Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/20

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Shooting football with R7 and exposure problems
From: Harrison McClary <harrison@jnlcom.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 13:26:27 -0500

Robert,

When I shoot football on chrome (usually RDPII) I try to shoot from the 
back lit side of the field and use an Incident meter, metering so that I 
am exposing for the shadow areas.  I meter continuously throughout the 
game, almost between every play.  If you ever see the shooters who work 
for AllSport, SI, or other outlets who shoot a lot of chrome at the day 
games you will see many of them doing this same thing.

The reason I prefer the back lit side of the field is that I am exposing 
for the shadows and the faces show up better, more apt to see the eyes, 
also with the light hitting from behind there is a nice rim light to the 
players and this helps them pop out of the background.  As far as how to 
meter accurately with the chrome on the camera's internal meter you 
should preferably shoot manual as chrome is way to unforgiving to allow 
metering mistakes.  I would meter the grass and see what it was reading, 
if shooting from the back lit side I would open up 1 1/2 to 2 stops.  Of 
course this would require trial and error...for an assignment I would not 
even attempt using the in camera meter for chrome I just don't trust it.  
I trust my Minolta as I have run tests on it and have used it as my meter 
of choice for almost 15 years now.

I know some will say the incident is too slow, but for me there is no 
other way.  For days where the exposure is bouncing all over the scale I 
tend to shoot color neg.  I prefer to get an image and if it is 
absolutely necessary to have a slide I will get a dupe made to slide 
after the fact.

I have uploaded 2 photos from the last game I shot using Provia (RDPII) 
showing both angles.

http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto/backlit.jpg
is the photo made from the back lit side of the field.  If you look you 
can see detail in the face of the fellow making the tackle, even though 
he is a black person with very little light hitting his face.

http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto/frontlit.jpg
is a photo made when the play was going in the opposite direction on the 
field and I had to shoot with the light.  As you can see the fellow who 
has the light hitting him full in the face is fine, the other player with 
the head slightly turned is totally black, no detail at all.

BTW both of these photos were made with a Canon F1n & 4002.8 lens, the 
front lit one with the 1.4 converter.  Both manual focus. Both shot with 
the aperture wide open.  

Now who said you gotta have AF to shoot sports? :) :)

Robert G. Stevens wrote

>The sky was cloudy and the
>sun was  poking out every now and then.  This is why I shot on auto rather
>than manual.  When I developed the slides, I noticed that any picture with
>white jerseys in it was underexposed.  I had this same problem the previous
>week but though it was because I was using spot auto.
>
>I guess my question is, should I shoot on manual, what should I meter off?
>What did you do when you had the R7.  The press guys at the games use
>colour print film around 800 asa and I assume its whide lattitude make up
>for small metering errors.  The slide film is just not forgiving.  I am
>going to try it with +1/2 compensation the next time and see if I get
>better detail.


Harrison McClary
http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto
new book at http://www.volmania.com