Exposure Compensation - when to?

bigrob

bigrob

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Ok I may have too much time on my hands (see earlier thread on AutoISO) & I'm not just trying to be lazy by posting here (hmm or am I).

Also the sports section has been a bit quiet as the football season is over !!!

I have just read this and can understand it but have difficulty in then using this knowledge to understand how it is useful in the sports environment. I suspect many other do to.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/what-is-exposure-compensation-and-when-do-i-use-it.html#b

What I am interested in, is when & why would you use it in Sports photography?

Let the screaming commence :bonk:
 
I can think of
Snowsports,
any sort of race where competitors appear over a crest and are sillhouetted against the sky,
backlit team photos
 
Equine photography. dark horse one minute light horse the next.
 
Thanks guys but from a learning point of view can you (if you have time) give some examples?

I know us WW/Uncle Bobs should experiment more but any help as a starting point would be gratefully received (hmm that reminds me of grace before school dinners "for what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly grateful).

And I am that old that I can remember when grace was said in Latin !!!!
 
Cricket.. Shooting at white kits quite often with a white background on a nice day...if you use AV or whatever it simply wont expose propery hence why so many dark dull cricket pics in sports..or wrongly processed because they tried to save them... cricket is bad for exposure..

Manual should be good for cricket as usually on a sunny day.. but not so.. when the ball goes in x,y,z direction and such great distance the lighting can be very different.. no time to change settings when a ball going through the air..

So I personally use AV at cricket and always and up over or under exposing...
 
Thanks Kipax. I haven't shot cricket yet but have promised to shoot an old friend from school's son sometime this summer.
 
I use it when I'm being lazy and cant be bothered to move to manual to get what I want, or if I'm in Av and want to very quickly get a particular effect.

For example...
I0000xE6y8hw_OBM.jpg


Actually, that's nonsense as I've just checked the exif and was in manual metered against the crowd. Let me try again...

I0000ilbdPjSbCtA.jpg


For the shot above, not using exposure comp would have resulted in a blown out centre portion of the pic where the light is, with the rest roughly correctly exposed. This shot is probably about 2 stops down from where the meter was telling me it should be, but also is manually exposed rather than exposure compensation in Av or Tv, but you get the idea. I think what I did here was that I had the camera at the right settings for the indoor constant lighting, then started working the thin ray of light with a faster shutter speed to get the exposure as I wanted it.

Had a bit of a trawl but couldn't find any exposure comp pics quickly, so some words instead. If you were shooting football and the crowd were generally colourful but shaded, and one team were in dark shirts with the other in light shirts, with sun/cloud/sun/cloud lighting, you might want to be in Av with -1/3 or -2/3 exposure compensation to stop the white shirts blowing out too much.
 
bigrob said:
Like in this photo http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=331769

what would you "dial in" so to speak?
Click to expand...

the boarder is under exposed so you would over expose to get him bright.. at the same time you would be making the sky blown out though... something in the air wiht large bright sky behind is a classic example... you would simply change your apertuire or shutter or iso so that you where over exposing by a stop or two..
 
I'd have used fill flash for that snowboarder shot instead of trying exp comp.
 
bigrob said:
Thanks Kipax. I haven't shot cricket yet but have promised to shoot an old friend from school's son sometime this summer.
Click to expand...

If you want a hanger-on, then perhaps we can learn/shoot cricket together as I haven't done any cricket yet either.
 
I sometimes use it for ice skating as the ice "fools" the meter reading and underexposure happens. I usually over expopose by a stop and a bit but often the lighting (bulbs out, windows at one end, dark overhanging balconies etc) is uneven so manual exposure is not always consistant. In this case I may switch to an auto setting and "up" the compensation dial.
 
Well i used Auto ISO and Exposure compensation last night at a game at Salford, the evening shadows were horrible to deal with, very bright low sunshine casting very dark shadows over most of the pitch, i used 1/2 a stop to combat the very bright sun on partly white/pink kits but looking at the rusults close up i could have gone another 1/2 stop ISO was flicking between 400-2500 with minimun shutter speed set to 1000th sec but it was as high as 1/4000th in the bright sun.
 
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Using a remote is another case where it comes in useful.

Both of the below had EC applied, because without it the camera would have exposed for the large area of sky rather than the more important foreground action:

Redbridge%20A%20v%20Hendon%20A%20-s-8000.jpg


Stockland_Lovell_15052011s-12.jpg
 
Good examples Mark.

Gary I think late afternoon must be the hardest time for sports shoots.
 
Lovely lovely shot Kipax. What I meant was a challenging in. i.e. it sorts the boys (me) from the men (you and the other good guys) :D

So did you ex comp on this shot? I assume you.
 
bigrob said:
Lovely lovely shot Kipax. What I meant was a challenging in. i.e. it sorts the boys (me) from the men (you and the other good guys) :D

So did you ex comp on this shot? I assume you.
Click to expand...

1/3rd over i think :)
 
Thanks Tony
 
KIPAX said:
Its by far the best time of the day when doing cricket..... this tea time today :)
Click to expand...
Tea time is great this time of year when doing Cricket, youre not likely to get trouble with shadows on the wide open spaces of Cricket grounds, i was talking about an 8pm Kick off up until 9.30pm in an enclosed RL Stadium

Lovely shot Tony
 
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Heres a few samples from the game on Friday night, apologies for the Watermark but it saves the PC brigade from running to the RFL

Used Auto ISO until the sun disappeared, set to max ISO 3200 and minimum SS of 1/1000th sec, used partial metering and under exposed by half a stop to try to keep the whites in check in the sun.

sal01.jpg


sal02.jpg


sal03.jpg


sal04.jpg


sal05.jpg


sal06.jpg
 
Instead of abusing, please RTM. It might be a repeat offender that most people know of but not everyone will know that and this just looks plain rude and I'm getting fed up of the rudeness now
 
:lol:
 
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