about skin color, iso, viewer

[tck2003]

Every week I have been taking pictures at local soccer games and have some questions:

1. Hope I am writing this correctly- Today a team made up of very dark skinned African nationals played a match. When I went home and looked at the pics it seemed as if all their facial and body details were absorbed compared to the fair skinned opopnents- I mean this in a professional way. How can this be minimized, besides Photoshop corrections afterwards? See attached uncorrected quick crop.

2. As a newby what really frustrates me about taking sports pictures is seeing the picture in the viewer and thinking it looks okay and then going home and knowing otherwise. Would a light meter help in this regard or is it just experience? Film cameras had/have no viewer to check your picture so if you screwed up you fixed it on the next roll.

3. I am confused- some say use the highest possible ISO (for sports) in the day time to get the details but others say lower the ISO as much as possible to reduce the noise. My problem is if I am looking in the viewer (see question 2), how can I know when I am getting close?

Thanks in advance

[fslshooter]

Shooting dark skin athletes who are wearing light colored uniforms on bright sunny days can be tricky. It's even more difficult when the sun's not at your back like in the pic you posted. You'll probably get the best results shooting at ISO 400 in manual mode and overexposing. Check your histogram frequently and insure you're exposing to the right and even blowing highlights, like white uniforms, out.

[tck2003]

FSLSHOOTER: Thanks for your input- very helpful.

How do you "know" it is about 400? Is that experience from mistakes, experience from a book, or experience from a light meter? I guess my underlying thought/question is that while I know photography is an art, there is a "science" involved and I am trying to see where things can be more precise.

I was reading a great article today in Digital Photopro (September/October/06)that had an interview with PatrickHoelck where he says that he worked at his craft and practiced the science behind it to make his photography better.

Best regards

[Croasdail]

Also, if you get the chance, try metering right from the subjects skin. Sometimes you have to split the difference in harsh light so that the lighter skinned athletes don't get washed out, but this is the safest way. Best of luck with it.

[fslshooter]

Originally Posted by tck2003

How do you "know" it is about 400? Is that experience from mistakes, experience from a book, or experience from a light meter? I guess my underlying thought/question is that while I know photography is an art, there is a "science" involved and I am trying to see where things can be more precise.

Experience from mistakes. I shoot baseball in Florida where we often have intensely bright sunshine, the home team usually wear white uniforms, and there are always some dark skin players. I've tried various ISO settings and ISO 400 seems to work best with my equipment -- perhaps that's its sweet spot and it might be different with yours. That's why I said you'll "probably" rather than I "know" you'll get the best results.

As you say photography is an art but with science involved. I think the key here is that in difficult lighting conditions you probably need to depend more on manual settings (art) rather than automatic settings (science). Science kicks in again when you view the histogram but interpreting what it says in difficult light might involve more art learned through experience than science.