Tweaking 10D for football (american) photography

[mblanton]

I know that I'm about to ask a very subjective question, but I'm trying to refine my technique. I shoot alot of football with a 10D/75-300mm mkIII and I'm trying to come up with the optimum setup (camera settings). I've got alot of experience so I understand the mechanics of proper exposure.

I usually shoot:

Evaluative metering
400-800 ISO
TV or M mode
Apeture between 4-5.6
Shutter speed in the 1250-1600 range
3 fps (maximum for my body)
AI Servo mode
C. Fn 04 (Shutter button/AE lock button) set at 1 (AE lock/AF), with all AF points selected.

So, this is my typical setup. I'm trying to refine it even further, if that's possible. If I'm shooting in TV mode I usually have to dial in EC (usually + 1/3-2/3 stop) which is excellent for the jerseys, but I've been clipping highlights on helmets, pants and skin (not a good thing). I was looking at my parameters and was wondering if altering them could solve part of this problem.

Here are my current setting:

Contrast = 0 (I thought I read somewhere that reducing this to -2 can help, but I can't remember).
Sharpness = +2
Saturation = +1
Color tone = 0

I'll add a couple of sample photos for you to look at. Let me know what you think. I've been searching the site, but haven't come up with anything yet. Thanks.

Mike

[Dermit]

The one on the left looks like blown highlights but the one on the right looks fine to me. If you shoot in RAW then those contrast/staruation/etc. setting mean nothing so don't sweat it. Also if you shoot in RAW you can recover some blown highlights if they are not way out. If you shoot in jpg only then that info is gone. For me, my first few shots I always evaluate the histogram and see where trouble might be and adjust accordingly, then still shoot in RAW only since I have rescued many shots that otherwise would ahve been in the recycle had I not. (I shoot sports, theater, portrait on location and weddings).

[dekalbSTEEL]

There are stickies in the sports subforum with tons of advice on shooting sports

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=135417

[mblanton]

The one on the left looks like blown highlights but the one on the right looks fine to me. If you shoot in RAW then those contrast/staruation/etc. setting mean nothing so don't sweat it. Also if you shoot in RAW you can recover some blown highlights if they are not way out. If you shoot in jpg only then that info is gone. For me, my first few shots I always evaluate the histogram and see where trouble might be and adjust accordingly, then still shoot in RAW only since I have rescued many shots that otherwise would ahve been in the recycle had I not. (I shoot sports, theater, portrait on location and weddings).

For my situation shooting RAW is not practical. If I'm taking a portrait or doing landscape work, I'll shoot RAW, but for football my camera barely keeps up when I'm shooting jpegs. I'll keep looking for info about the contrast setting. Thanks.