Fellow Photgraphers,

I have recently been photographing some indoor Gymnastic competitions here in Melbourne, and thought I might comment on one of my experiences.
With gymnastics as you can well imagine you have fast moving subjects in dimly lit (photography wise) stadiums/halls.
Inevitably you have dark coloured matting along with backlight and multi coloured walls!!!! Sheesh!
The gymnasts are usually wearing multi coloured outfits and all in all its a tough trot.

I use 2 cameras for this a 5d and a 1ds Mark3 (yep! Canon guy!) I find the 5d a bit slow in the dim surroundings but when it focuses, it is superb!
On the other hand the 1d is super fast, and extremely accurate in its metering, and this is where the problem lies!!!!!

I usually shoot with the 70 - 200 2.8 IS lens and the the 1.4 extender and have spot metering as my default. This gives me an extremely small metering area.
I wondered for some time why 2 shots of the same gymnast shot in rapid succession lets say on a bar, were so differently exposed!!!!

I worked out that whilst following the gymnasts movement I was not as good as I thought at keeping the subject in the relative center of the frame.
As a result the camera would be metering for backgrounds, gymnasts attire, floor mats, ceilings and ocassionaly the gymnasts face which is what I try to track to!
It took a few meets for me to cotton onto just how accurate this camera is in that area, and just how much the exposure can change when your not metering for the entire seen.

I haven't been able to come up with a better way as yet, and I doubt there is one considering the limitations when photographing this sport.
As a result, my expectations with respect to keepers has dropped accordingly, and I do not have a misbehaving D1 as I first thought!

Just a rant, but something I thought I might share with a view to stimulating conversation..

Regards
Eric D.  ;


 

Hi Eric,

I agree with Terry's suggestion about using a fixed exposure instead.  Also, if you're not already doing so, shooting in RAW can give you more latitude for adjusting over or under exposures so the exact metering is not as critical.

Ralph

Hi Eric et al.
I don't have such a dramatic or or auspicious story to tell, (Experiences), but I like the topic and I think we all have some odd things happen.
I was going to write yesterday, and include the image, but I haven't figured out how to insert an image in my post.

Regardless, here's my strange tale.
I was sort of walking around in an area in SW Florida, near Venice, called the jette by most locals.
Not much to shoot... some boats, some fishermen, and then I spotted this tree with about a dozen black birds perched in various places in the tree.
Not a great shot, but what the heck. I put my Canon 20D up to my eye and as I depressed the shot button, a good sized white gull flew into the viewfinder, and I had a great shot!
Moral of the story I guess would be keep shooting! It's digital, reusable memory cards, and have a lot of fun.
Worst of it all: I have been accused of "inserting" that gull into the shot.
:-)   Fred

Only the people who don't really know you.  I know you don't know how to use PhotoShop. 

Mike

The only thing you should be removing from photos are blemishes and other small spots.  Qimage encourages you to shoot proper photos and it bolsters communication between photographer and subject(s): if you don't want Uncle Egbert in the photo, ask him to step aside when you are taking the shot.  That way you won't have to clone his ugly butt out of the photo later.

 

Mike

Clone him off in Photoshop.  
Oh, I forgot, you don't know how to!
Terry.

Bet I can drop the ban hammer quicker than you can clone me out!  Wanna race?     Now if you used the blemish tool in Qimage, that might be a closer race.   

Mike