shooting into the sun.

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meatcandy89

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So first half saturday was great brught sun. Behind me. Half time comes. So i swapped ends to get best pics of the club. However ive now got bright sun beaming into lens.
Whats best solution to this? Id say 1/2 my second half shots were unusable due to overexposure/glare.

What do you guys do?

Thanks for help. T
 
let me guess... football ?

I stay where I am.. long lens gets one half of pitch.. short lens gets the other..

However sometimes I am forced to shoot into the sun for whatever reason... can be a good effect backlit players.. you really should be in manual mode for it though.. get a good player exposure and all the back is blown ... makes blonde haired players look a bit odd though :)
 
When you have extreme conditions like this all you can do is make sure you compensate to ensure that your subjects ( the players ) are correctly exposed. the background will have to take care of itself. Then you can post process but the situation is not ideal to begin with.

Have you tried shooting from a different angle/vantage point? Presumably there was no background like a spectators' stand which could help block out the sun.
 
Soz didnt mention it was rugby. So generally the team are all facin 1 way.
Its a pretty open ground. Bo chance of blocking the sun out.

I only have a 70-200 so i was sitting roughly 10m infront of the opposing teams tryline to capture my team as they came towrds to score.

So you would maybe change down to single point metering and just make sure player is in correct exposure?
 
meatcandy89 said:
So you would maybe change down to single point metering and just make sure player is in correct exposure?
Click to expand...

metering doesnt work when your in manual mode :) and i would defintely use manual when shooting into the sun.. if you mean to get the actual exposure then it doesnt matter what you use.. get it.. chimp.. tweak once your happy ignore the exposure meter as that will be all over the place..
 
A photographer I often work with up at Twickenham always takes the North end, shooting into the sun. Took me ages to realise why he did....... it's closer to the photographer's room!
 
Haha! Lazy bum. Thanks for that. Ill definatly do this next time as i was having a real pain second half. But i thought if i move so the sun is behind me all im gonna be getting is backs of heads.

Still got a lot to learn!

http://SPAM/c8jsyps

Thats the selection of pics i managed to get. Mainly 1st half. What you think?
 
meatcandy89 said:
Haha! Lazy bum. Thanks for that. Ill definatly do this next time as i was having a real pain second half. But i thought if i move so the sun is behind me all im gonna be getting is backs of heads.

Still got a lot to learn!

http://SPAM/c8jsyps

Thats the selection of pics i managed to get. Mainly 1st half. What you think?
Click to expand...
When did fish start playing Rugby League :lol:
 
meatcandy89 said:
But i thought if i move so the sun is behind me all im gonna be getting is backs of heads.
Click to expand...
Not so, a player running the ball out of defence can lead to some excellent shots, these are just that, players running the ball out of defence and shot last night

http://gcsports.zenfolio.com/p500633746/h41431f98#h41431f98

http://gcsports.zenfolio.com/p500633746/h414325f8#h414325f8

http://gcsports.zenfolio.com/p500633746/h4147078e#h4147078e

http://gcsports.zenfolio.com/p500633746/h41470988#h41470988

http://gcsports.zenfolio.com/p500633746/h4147eede#h4147eede

http://http://gcsports.zenfolio.com/p500633746/h41482fb0#h41482fb0

And whats to say you cant get the try being scored 120 metres away at the other end

http://gcsports.zenfolio.com/p500633746/h4148309a#h4148309a
 
Some nce shots there gary.

As for capturing the try abd the other end of the pitch. Not sure i could do that with a 70-200. After the crop the image would look sooooo grainy.

Going to invest in a 1.4converter this month i think.
 
If light is changing and bright or really bright sunshine which produces shadows I prefer to shoot in to the sun expose for the player and ignore the bright backgrounds but yep manual all the way.
 
Little John said:
If light is changing and bright or really bright sunshine which produces shadows I prefer to shoot in to the sun expose for the player and ignore the bright backgrounds but yep manual all the way.
Click to expand...

Like the shooting into the sun cricket thread I did ? :) deffo works better for me as well.. some situations as you say can be better shooting into the sun rather than a hinderance..
 
On a sunny day you've basically got 2 exposure settings, one for where the subject is lit by the sun and one for when the subject is in shade.

If you are shooting into the sun, you'll have your camera set to expose for the shady setting to expose your subject correctly. The result might be that the grass becomes overly bright (but there should be enough latitude in the dynamic range of the camera not to blow it out). If this looks overly bad, reduce the exposure in post processing, and increase the shadows/fill light a bit. If done with care, this sort of tweaking is not really noticeable. If overdone the picture will look a right mess.

I like shooting into the sun - the rim lighting helps the subject stand out nicely.
 
bigrob said:
Sorry but I don't follow.
Click to expand...

If your shooting in manual mode you ahve already set the exposure.. doesnt matter what metering mode you use.. it wont make any sense or be any use to you.. In fact anything it shows should be totally ignored..

Thus my interpretation of doesnt work ...is somehting that is totally usless to you.
 
Ah I see. I thought that is what Partial or Center-Weighed Average Metering was for.
 
bigrob said:
Ah I see. I thought that is what Partial or Center-Weighed Average Metering was for.
Click to expand...

Now you lost me.. you thought partial or Center-Weighed Average Metering was for what?
 
The metering still happens, you see the arrow in the view finder and it moves based on the mode you have set but as you have everything set manually it has no effect on the exposure. Shooting in to the sun you will find it shows over exposure most of the time as the background is generally brighter.
 
KIPAX said:
Now you lost me.. you thought partial or Center-Weighed Average Metering was for what?
Click to expand...

Yes I see where I was being intensely thick here.

I shoot mainly rugby/football and in AV. So with the 1D3 normally I'd set F4, choose a metering mode and set what I thought the ISO would be . Then taken a few shots of a few players and see if I was getting round about 1/1250 to 1/1600. Then change the ISO to make sure I was and chimp to see what they looked like on the screen.

If all looks ago off I'd go.

Then if I chose to shoot in manual I'd set the metering mode, then set F4 and 1/1250 and then choose the ISO to get the needle roughly in the middle.

Now with the 1DIV I'd just set the ISO to Auto and pretty much do the same.

So yes I can see where I was being dense :bonk:
 
To add to this, I've done a few matches and shot into the sun just to see if I can get a half decent result. Sometimes it seems to work for me, others its not so clever. I tend to set the exposure by metering off the grass, and then adjusting as need be. The rim lighting is cool, though. What really screws it up is when the clouds blow over for a few mintues and you have to reset ...
 
bigrob said:
Now with the 1DIV I'd just set the ISO to Auto and pretty much do the same.
Click to expand...

You do realise that with auto ISO the camera is still choosing the exposure for you.. your no longer using manual exposure
 
I feel a tutorial on manual exposure/metering coming up :D
 
KIPAX said:
You do realise that with auto ISO the camera is still choosing the exposure for you.. your no longer using manual exposure
Click to expand...

Yep I appreciate that it is only semi manual/auto.
 
This thread made me laugh again tonight :)

As i was sitting pitch side, staring into the sun, (had about 10 minutes till it went behind the stadium) i was remembering everyone on this thread giving their advice.

Turns out...

i got some ok shots. I had a play with auto ISO, really didnt like it, dont know what it was. But i got some good results in manual mode, it was a really tricky environment as some of the pitch was in the shade ans some in the sun but thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread!

Auto iso is weiiiirrddd! really couldnt get to grips with it, no idea what it was, cant put my finger on it, but i didnt like the camera picking its own iso.
 
meatcandy89 said:
i got some ok shots. I had a play with auto ISO, really didnt like it, dont know what it was. But i got some good results in manual mode, it was a really tricky environment as some of the pitch was in the shade ans some in the sun but thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread!

Auto iso is weiiiirrddd! really couldnt get to grips with it, no idea what it was, cant put my finger on it, but i didnt like the camera picking its own iso.
Click to expand...

I found auto iso strange, too. Experimented with a ss of, say, 1/800, and say F8, on auto iso. In good light, it overexposed the shot with too high an iso. I don't think I kept any as they were unusable. I now set the 'usual' in manual, and adjust after a few test shots. Sun and shadow are a nightmare. I try and assess where my best shots are likely to be (given I have a 70-200) and try to work with the light.
 
Photodiva said:
I found auto iso strange, too. Experimented with a ss of, say, 1/800, and say F8, on auto iso. In good light, it overexposed the shot with too high an iso. .
Click to expand...

Good.. It's not just me then :) I do find auto iso useful but I do have to under expose usualy by two thirds of a stop.
 
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