Friday Night HS Football - ISO6400

[convergent]

After reading a lot about using flash for night football on here last week and planning to give it a shot on Friday night, the weather forcast for friday called for rain so I left the 580EXs in the car and just shot under the lights. These are all with the 1D Mark III, 400 f/2.8 II, and ISO6400. All were shot as large JPEG and had nothing done to them but size and mild USM. No noise reduction in or out of the camera. Here are a few, and a link to a few more...

http://www.northeastfoto.com/gallery/files/3/2/2/web_TSS30695.jpg

http://www.northeastfoto.com/gallery/files/3/2/2/web_TSS30711.jpg

http://www.northeastfoto.com/gallery/files/3/2/2/web_TSS30839.jpg

http://www.northeastfoto.com/gallery/files/3/2/2/web_TSS30820.jpg

and the Sigma Fisheye

http://www.northeastfoto.com/gallery/files/3/2/2/web_TSS30910.jpg

There are a few more in this thread... http://www.northeastfoto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9086

[calicokat]

Great looking shots, the noise is great for 6400, nice work

[HaroldC3]

I'm jealous, those look great!

[convergent]

Great looking shots, the noise is great for 6400, nice work

Thanks... this was actually the first time I ever shot football... so I might as well start with the worst possible lighting conditions, right?

[Palladium]

Nice - maybe next time try using (M) mode and dial in you exposure & shutter speed

# 2
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Image Date: 2007:09:14 19:32:47
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 400.0mm
CCD Width: 3.85mm
Exposure Time: 0.0040 s (1/250)
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO equiv: 6400
White Balance: Auto
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)

#3
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Image Date: 2007:09:14 20:19:26
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 400.0mm
CCD Width: 4.61mm
Exposure Time: 0.0020 s (1/500)
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO equiv: 6400
White Balance: Manual
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)

#5
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Image Date: 2007:09:14 20:41:34
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 15.0mm
CCD Width: 5.79mm
Exposure Time: 0.0025 s (1/400)
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO equiv: 6400
White Balance: Manual
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)

[convergent]

Nice - maybe next time try using (M) mode and dial in you exposure & shutter speed


I agree... I usually try to shoot M when ever I can. Having never shot football, and having never shot with the MIII "under the lights", I wanted to eliminate one variable to deal with... so I went with Av. About 2/3 of the way through the night, I made the same observation you did... that the exposure was fluctuating when the light wasn't necessarily changing. Next time I shoot at that location, I'll probably dial in at 1/500s, f/2.8, and ISO6400, as that seemed to work over most of the field. I'll just need to remember to tweak it on the ends where the exposure drops off to 1/250s. The reality is that with the quality of the MIII images, I could deal with that level of under exposure without a major problem.

Another thing I notices was that my initial Expodisc setting of WB didn't work well since the sun was still up when I took it. After a dozen or so frames, I shifted to AWB, and then after it got totally dark, I reset WB with the Expodisc again and it was pretty close to spot on for the rest of the night.

[frenchrl86]

Can you explain how you used your ExpoDisc? I have heard many different ways of using...did you point at the lights? Go to center field and shoot out? Just trying to get various techniques...Thanks...

[S.Horton]

Nice!

[Croasdail]

May I say... very very nice. Congrats. The camera is paying off in spades.

[convergent]

Can you explain how you used your ExpoDisc? I have heard many different ways of using...did you point at the lights? Go to center field and shoot out? Just trying to get various techniques...Thanks...

Sure... with an Expodisc, you want to aim it at the light source. One of the advantages of it over a grey card is that you don't have to go out and shoot it under the lights... which could be a problem if you wanted to do it in the middle of the field during the game. Usually if you have one light source (which we did here), then the Expodisc works very well. If its mixed, then it doesn't work was well. When the game first started, it was still a little light out and my Expodisc CWB stunk... so I shifted to AWB. Once it got totally dark, I redid the CWB and it was very good.

[chrisvl]

#4 looks like it would make a great stock shot

[tsaraleksi]

Wow that high-ISO looks good. I really like the wide shot, nice idea.

[jdizzle]

These are awesome Mike! I'm happy the MARK III worked out well for ya here. Well done!

[convergent]

Wow that high-ISO looks good. I really like the wide shot, nice idea.

Thanks guys... that wide one is an example of what the Sigma 15mm Fisheye looks like on a 1.26 crop body.

[Croasdail]

May I add these are some of the first images that make a good case for the Mk III. The other previous post have been ok, but nothing that I don't think I couldn't captures with a Mk IIn. The good thing for me is most places I shoot have good lighting, so I get to keep my money a little while longer. But these do show there is a place where this camera excels. If I were to shoot HS football, I think it would be a must have.

[GBRandy]

Nice work Mike.....how did the AF perform?

[bluesoul]

Well hell, I'm impressed. That looks great for 6400.

[convergent]

May I add these are some of the first images that make a good case for the Mk III. The other previous post have been ok, but nothing that I don't think I couldn't captures with a Mk IIn. The good thing for me is most places I shoot have good lighting, so I get to keep my money a little while longer. But these do show there is a place where this camera excels. If I were to shoot HS football, I think it would be a must have.

You are somewhat correct. I honestly left my MarkIIN around the neck all night because I didn't feel like walking it back to the truck... but once I compared a few images it was all over. The ISO6400 Mark III images were better than the ISO3200 Mark IIN images. I will also say that these images I posted are typical images from the night... they aren't "cherry picked" to show the few that were low noise. These are "out of camera" jpegs that I sized and sharpened, and the vast majority of them were this way.

Nice work Mike.....how did the AF perform?

The AF worked fine, as it has with me from day one on "this" Mark III. I can't think of a case that I've used it, that it had an AF problem that I couldn't say was my fault...either because I drifted off the target, or because I fired before I gave it time to capture the subject. The only problems I had that were odd were a couple of 2-3 shot bursts where the exposure was way off. I was shooting in Aperture Priority for most of the night, and using the back AF-On button. I also noticed the next day that I had center weighted metering on, which I didn't realize. Its possible that the combination of modes I had was causing it to lock focus in an odd way. I didn't really have time to try and figure it out at the time, but the result was it dropped the shutter speed way down too low and over exposed the images a bit. I think this may have happened to about 10 total images out of several hundred that I shot. I usually shoot Manual, so I would assume I did something wrong in the way I was doing it. But AF has been sold for me in low light, bright sun, and everything in between. I am also shooting a lot with a 400 f/2.8, so its not a situation where I'm not using a big white lens... I know I've had people say that's the reason why some are working OK.

[DwightMcCann]

You know we can't get to your Gear List.

[slyone]

You know we can't get to your Gear List. Once there...you'll wish you hadn't..I'm envious..that's for sure;) wait a minute Dwight, I take that back! I just went to your gear list...:shock:

[convergent]

You know we can't get to your Gear List.

Sorry about that... I was trying to keep from updating it in so many places. You should be able to see it now.