Football with flash, Better Beamer & 400mm

[clarence]

I ordered the Manfrotto 233B (http://www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/cache/offonce/pid/2808), inspired by Matt Sauk's monopod/flash setup (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=6506994&postcount=36).

I also ordered a Better Beamer (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/427601-REG/Visual_Echoes_FX2_FX2_Better_Beamer_for.html) for my 550EX.

I tried it last night on my 1D Mark II at a youth football game.

Various settings... 1/4, 1/2, 1/1 M setting on flash (at 50mm as recommended by Better Beamer). Unfortunately, the flash/OC-E3 doesn't seem to record to EXIF, so I can't really tell which ratio I used on the better pictures.

I was using my 100-400L at 400/5.6 - usually impossible once the sun starts to set. But I switched to M and 1/250" and took some shots. Kept the ISO relatively high to try to capture some ambient background.

Hmmm... just noticed I left it in Av mode instead of M... shouldn't matter, right, since the xsync is 1/250" anyways?

1. 300mm, Av=f/5.6, ISO 800, 1/250"
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-24_5707.jpg

2. 300mm, Av=f/5.6, ISO 800, 1/250"
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-24_5708.jpg

There's no good way to point/align the better beamer... a lot of my shots have the foreground grass a lot brighter than the center subject...

3. 300mm, Av=f/5.6, ISO 800, 1/250"
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-24_5713.jpg

I was impressed by this one because it was 400mm all the way across the field in the dark...

4. 400mm, Av=f/5.6, ISO 1250, 1/250"
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-24_5714.jpg

Note to self: I wasn't fully extending the 100-400L to 400mm on a lot of these shots, but I was still getting f/5.6 - I might as well use my 1.5x TC on the 200/2.8L and get 300/4.

FWIW, I only took 40 shots instead of my usual 200+. I grew tired of experimenting with the flash and just switched to the T1i at ISO 12800 for the second game.

[snyderman]

Those are pretty good. It appears that what you got was about normal. My results were simiar and I just don't like it. I'm going to continue to shoot higher ISO and run them through Neat Image (a NR software program) to clean them up a bit.

dave

[clarence]

I'm also going to try something new at the HS varsity game tonight.

I'll wait until I have some results before I describe the extra twist I'm adding, but I've been testing it around the house and it seems promising. We'll see how it works on the field. I'll report good or bad. Stay tuned.

[H20boy]

any way you can turn that flash bracket upside down and shoot with the flash beneath the camera? I'd like to see your 200 with TC too, it'll give shallower DOF than these and the kids will be frozen more. I can see some motion blur just a bit.

Looking forward to seeing the next 'experiment' clarence. I have the the better beamer also, just never used it for sports, only wildlife.

[clarence]

I originally tried the flash below on a super clamp.

But I had 2 issues with it below:
- I'm behind the half-height fence, not on the sideline
- I didn't like the monster shadows on other people's pics and we have bleachers and a field house behind the far sideline that the low shadows might creep up on (although looking at the pics above, a close crop should mitigate that)

But it did seem easier. So I'll bring my super clamp tonight and give low-flash another try too.

[dmwierz]

Clarence - pretty good results. The first one shows some ghosting on the runner which comes from the ambient exposure and flash level being too close. I might have tried reducing ISO to 400 to reduce the ambient exposure level a bit and boosting the flash level.

I once borrowed a Better Beamer and found it kept getting out of "alignment" while I ran up and down the sidelines as it was a bit flimsy, and the beam of the flash wasn't always aligned with my lens. You have any problem with this?

[clarence]

I once borrowed a Better Beamer and found it kept getting out of "alignment" while I ran up and down the sidelines as it was a bit flimsy, and the beam of the flash wasn't always aligned with my lens. You have any problem with this?

Yes, definitely... as mentioned above, the foreground grass (cropped out above) was much brighter... indicating that the beam was pointing too low. But there's no vertical angle adjustment on my manfrotto bracket and the 550EX doesn't angle-adjust fine enough.

When in the house, I aimed at a spot between picture frames maybe 50' away and could see the hotspot as I adjusted the beamer. If I wedge a folded piece of paper under the angle-joint of the 550EX, it lifts up the flash head just right.

The beamer is pretty flimsy. I'd like to see a one-piece tupperware variant that slips on more like the Fong.

[aroundlsu]

I would hate for one of the kids to be looking in your direction and get blinded by the flash right in the middle of a play.

[clarence]

I'm downloading the images now.

My experiment tonight was "better beamer HSS as fill light for high ISO"

I used the Canon T1i/500D, 200/2.8L at f/2.8, 550EX set to HSS wih flash zoom set to 50mm as recommended by better beamer.

Here are the first 2 test images that I took. I'm in the stands on the opposite side of the field. The bleachers are also behind a 6-lane running track.

Since this was low-motion I dropped SS down a click to 1/800"

1. 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 1/800"
http://loco-photo.com/images/flashtest6304n.jpg

2. 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 1/800" with 550EX HSS through better beamer
http://loco-photo.com/images/flashtest6303n.jpg

[clarence]

P.S. Unfortunately, I didn't use any flash bracket at all tonight. Just directly on the camera's hotshoe. The better beamer was cumbersome enough.

I'm seeing a lot of demon eye.

[aroundlsu]

I am really confused by your settings. Why would you want to shoot so fast of a shutter? Seems to me you would want to be getting as much ambient light into that lens as possible. Plus 6400? Really? At that ISO why the heck use a flash all? Were they playing football in the dark?

[clarence]

I am really confused by your settings. Why would you want to shoot so fast of a shutter? Seems to me you would want to be getting as much ambient light into that lens as possible. Plus 6400? Really? At that ISO why the heck use a flash all? Were they playing football in the dark?

The lighting on this field is probably typical/average for a small town HS football field.

A couple of weeks ago, I shot a game at this same field without flash, but at ISO 6400 and ISO 12800:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=751698

This week I thought I'd give flash a try.

If I used normal xsync (1/250"), the flash isn't strong enough to get 2 or 3 stops above ambient, so I would get motion blur and ghosting.

So instead of using flash to stop motion, I figure I'd try HSS as fill light and still use the shutter speed to stop motion.

[clarence]

I'm also going to try something new at the HS varsity game tonight.

I'll wait until I have some results before I describe the extra twist I'm adding, but I've been testing it around the house and it seems promising. We'll see how it works on the field. I'll report good or bad. Stay tuned.


Well, as mentioned above, I promised to report good or bad how HSS works as fill light at 200mm with the better beamer.

Hopefully aroundlsu won't object to me discussing this experiment a little bit more.

To clarify any confusion, I only did this as a test. Rule #7 that gets reiterated here daily is not to use HSS for sports.

I only did it because I knew I wouldn't be close enough (I was in the bleachers/stands) for my 550EX to sufficiently overcome ambient enough to stop motion with the strobe. At 1/250" SS I would certainly get motion blur and ghosting.

So I just wanted HSS to provide a little fill-light, using the beamer for extended reach, while the majority of the exposure was from High ISO (6400), using shutter speed (1/1000") to freeze action. 200/2.8L wide open on a T1i/500D...

1.
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-25_6338.jpg

2.
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-25_6343.jpg

3. TD reception:
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-25_6378.jpg

4.
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-25_6505.jpg

5.
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-25_6518.jpg

6. TD Reception in the very far corner of the endzone... darkest spot on the field by far. Look at all those demons in the bleachers...
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-25_6554.jpg

7.
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-25_6594.jpg

8.
http://loco-photo.com/images/2009-09-25_6616.jpg

Lessons learned:

- Lots of red-eye and demon-eye... I thought I was eliminating a variable by not using my manfrotto flash bracket. Plus, the Better Beamer is unweildy enough on the 550EX, the last thing I wanted to do was to stick it up another 11"-17". But next time I'll definitely try it to see if it helps red-eye. But I've read that raising the flash really only helps red-eye range for one foot for each inch raised. So raising 17" might not do much when my subjects are 50' away.

- I actually had more problems with overexposure than I did with underexposure. Activating ETTL on the flash really helped, especially with close-up subjects.

- Out of 326 total shots (including test shots before the game), I ended up with 182 keepers. I had to change batteries (rechargeable eneloops) in the 550EX at half time. HSS would let me take 3 rapid shots, so I didn't feel like my burst was affected.... I rarely use machine gun trigger, but it's nice to know you can take 2-3 shots when there's action.

Next night game I'll use the bracket, try a half without the beamer, and try a half with regular flash and 1/250" instead of HSS.

[PhotosGuy]

since the xsync is 1/250" anyways? Have you thought of cheating the shutter speed?
Strobe sync @ 1/400: Pushing the limits. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=599450)