So Baseball Game and a Speedlight???

[wyogirl]

I have that lens. I just don't think that in my seat I will have enough space to use it because I have a crop sensor.
ETA: but I'll take it anyway.

 

[Tailgunner]

Have you checked to see if you can bring your dslr to the ballpark? Some stadiums do not allow them.

This^

Double check on any zoom rules should they allow DSLRs. Here in Texas, just about anything goes at the Rangers ball park (seen fans with $10,000 set ups) but Houston has a limit of 200mm if I recall.

As for lighting, ballparks have a decent amount of lighting.

 

[wyogirl]

I just double checked since it had been awhile. I can't take my flash anyway so I guess the whole thread is a moot point.

 

[Tailgunner]

I just double checked since it had been awhile. I can't take my flash anyway so I guess the whole thread is a moot point.

That makes sense.

Anyhow, you should be fine, just crank up the ISO an Shutter speed.

 

[bunny99123]

I took my DSLR and camera backpack to Dickey Stephens Park in AR. I didn't even use a flash, because the lights were so bright. It is outside Park and at night. Two I took.

 

[hirejn]

My suggestion is to use a less conspicuous location to test your lighting. At a ball park, you just want a good shot. This is an odd situation to worry about professional results. Yes, the Lightsphere would be great and it does prevent red-eye in my experience. It blasts light everywhere. You could point it straight up and still get enough light for the subject at close distances. Just understand by pointing it up you're not bouncing it off the sky. You could also point it forward. But this is one more accessory to pack. You can read more about the Lightsphere on my blog at Joel Nisleit Photography | Nikon Diffuser vs. Gary Fong Lightsphere Lighting Tests.

Personally, I would use pop-up flash because distances will be close and it's one less accessory I'd have to carry. If there's red-eye, it's so easy to remove with today's software. The light will not be studio portrait quality but again a busy stadium isn't the place for that. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to experiment with off-camera flash.

Balancing color temperatures shouldn't be an issue if the stadium light blends with daylight enough that it won't have a big impact. If it's a dome and there's no daylight, then you have to guess at the WB or use auto, and you would also have to balance the flash to match. Since this isn't a professional job I'd use auto, and I wouldn't even bring a DSLR. The Nikon D300 manual contains Kelvin presets for some stadium lights. Your manual might do the same, or you could download the D300 manual. The Kelvin numbers would apply to any camera. Balancing the flash to those exact Kelvins would be tricky because you would have to find a gel known to be balanced for that temperature. If you have a camera with good high ISO performance, you might do better leaving flash off and cranking the ISO.

 

[cynicaster]

I caught the Tigers and Indians at Progressive field in Cleveland a few weeks ago and I made sure to check ahead of time about camera policy. I was able to bring it in no problem. Their basic policy is it’s fine, so long as you’re not being disruptive to other spectators. But, it does seem to vary by location. I’ve heard of places saying you can take photos, but “cameras with removable lenses” are not allowed.

For a first try at such a thing, and considering the fact I have only entry-level gear that is not very well-suited to such situations, I was pretty satisfied with the results. For most of the shots I used the less-than-stellar Canon 55-250mm lens. I had to crank the ISO up to 3200 for most shots to get decent shutter speeds but the bright colors on the field made the noise less noticeable. I didn’t even bother with RAW.

For shots in the stands of friends and family, I’d forget about bringing along the big external flash, as you have no good way to capitalize on what it has to offer. Bump your ISO, and just use the stadium lights as your main light source. If necessary, use some subtle pop-up flash to fill in face shadows, or make your subjects pop a bit more. You’re probably going to want to be well below your max sync-speed to get a nice background exposure and establish context. You can then tweak the exposure of the subjects with manual flash or FEC, until you have a nice result. You should be able to dial in the flash such that your subjects are well balanced with the background but their faces don’t have that signature pop-up flash “nuked” appearance. Depending on where you’re standing relative to the stadium lights, the flash might be altogether unnecessary.