Shooting Blacks and Whites?

[Dirk W]

I was at a pro softball tournament this weekend and when I saw the uniforms I knew it was going to be a little tricky. One was solid white with back stripes and the other was almost solid black. I've also got a neighbor with a black lab that I will be shooting soon. Anyway, I got some good pics of the pitchers but was wondering what you guys do in when faced with that situation? Do you ever spot meter of the colors? What kind of exposure compensations do you play with?

[Paul]

Have you ever heard the terms, "Brother Blue Sky" or "Brother Green Grass"?. What they mean simply is instead of metering the subject, meter the blue sky or green grass, the recompose on the subject. Give it a try, it works in some instances.

[Steve Foss]

Dirk, first thing I always do is take a couple test shots while the teams are warming up. Usually center-weighted or evaluative metering. Then I look at the image to see if I have any blinking highlghts. If I don't, I'm generally good to go. If I do, I use EC until they disappear and then I'm good to go. I'd rather have detail preserved in the whites and the faces exposed nicely and the blacks a bit underexposed than to blow out highlights. But sometimes in very bright sun, whites are going to be a bit blown out.

[MN Shutterbug]

I'd also bracket.

[Dbl]

I don't think there is a day I shoot sports I'm not faced with this issue. 99% of sports shooters will blow out whites to get proper exposure on faces. Couple of choices on how to approach this. If the light is constant and not changing your best approach is shoot manual. I use evaluative meter and as Steve mentioned you can take a couple of shots but I would recommend shooting until you SEE blinking highlights and check your histogram. This will get you very close to what you want for proper face exposure. The reason this works better than Av is your meter will get fooled by the whites and darks and constantly over or under expose your shots. The background you are shooting against will have a huge effect on this as well. As Paul mentioned you can meter off of grass but you will need to then open up at least 1 stop as a starting place. This should also get you close. Metering just the grass will get you underexposed nearly every time.

If the light is changing or you have partly cloudy conditions I normally use Av and depending on the backgrounds + 1/3 to +2/3 Exposure Compensation, occasionally +1. Again the backgrounds and where you are on the body when you trip the shutter will give you some variance.

I was shooting fast pitch softball with the partly cloudy skies yesterday and when shooting batters I had +2/3 EC and when shooting fielders I was at +1/3 EC. On Saturday I was shooting soccer at mid-day and the first half it was sunny and the second half it was partly cloudy.

The other thing that will help is to try and shoot with the sun at your back and in the players faces. If you shoot the other way around you will have a much greater dynamic range to deal with, giving you under exposure on faces and really blowing out highlights.

A few examples from this weekend.

#1 The worst case, noon sun, light dark uniforms, sun behind the player, dark skin. This is with +2/3 EC in Av mode due to changing light.

#2 Same game with the sun behind me, much better exposure +1/3 EC in this case. The background makes a difference as well. Whites are blinking if viewed on LCD of camera indicating blown highlights. So be it.

#3 This is not as bad because of the same color of the uniforms but the background will throw these off. Light was constant so shot in manual with +2/3 overexposure. Now the background doesn't throw off the meter and the faces stay correctly exposed.

#4 Last one from yesterday. Av with +1/3 EC, the whites were blinking in this shot also. Not as much range in uniform colors so not as extreme but the darker background fooled the meter compared to shooting towards center field.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks, Dan. Seeing as this is your daily bread and butter, I figured you'd weigh in with good, substantive advice.

I also tended to allow the whites to be blown out, especially on sunny days, to get faces properly exposed. When shooting for newspapers, the dark white/tan tone of the newsprint itself calmed those blown-out areas. In consistent lighting, I've also gone almost completely to manual exposure — not just for sports — for the reasons you mentioned. Especially with fast action of sports or birds in flight, the BG constantly changes as you track the action and throws off the metering.

[Dbl]

You are right Steve, I think we sometimes get lazy with digital and assume we can "fix it in post". The better you become at getting it right in the camera the quicker you will see your results improve. Manual is one of the fastest ways to accomplish that, not just sports but as you mentioned birds, wildlife, etc. Once you understand how the light is falling on your subjects and how your camera will interpret that you will start to make adjustments that your camera is just not capable of.

I am just as bad with this myself at times. The shots I was taking of hummingbirds in another post I blew about 15 shots of a humming bird perched on a branch in sunlight against an almost black background. I checked my histogram and had completely blown the bird out. Once I dialed in about a stop down I was darn close. Its easy to forget when action is happening to make those mental adjustments.

[Steve Foss]

Yeah, you are so right with all that.

I was especially curious how you metered your sports, because so many of your clients want prints whereas my clients were newspapers and the needs for each seem different. Interesting to see they aren't really that different after all.

[Dirk W]

I'll certainly try to add all your guys info to my shooting. Its getting better. Here's some of the typical shots I got with the ball.

The gal on the bottom right never seemd to be perfectly in focus, and I had quite a few shots of her. Don't know why. C&C welcome.

[Dbl]

The reason it didn't focus well is because with your center point focus selected that put it at about her waist. That uniform is going to create issues with the focus on your camera. Even a 1 series has some trouble with a low contrast uniform. Move your focus point up around the Thunder logo and you will get better focus lock.

Exposure looks real good Dirk, the histogram and skin tones look good and I love that you are shooting at 1/8000s.