Metering mode for sports?

KIPAX wrote in post #18831786
No matter how many times i read it.. I still get this

For me the metering mode is irrelevant. Shooting sports (unless going for fancy blur shots or something) .

It's the blur.. thats not metering

That's because you ignored half the sentence and ignored the next sentence and just focused on an aside (hence it was in parenthesis) which was just there to clarify an exception.

If you don't ignore one and a half sentences you get....
"Shooting sports, your aperture and shutter speed are set by the need to freeze action*. So, unless the lighting is constantly changing, I just meter off a midtone and shoot a test and check the histogram.

* unless going for fancy blur shots or something."

This guy fight without sticks and helmet

I typically use Auto ISO in daytime since the light changes with cloud movement and whether I have my back to the sun or not. At night under stadium lights I'm almost always in Manual exposure mode.

duckster wrote in post #18791080
Thanks for the comments. Most of my sports shooting is outdoors. I have just noticed that a couple of times when shooting on a slightly overcast day, some of the photos get a little washed out at times. Just a hobby shooter so trying to learn anything I can to make my photos more consistent.

Gallery photo:
posted by duckster originally in forum: Critique Corner

Your scene is dominated by the black running track, meaning AE is compromised.

Suggest Manual Exposure when your lighting is consistent but subject is of varying reflectance.

Good point! Thank you. I will have to try that next time.

Hey... looks like you were having so much fun, I would just jump into the deep end with you all. We are completely ignoring metering method... except in the case of manual. If you use spot, or evaluative, center weighted, partial... etc. What is nice about the newer cameras is if you shoot spot, it will spot meter the same area that the focus point is selected.

Exposure varies widely in field sports... except from 11 to until about 1. Outside of that you will see wider ranges of exposure depending the time of day and position of sun. You can go from complete shade to full sun in one panning motion following a play.

If I am in an auto exposure mode, I always use spot. Uniforms, angle to the sun, venue shading, are lights augmenting.... or whether it is cloudy, or clear skies... it all depends.

With new cameras and their improved dynamic range... you really have so much more latitude and can correct easily 1 stop of difference within the image.

For me, I am usually shooting wide open of f2.8...I still set max ISO to 6,000 for most sports... stuff like indoor track is at 12,800... and let the shutter be what it will be. I know others like to lock in a shutter speed and go with variable ISO.

No right or wrong... but for me... spot or zone metering.

Thank you for that explanation!

Older post I know but I switched away from spot metering for action. Too easy for the exposure to be affected by apparel (white top with dark shorts) or the BG if the athlete moves a lot. Spot is WAY too spot.

I switched to evaluative but after reviewing the manual center-weighted or partial might be better. I suppose it depends a bit on the background; I don't want the exposure to be affected a lot by averaging the sky in, but I mostly want a balanced exposure on the overall athlete.

There are times when fixed exposure works but for me they are not so common. Yesterday I was at school and there was cloud variation, night lighting variation, and a lot of direct sunlight/shade variation as the soccer players ran toward and away from the setting sun. However, for less dynamic stuff (like shooting runners during the day, or a static angle on gymnastics) manual has worked well. There the BG and incident light aren't really changing and you can let the camera stop being fooled by changes in apparel color.

I think I'll try a few different modes and see how they work. Friday I should have a lot of opportunities.

A couple of recent track meets have been mid-day, very sunny which is a tough condition