Street+Snowboarding=Help /w settings

[michaelbehlen]

Alright guys. Tomorrow I am shooting a snowboading rail session in front of a local sporting good store. They will have snow in their parking lot with rails ect. I will be using a 17-40 on my 350d, Ill also have a Promaster 750dx flash /w remote cabel. My queston is, what settings should I use for tomorrow, I have almost never done sports. I will be shooting as fast as the camera will go to get some sequences. I will also use the flash for som single shots.

Anything I should know about? Metering? Ho does that work, what should I meter on, and links to give me so I can read up on metering?
I alwyas shoot in raw, would metering be irrelevant if I am in RAW?


Shuter Speeds: 1/25 at least?
Ap: Should I be shooting wide open or not?

Any advice at all on snowboarding would be great also,. Thank you.

[dansakal]

alright mate, if i were shootin i would use TV setting, dont know wat it is but it usually gives a really good image off with good colour! Make sure you get a wide angle as well with the whole rail, then you will be able to crop it really well!

[jasonk1m]

the light reflecting off the snow will trick your camera's metering system into underexposing, so set to manual and find a good shutter speed (at least 1/1000 in broad daylight). set your aperture to wide open and just fire away. find some creative angles; look here for inspiration, and best of luck.

http://www.roycehutain.com/gallery/action/

oh, and you might want to fill-flash if you're shooting into the sun.

[tikosyn]

1/25? theyll be gone before you can press the shutter. I say minimum of 1/200, but i would stick with 1/320+ if you want it stopped.

[dirt lover]

What metering do you all use for snowboarding/skiing, when metering off the snowboarder/skier? The camera meters at the chosen AF point, right?

[Shane F]

try to get around 1/500th if you want to freeze them. make sure when you compose your shots you are showing the entire rail and not just the section they are sliding! it will give a better sense of what is being done.
another trick i have done that worked was to auto focus on a spot were you know they will be, then once it is focused switch to manual and leave it there, that way the camera isnt trying to autofocus the entire time.

[dirt lover]

alright mate, if i were shootin i would use TV setting, dont know wat it is but it usually gives a really good image off with good colour! Make sure you get a wide angle as well with the whole rail, then you will be able to crop it really well!

TV is shutter priority... You select a shutter speed and it chooses the f/ for your chosen ISO and exposure. It's pointless to take pictures with the intent of cropping them. Cropping is for correcting if you didn't frame the photo right. It will decrease quality slightly, depending on how much you crop. It's best to crop/frame when you take the picture, then crop on the computer only if it's needed.

TV won't affect color at all. It just controls the exposure. Reading the manual helps...

[dirt lover]

What I do is put the AF point on the rider's head usually and pan with them. If you keep the camera still, they will be blurred if you are using a low shutter speed (which may not be a bad thing....if you are going for that).

[Gipetto]

One thing I like to do in those tough situations is try to get there a bit early and then see if you can stand somewhere that you'll BE IN almost the same light as your subject will be. Try to get snow reflecting light on you.

Set to TV - shutter priority.

Then, put your hand up in the air to mimic a rider's face and point a wide angle at it so that it almost fills the frame, get some sky and some snow in the shot and see what the camera tells you. Then adjust the shutter speed to get an acceptable setting, like others have said - 1/250 to stop motion. I have a bit darker skin, kinda like a native southern italian or greek, so take into account how much darker or paler you are to compensate. Take a few pics like this and you'll soon find where you get the best readings, but I've never had a problem using the back of my hand for metering.

Set the camera to manual with the numbers that look good. You'll need to accommodate for moving around so pay attention to what the EV is telling you. Take a few shots of someone warming up, or if they don't, take a slew of shots early and chimp a bit to check the exposure, adjust as necessary and continue.

You can also try panning at a lower shutter speed, say 1/100 of a sec and still do a good job of stopping the rider and getting some nice blurred backgrounds.

As for the flash, I'd set it on the camera in manual mode, about -1 or 2 stops of power just to throw some light into the shadows. This will do 2 things for you - get you primarily using natural light and 2) since you're only ticking out light you'll get much better recycle times and battery life. I'm not sure about your model of camera and where it stops, but this will limit your upper shutter speed, so take into account wether you'll even need it or not - the reflecting light from the snow will do a lot for you, but depending on how much they have brought in it may not be enough.