Another Flashed Football Attempt

Ok so I shot another game tonight for Vista vs. Galt. Vista came out on top 22-0.

I have posted some shots, in a few threads, that I thought were ok, but I still wanted to get shots that were crisp and sharp. Tonight I focused on "trigger control" (if you will) and tried to be gentle on the shutter release. Overall I think this has been one of my main problems with getting real sharp images. I got several tonight that were far better than last week.

I kept my flash set up the same as previous weeks. ETTL +2/3 or +1, iso 800-1000, f/4 and 1/250 ss.

C&C appreciated.

#1

A bit hot on 5 & 7 but I like this set alot! nice improvement!

- One thing I am noticing is where your flash is hitting, its hitting quite a bit in front of the players. Is there anyway for you to get your flash up a bit? that will most likely help out.

They look pretty good to me. Nice and sharp, but I agree that they could be a hair overexposed.

I agree... good improvement.

ChrisK10 wrote in post #11062926
I kept my flash set up the same as previous weeks. ETTL +2/3 or +1, iso 800-1000, f/4 and 1/250 ss.

IMHO, ETTL +2/3 is usually what I use when I want an over-exposed shot... blow out the whites but expose for the face. +1/3 is fine 90% of the times... just enough to get blinkies on the histogram. +1 is waaay too hot.

ChrisK10 wrote in post #11062926
Tonight I focused on "trigger control" (if you will) and tried to be gentle on the shutter release. Overall I think this has been one of my main problems with getting real sharp images. I got several tonight that were far better than last week.

A gentle shutter actuation is good practice, but IMHO, like I.S., it's not as critical with flash photography because the effective duration of your flash here is probably 1/2000" - 1/3000" or better.

What are you trying to use for red-eye?

Chris your settings and captures action look good you just need to work on your post work. It will come in time.

Agree Clarence. Here is an example from last night. As often happens (keep saying I'm going to get some gaffers tape and tape up the dials) my shutter speed got turned on my second body to 60s when I grab it quickly to take this shot. 1/60s and very little motion blur.

HTTP response: 404 | Byte size: ZERO

Not bad but I would lower exposure somewhat in pp.

You are getting great exposure and great "stop." The fact you are over exposed is a slight adjustment, so keep up the good work and keep improving every week.

Nice shots.

Thank you all for the comments. This is why I like this forum, all the great advice which helps improve my work.

I have noticed that as well. As I try to adjust the flash up, it seems to lose its effectivness. Obviously that means I'm too high, but I can't seem to find the happy medium.

I have noticed a lot of the close shots are too hot, but the mid field shots seem to be OK. By lowering to +1/3 will that effect the exposure at mid field?

Clarence, I understand what you mean by flash duration, but if it is that fast, how come I still get motion blur in the hands, feet and on the football? Logic would tell me it should be fast enough to stop everything.

Also I use the red eye tool in Lightroom 3. I just started using it since I started using flash. Do you have any "tricks of the trade" you can pass along?

ChrisK10 wrote in post #11066886
Clarence, I understand what you mean by flash duration, but if it is that fast, how come I still get motion blur in the hands, feet and on the football? Logic would tell me it should be fast enough to stop everything.

You'll only see motion blur or ghosting when your flash exposure isn't strong enough to overpower ambient. Ambient must be 2 to 3 stops below. If your subject is too far away, then your flash won't have the reach/power to do this. If your ambient is too bright, like the center of the field when you were previously adjusted for the ambient in the endzones, then you can get ghosting. It's a constant monitoring/adjustment process.

Hmmm... That'd be a cool feature for the 1D Mark V... automatically adjust ambient 2 to 3 adjustable stops below available flash power... kind of like the inverse of FEC.

But FEC +1 is going to provide separation over ambient, but it's also going to over-expose, blowing out your whites and giving you the overly flashed look. Try coming down a notch on the +FEC... instead of cranking up the flash that much, lower the ambient exposure instead.

ChrisK10 wrote in post #11066886
Also I use the red eye tool in Lightroom 3. I just started using it since I started using flash. Do you have any "tricks of the trade" you can pass along?

I've used dozens of red-eye removal tools and believe it or not, my favorite is Picasa (free from http://picasa.google.c​om), so if you have a stubborn one, try picasa, then import it back into your Lightroom workflow.

clarence wrote in post #11067915
Hmmm... That'd be a cool feature for the 1D Mark V... automatically adjust ambient 2 to 3 adjustable stops below available flash power... kind of like the inverse of FEC.

Tv Mode, 1/250s shutter, AutoISO, and EC -2 should keep ambient 2 stops below proper exposure. It should always shoot wide open and would adjust ISO to keep ambient exposure at -2.

I might have to try it sometime. I have tried a similar setup for daytime (non-flash) games with the shutter set to 1/1000s and EC at 0 or +1/3, but I found that it occasionally would stop down from wide open and I can't figure out why. It seems very close to my perfect "auto" settings. I will have to try and play with it more in the future. This is with the 7D, BTW.

Clarence

Thanks for the explanation about motion blur. That makes sense. I try to keep my exposure 2 under ambient but found that tough with different color uniforms, so I try to expose for the turf. I read that somewhere on this forum so thought I would give it a try.

This week I will adjust my flash up and try to drop the FEC and see what I come up with. By time I think I have all this figured out football season will be over and then I'll be back to shooting in dungeons for basketball.

BenJohnson wrote in post #11068159
Tv Mode, 1/250s shutter, AutoISO, and EC -2 should keep ambient 2 stops below proper exposure. It should always shoot wide open and would adjust ISO to keep ambient exposure at -2.

I have not tried shooting sports in any mode other than M. I'll have to give it a try and see what happens.

Thank you both again for the advice.

Chris