Wendy Goodman |
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Nightime Sports Photography
I love taking sports photography especially of our local high school football team. But the games are at night, at and outdoor stadium. What are your tips for taking photos in this situation? Is a higher speed film the only improvement I can make?
August 26, 2000
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Jay Wetherill |
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Jammed
Ranger batter, broken bat & ball
Jay Wetherill
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I am an amateur sports photographer who shoots minor league baseball under the lights almost every night. I'll be glad to pass on to you what a pro passed on to me last year. First, what type of camera are you using? There are 2 types of settings on most cameras - a "TV" and an "AV". TV is for manually setting exposure and shutter speeds. AV allows the camera to pick the best combination for the existing light. If your camera has an "AV" setting, look at your lens and get the lens opening number (4 or 4.5 or 5.6 or what ever) and set your camera on AV and set the camera for that maximum (highest) number (if you are using a zoom it could range from 4.0 to 6.7, use 6.7) Then load the high speed film (use 400 or 800 or 1000 asa). The camera will automatically give you the "fastest" shots for the film & light available. Attached is a picture I took at 8:30 p.m. under stadium lights with a 170-500mm zoom lens @ f6.5 using 400 asa film. This image was scanned from a photo but you will get the idea. Jay Wetherill
Englewood, FL jay@gls3c.com
August 29, 2000
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John A. Lind |
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Jay has some good advice. An issue under stadium lighting not addressed is color balance. Stadium lighting is not daylight color balanced. If using color films (not B/W), the easiest to cope with is color negative (versus color slide). A good print processor can correct the color in printing, especially if you have some idea about the lighting in use, your print processor has dealt with such things before, and you can tell them what type of lighting it is. With slides, the mounted transparency is the film from the camera without any color correction. You either do color correction at time of making the photograph, or not at all (unless you print the transparency; similar to printing a negative but on different paper). Using tungsten film generally will not work well because stadium lights are not tungsten; they are generally sodium vapor or some other odd color for efficient high output. Attempting filtering on the lens is complex and requires much testing in the specific stadium. Furthermore it defeats the benefit you get from the faster films. - John
August 30, 2000
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Wendy Goodman |
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Thanks JAY...I will definitely try that. I'm using a zoom lens also.
If my pictures turn out as good as yours with 400 or 800 speed film, I will be forever grateful!
Thanks John for the tip on the color balance...I will keep that in mind.
Well...I know where to come if I have any more questions. Thanks, I appreciate it!
September 05, 2000
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gary wills |
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no current knowledge. will respond later.
October 27, 2003
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