Fighting the sun at cross country races

I've been shooting races for my daughter's high school cross country team and making photos available to the coach to use on the team website etc. Most of the meets are early morning with a lot of dew still on the grass, and much of the time it's just not possible to shoot at the best angle with regards to where the sun is. At one meet in particular I had a lot of shots with horrendous glare off the grass (maybe I can get the meet directors to move the starting line so we can get better photos ). Would a CPL have helped with that? Any other suggestions for that particular problem (I don't do photoshop - it takes long enough as it is to sort through several hundred photos, adjust the white balance on the keepers, convert from raw, etc.)

thanks

What camera/lens are you shooting with? The metering system in each body is different and plays a role on knowing how to shoot into the sun with your camera. For example on a 20D I'll set it in manual with 1/3 over when mettering spot on the runner. On a 7D I can shoot AV becuase it metters the scene differently.

Do you have any examples you could show?

Personally morning is an awesome time to shoot runners.

ZXDrew wrote in post #14697519
Personally morning is an awesome time to shoot runners.

Oh, I agree totally. It's a great time to shoot anything (at the Oshkosh airshow I'd be up at the crack of dawn) IF you have some control over where you place yourself in respect to the sun of course. Unfortunately at these cross country meets the only choices are often to shoot from a less than optimum location or don't shoot at all.

I shot this with a 300D and 75-300 4.0-5.6 IS. I've upgraded to a 450D for this year, with the same lens until I win the lottery. This photo actually looks better after I re-processed it with DPP (I'd used Phase 1 version 3.5 before), but the reflection off the grass is still distracting, as is the yellowish tint of the grass.

edit to add: Another cross country parent asked about the ability to move around at our meets. For the most part yes, we can move around wherever we want (within reason of course). It's just for a few situations like the start, and getting positioned for a good shot of the sprint to the finish that we're at the mercy of the sun and crowds. As I recall, for this shot (and all the others from this spot) I THOUGHT I was good but I still had that bad reflection off the damp grass I couldn't shoot straight on from this spot because I'd have been shooting straight into the sun, and this was the only option (other than taking photos of their backs).

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Try sitting down on the ground shooting up into the runner. Also try shooting portrait. Start shots aren't too bad once you get them down. There is a thread on how to shoot running races.

Specifically for this photo, get on the other side of the runner. You're shooting on the side the runner with the sun on their back. Judging by the shadow on the runner the other side would have put part of the runners side in the light.