Friday Night Lights - High School Football, How'd I do?

1.

I like most of them. Did you slow the slutter speed down to get motion? Or did they just come out that way. It some ways it looks out of focus. Here's the ones I liked. 4,5,7. Im iffy on the others. However they were good shots of what was going on, just think they should be in focus more. I could be wrong.

Actually I am very limited. This field is 30% dimmer than the minimum high school standards for football lighting. Basically it's a dungeon when it comes to shooting. So all these shots are done with flash (not high speed sync) and is therefore limiting me to 1/200 max sync for the shutter. I try to dial the ISO down to limit the motion blur from ambient light, but that only gets me so far as you can see. Since lowering the ISO also limits the effectiveness of my flash I can't go too far down.

These look pretty good Dermit. They are a hair on the warm side (except #6) but look good. What was the settings for your flash?

Dan-o wrote in post #10951774
These look pretty good Dermit. They are a hair on the warm side (except #6) but look good. What was the settings for your flash?

Thanks Dan-o! This field is a real challenge. This is the third year I've shot at it. The past two years I shot with flash undermounted on monopod but so many of the shots looked too 'flashy'. I've tried HSS with fast shutter and somewhat balanced exposure to ambient. I've tried ETTL with FEC with no HSS and limited to 1/200 max sync which means I pull my ambient to way under exposed to try and freeze action with flash duration but really starts to look bad with nasty shadows.

So this year I talked the AD into letting me put two studio lights on the media box which really helps neutralize my shadow from my monopod mounted flash (a 580EXII).

So these shots were done with two White Lightnings (X1600s) on the media box pointed at the 30 yard lines and my 580EX on my monopod with hotshoe cord on ETTL and I use FEC to dial it in depending on what I am shooting (white uniforms vs black, etc.) I really like the options the WLs give me. For stills or slow action I can dial in the ambient to give me decent modeled light like you see in number 5 here. I also get a splash of light from them on the crowd as seen in number 4 (a little rim light is evident in some of the spectators).

At this point the studio lights is still very experimental but so far I really like using them. One downfall is the directionality (only lighting from one side of the field) but that is also very useful when getting modeled light.

I know I am getting a little bit too much motion blur from ambient, but I can't underexpose it much more than it is already or I lose the reach of my studio lights. There is also the possibility that the t.1, t.5 timing of the WLs might be too long to freeze the action adequately but I think at full power they are around 1/600 which I thought would be plenty to freeze it.

Anyway, any tips on how best to shoot with an extremely poorly lit field would be appreciated. I shot a test shot of 1/500 at f/2.8 at ISO3200 and it looked like candle light on the field. It's that bad.

Nice ones. How is flash positioned in #7. It is coming from different angle then your camera posiition.

bobbyz wrote in post #10960261
Nice ones. How is flash positioned in #7. It is coming from different angle then your camera posiition.

bobbyz,
read my post reply just before yours, it explains my lighting for these shots. The off axis light is coming from my studio lights up on the media box and triggered with PWs.

That explains the unusual mix of lighting. You have created some areas of nice light on the field, but definitely not even light. In some you can see the shadows from the undermounted flash but it is not that bad at all.
Did you meter the WLs from the press box? How much light are they giving you?

ChunkyDA wrote in post #10967297
That explains the unusual mix of lighting. You have created some areas of nice light on the field, but definitely not even light. In some you can see the shadows from the undermounted flash but it is not that bad at all.
Did you meter the WLs from the press box? How much light are they giving you?

I really like the ability to create uneven lighting, it helps define the shapes, etc. Some people might not like it, but coming from a portrait lighting background I tend to like non-flat light. The media box mounted lights help to minimize my undermounted flash shadows even though sometimes they are still apparent. But on this field with no flash the faces are dark.

I didn't meter the lights, I just turn them all the way up and dial in my setting when I am on the field. So to answer how much light it gives me, well here is a shot with no flashes, just the field lights at 1/500, f/2.8, ISO3200: