Photo settings for specific events, technical stuff

[joshyface]

I am the creative director for my school newspaper, I need to give a presentation on photo settings and composition (among other thing). I am proud to have this position, and I can teach the basics of composition without much problem. Despite that, I am still a relatively new photographer. I also have more experience with darkroom/film cameras, and I am not too sure if how to treat, much less teach, digital camera setting. Is it reasonably the same? Am I freaking out over nothing?

I have been playing with my Cannon Rebel XT, and I can get photo's to a reasonable place to Photoshop or even better, but I need to play around with the camera. Since I cannot be with my photographers when they are shooting, I want to give them a general range of settings for certain situations. (I understand this is a big request.) I have done some research on these settings, and have some recommended settings for situations. Despite that, with my summer homework, my job, camps, etc, I have not had much time to test and record what settings work where. Therefore, I am humbly asking the photographers of this forum to help.

I know all these settings are depend on the specific situation, so I do not expect you to give me exact numbers and more of a range. My teacher would like settings for the following: "football games, relatively still pictures w/ florescent lighting, sports photography w/ gym lighting, performances (battle of the bands, concerts, plays/musicals), outdoor sports in daylight, etc."

I understand this is a really big request, so I understand if nobody responds. I also understand any photographer is going to need to play around with the setting. With that, I do not expect my photographers to be perfect and will some photos will need to be manipulated, so I just want a general range.

 

[KmH]

F/8 and be there, should cover most of it.

How much light will there be at each of the venues?

Sorry! I don't have time to say more. I've got a hot woman and a cold beer waiting for me, and then I have to pack for camp.

 

[MLeeK]

There is not any way we can give you these settings.
A football game could be in the full light of day, at night under great stadium lights, at night under crappy stadium lights, during a crappy rainy dreary day... The LIGHT is what it is all about.
I can tell you that for football you are going to need a shutter speed of 1/320 at the slowest and that may even result in some motion blur. I try to shoot at about 1/500 for football. Chances that a Rebel XT will capture a night game are pretty slim. It doesn't have the ISO capability. You'll need at the very least an f/2.8 lens.

For still photos with flourescent lighting you could need nearly anything. You'll have to have a shutter of at least 1/125 to prevent blur, but the rest all depends on how bright the lighting is.

Sports in a gym varies IMMENSELY. Some gyms have great lighting and some are horrific. They are almost all cycling lights that will require that the shooter use a custom white balance and shoot in raw and repair each cycle in the light. Sports again you will need a fast shutter speed of about 1/320 at the slowest.

Performances-could be ANYTHING. It's all about light. You might be able to shoot with a relative slow shutter speed of 1/160 or you may need to have a faster one above 1/320 or faster. It could require that you have a very fast aperture and a very high f/ or it could be in a well lit situation requiring a very narrow f/ and a low ISO.

It's all about the LIGHT. How much light there is in the scene. EVERY situation is different and requires measurement in order to set exposure.

Honestly? If they don't know what they are doing they are far better off shooting in auto. And they'll need something with some considerable low light capability for sports.

 

[deeky]

It's a school newspaper - I'm assuming high school. If your other photographers are less familiar with the cameras, I would suggest shooting as automatically as you can and let the camera do the work. For athletic events and other fast-moving events, use the Sports mode (icon looks like a figure running). It will adjust settings accordingly. For slower moving events (concerts, plays, etc.), use the Portrait mode (looks like a profile of a face). It will give you a little shallower depth of field that will give better attention to the subject, but will not handle high-speed movements. If all else fails, have them shoot Full Auto. On my Canon, it's a green box. It uses the basic settings, almost like a point and shoot.

In these auto modes, the camera will fairly well take care of white balance for the varying settings, sharpening, etc. Have them shoot in auto-focus, and have the cameras set to capture pictures in large file size (that's something you can set ahead of time).

Based on what I am hearing regarding your experience, it sounds like you don't have a lot of experience in post processing and editing. I would actually recommend shooting in jpeg format to start with. If you really want to grow, take some practice shots of your own in RAW format and practice some editing. Then, when you are ready for all of the extra post work, adjust the cameras to capture in RAW. You won't have quite as much potential for those spectacular shots, but it sounds like this will probably give you a higher percentage of success to start with.

Get everyone going with the basics. Then as you learn throughout the year, keep teaching the others.

Hope that helps.

 

[gsgary]

Im fed up of all this bull**** im used to film what settings to use for digital f stops and shutter speeds are the same all you need to worry about is ,white balance

 

[sm4him]

I agree with MLeek and deeky; there's just NO way to give someone the settings they need because it's so dependent on so many variables. I'd highly recommend the photographers shoot on either Auto or some of the "preset" modes, until THEY develop a better understanding of what they're doing.
For your presentation, I'd recommend you just explain the exposure triangle and encourage them to do some "test photos" to see how iso, shutter speed and aperture all work together to affect the results.

Also--just for some very basic practice, you might send them here: CameraSim simulates a digital SLR camera - SLR Photography Demystified

 

[pgriz]

Your request for settings is equivalent to a beginning baker asking what's the "best" temperature to set the oven at.

If you don't have the skills and knowledge, and if your talent pool of photographers don't either, I'd suggest going outside to the community and find a skilled amateur to provide some guidance/consultation.

If you can't find such help, then shooting in one of the program modes will at least give you a fighting chance at getting usable images. But there is no substitute for knowledge and skill in working with challenging lighting conditions with basic gear and getting good results. As MLeek noted, it's all about the light. The amount and quality of light determine your photographic options. Top-level equipment gives you more lee-way than basic gear, but if all you have is basic gear, then "knowledge" is the secret ingredient to capturing decent-to-good images under the circumstances.

 

[Compaq]

Instead of sewing pillows under their arms by giving them certain ranges that might fail more often than not, teach them the basics of exposure and let them experiment with their own cameras. If they work as photographers for a school news papers, they should at least be able to exposure by them selves, and not rely on their director for tips and tricks. Exposure is the same with digital and film (as far as settings goes, anyway).

Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Learn a man to fish, and he'll eat for the rest of his life.

 

[cgipson1]

Often different for every shot, much less every venue.... there are no magic settings. Try Program... probably your best bet. Good luck!

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Learn a man to fish, and he'll eat for the rest of his life.

I read that as "Give a man a flash, and he'll eat for a day. Learn a man to flash, and he'll eat for the rest of his life."

Which makes me wonder how we can repurpose it...

"Give a man a flash, and he'll __________ for a day. Learn a man to flash, and he'll ____________ for the rest of his life."

 

[table1349]

"Give a man a flash, and he'll be horney for a day. Learn a man to flash, and he'll go to prison for the rest of his life."

 

[MLeeK]

Your request for settings is equivalent to a beginning baker asking what's the "best" temperature to set the oven at.

If you don't have the skills and knowledge, and if your talent pool of photographers don't either, I'd suggest going outside to the community and find a skilled amateur to provide some guidance/consultation.

If you can't find such help, then shooting in one of the program modes will at least give you a fighting chance at getting usable images. But there is no substitute for knowledge and skill in working with challenging lighting conditions with basic gear and getting good results. As MLeek noted, it's all about the light. The amount and quality of light determine your photographic options. Top-level equipment gives you more lee-way than basic gear, but if all you have is basic gear, then "knowledge" is the secret ingredient to capturing decent-to-good images under the circumstances.

This is probably the best answer that you have gotten yet. There are SO many photographers that know the basics and will be more than willing to do this in order to get their foot into the school for networking purposes. I am a huge part of 3 different schools' yearbooks. I do no REAL advertising, but by working with the kids for the yearbook and presentations that go on within the school they call me for their senior portraits because I am what they know. Any photographer wanting to get into the senior market is going to be happy to help. Look around at the first sporting event of the year. If you see someone who shots with a big ol' 70-200 lens non stop there's your best bet.

 

[TCampbell]

Keith wasn't actually being a smart-alek when he said "f/8 and be there". The quote was what Arthur “Weegee” Fellig (very famous photojournalistic photographer) answered when people asked him how he got all those great shots. You should go look up the quote on the internet. There are LOTS of stories about this quote and what it actually means.

f/8 is basically a very safe middle-aperture setting. It usually gives among the sharpest results, a safe depth of field (it wont be so shallow that some people are in focus and others are blurry). "Be there" is largely interpreted to mean that you should make yourself part of the scene -- every scene has some mood, energy, drama, tension, etc.. Feel what it's like to be there and make sure the camera captures that mood. (Fellig took a lot of shots depicting tragedies.)

In most non-posed shots, there's a "decisive moment". A moment in time where the shot will be better than at any other time. If I'm watching a baseball game and the runner is sliding into home plate while the ball is being thrown to the catcher in an attempt to tag him out, then the "decisive moment" is the point in time where all that comes to a head. If I take the shot either 5 seconds earlier or 5 seconds later then it's a boring shot with nothing of real interest. This is because there is energy and drama in that "decisive moment".

All the same settings apply to digital as apply to film EXCEPT you can change your ISO anytime you want. On a film camera every shot had to be shot at the ASA of the film... or you had to change the film. That means you can toy with three things to balance the exposure, whereas on a film camera you could really only balance two things.

"f/8 and be there" applies to photojournalism. It does not apply to sports, landscape, nature, portraiture, art photography, etc. In sports, shutter speed is key either to control the freezing of the action or (slightly more advanced) being able to "pan" the action so that you get a tack sharp subject with a slow enough shutter to get deliberate motion-blur (it takes some practice.) In portraiture you usually want a reasonably shallow depth of field created with a low aperture (maybe f/2.8... f/4) in order to create a softly defocused background while still capturing a tack-sharp subject.

Although it seems like there's a lot to learn, most of the hard stuff is the creative element. The mechanics of using the camera aren't too hard.

 

[DiskoJoe]

Go ask the photography teacher at your school. They pay them to teach kids this. Then make it a requirement that all newspaper photographer sign up for the class.

 

[MLeeK]

Go ask the photography teacher at your school. They pay them to teach kids this. Then make it a requirement that all newspaper photographer sign up for the class.

Have you been into a HS photography class lately? My daughter took it. They made her bring her camera home because the teacher didn't know how to operate it. The only thing they learned was how to do everything WRONG in photoshop. The Photography classes in high schools generally SUCK. You have to be a certified teacher to teach, but you don't have to know a damn thing about photography. If you do know photography, chances are slim that you're certified to teach AND the school has the budget for it AND/OR you are already employed by the school WITH the open period to teach it.