Am I doing this right?

[david lee]

Hi all
I had the oportunity to get to my local football ground last night to take my first ever night time game.
I wanted to try my hand at low light sports photography and this is the best of my efforts.
I took 540 raw imags in 90 minutes on varying settings but seemed to settle on these settings.

Camera Model
Canon EOS 20D
Shooting Date/Time
09/01/2007 21:59:40
Shooting Mode
Shutter-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed )
1/200
Av( Aperture Value )
2.8
Metering Mode
Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation
0
ISO Speed
800
Lens
70.0 - 200.0 mm
Focal Length
200.0 mm
Image Size
3504x2336
Image Quality
RAW
Flash
Off
White Balance Mode
Auto

There is a lot of noise due to the iso i guess and I also increased the brightness in bridge and Photoshop.

I could'nt really increase the shutter speed much higher than that as I was getting a "Blinking" 2.8 reading as it was.

Was there a better way to do this?
Cheers
Dave

[KIPAX]

Although you have captures the above.. I bet you lost a lot with 1/200 shutter speed.. you should set your ISO higher and increse the shutter speed.. you will get more noise but you can get rid of a lot of that with software.. depending on the lighting dont be afraid to go to iso 1600 .. if good lighting try 1250 (if you ahve those iso settings?) you will always get noise at a night match. you cant get away from that... ISO 800 that you used is pretty much a luxury...


addy on bit... where you stood? get a stool :)

[david lee]

Thanx Kipax
I will try that next time I go out.
Also going to look at noise reduction software.
Thanx again

[SYS]

Yup, bump the ISO to 1600 and reduce the noise later in PP.

[Tall_Paul_2000]

I agree with Tony's points - although I would add that you should consider shooting in manual.

You will find that most of the time under floodlights the light is consistent. By using Av or Tv you are opening up the possibility of the camera's meter being fooled by a particular dark background for example and overexposing.

If there are parts of the pitch that are a little darker (sometimes the corners of the pitch, "under" the floodlights, have less light for example) then you will be able to account for this as you are shooting and dial in a slightly slower shutter speed to compensate.

Hope that this helps. Good luck!

Paul

[david lee]

I agree with Tony's points - although I would add that you should consider shooting in manual.

You will find that most of the time under floodlights the light is consistent. By using Av or Tv you are opening up the possibility of the camera's meter being fooled by a particular dark background for example and overexposing.

If there are parts of the pitch that are a little darker (sometimes the corners of the pitch, "under" the floodlights, have less light for example) then you will be able to account for this as you are shooting and dial in a slightly slower shutter speed to compensate.

Hope that this helps. Good luck!

Paul
Yes Paul
Thats exactly what happed on this night!
I will try all what you have advised and thanks a lot