New to Sports Photography - Need Help

4 years 4 months ago #667483 by Pamela-Entrikin
Hi All,

I am new to the forum and new to sports photography.  I don’t have a proper lens, but doing the best I can with an f/4-5.6 lens.   Most of my photos turn out pretty good, but there is always room for improvement.  The problem I am having is with over and under exposure in some instances.  I am shooting at a soccer field with big metal bleachers which create a terrible glare in the sun.  Also, the uniforms include white shorts which tend to get over exposed, while some players with darker skin look under exposed.   Any tips for how to minimize these effects?  For now I have just been reducing the highlights in my editing software to reduce the glare off white/metal objects and playing with exposure and color saturation to correct for darker skin tones.  

I am including a photo of the bleacher situation.  It is not indicative of my skill, by any means. I know it’s not a good photo.  It is simply to illustrate the problem.  Any tips/advice are welcome. 
Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter speed: 1/400 sec
Captured: Sun, 24 Nov 2019 13:16pm
 


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4 years 4 months ago #667571 by garyrhook
You have a digital camera, and can read the light for exposure before you ever take a shot of the play. Used your histogram, and explore metering modes. Practice to learn how to interpret the histogram in the environment (the meter will not tell you everything you need to know).

Shoot to control the highlights because you can't recover blown highlights. You can always bring up shadows. Your example image is over-exposed, IMO. 

Shooting in harsh midday light is challenging. You have to practice to learn how to manage and capture it, then process your images.


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4 years 4 months ago #667573 by Pamela-Entrikin
Most of my images turn out fine. But every so often if I get too much of the bleachers or I’m close to a player in white pants.... that’s when I have problems. I can’t certainly try some of your suggestions but it’s often hard to adjust settings before each photo. I can, however, adjust depending on where I am standing on the field. And I will try your suggestion of playing with different metering modes. Thanks.


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