in another and drum majors in another. I have to shoot quickly with little time to think but get it centered and focused properly. I was hoping the camera would do a better job when it came to setting exposure.

Am I running into problem because of the partial metering? Would I be better off using centerweighted? I do not want to use full metering as the backgrounds are usually going to be lighter than the kids themselves. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[DonLashier]

Partial is semi-spot (9% on 20D iirc), so your metering is going to be very dependent on where you place the spot, particularly with dark/light uniforms as in your example. You may also have to bias the exposure depending on whether you're metering a predominantly light or dark area.

Unless the bands are transitioning from sun to shadow I would consider setting exposure manually and sticking with it for a series. Otherwise I'm sure center weighted would be better, but matrix might be fine also. Did you shoot some test shots using other metering methods?

- DL

[Lynn Lopez]

Well now doing test shots with other metering methods would just have been planning too far ahead! As far as sun/shadow goes, usually with these stadiums they have very little shadow going on... just depends on the time of day. I figured the partial was using too little of the picture. The center on the first picture was his black glove and then it probably got a good portion of the bottom half of his uniform.

THanks so much for your feedback.

[Ken_Bennett]

This is the same issue sports photogs have shooting different colored uniforms on the teams. It's solved by shooting in manual mode.

[Kevin_M_Cox]

Lynn, any chance this is with Jolesch Photography?

I would also suggest shooting in manual and using your brain to set the proper exposure.

-- Kevin

[Lynn Lopez]

Well sure I can use manual, but I was concerned by trying to set exposure for every shot in a single band manually that it was going to be limiting the amount of pictures I can take. The kids are often moving very fast and by the time I get the exposure correct they are turning off and marching elseware. I think I will make a point of getting the focus lock and exposure reading on the face and the reposition and shoot. That should work better for the really close up shots.

Yes, I will be working for Jolesch and what gets me is that I will not have any chance at post processing these pictures myself. They basically take the card and just put the pictures up as is from what I have seen. I am usually pretty anal about exposure before putting the picture up on the website.

[Ken_Bennett]

Lynn,

You don't have to change your manual exposures for each shot -- that's the whole point. As long as the light doesn't change, your exposure remains the same for everybody, no matter what they are wearing.

If the light does change, or you point the camera in a different direction, then you need to re-evaluate your exposure settings. This is actually fairly quick and easy once you've done it the first time. For example, shooting field hockey last weekend, standing in the middle of the long sideline, I had full sun shooting the left side of the field, and side-lighting on the right side. I set my aperture to f/4, and on the left side I shot at 1/2000, and on the right side I shot 1/1250. Click-click on the shutter dial as I swung from one side to the other.

In this way, I *never* had to worry about the difference in illumination between the subject and the background, or the color or tone of the uniform. Even though the auto-exposure would have been all over the place (and very rarely correct), I was getting correct exposures every shot.

When I teach continuing ed classes, someone always asks what exposure mode I use. The students are always stunned that anyone still uses Manual mode -- they think there's some magic auto mode that will solve their exposure problems. This is not so. Your brain is still your best exposure tool.

Good luck.

--Ken

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