Some advice please

[andyr30]

Hi, I’m after some advice, was shooting some motocross at the weekend, and, although some pictures turned out ok, I’m a bit disappointed with most of them. I’m still learning with regards to settings, so I’m pretty sure I had them wrong. I struggled with pictures of the bikes on jumps where the background was all sky. It was quite a bright day and a lot of the pictures turned out very dark with the sky over exposed. How do I combat this? I’ve added a picture as an example. It would have been quite good if it wasn’t so dark and the sky over exposed. Cheers



Mar 20, 2011
1600×902 pixels – 72KB
Filename: pic 062.jpg
Camera: FUJIFILM
Model: FinePix HS10 HS11
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/750 sec
Aperture: 8.0
Focal Length: 4.2mm
Flash Used: No

[itsnotarace]

Can you do spot metering on those Fuji's

The camera cannot compensate for the bright sky so you need to meter from the rider to get the exposure right.

[andyr30]

Yes you can, I had it set on center I think, and tried to track the rider as he came towards the jump and then of it. I will try spot metering next time though. Although will that not make the sky completely blown out?
Many Thanks!

[itsnotarace]

Yes the sky would then be blown out. To compensate a circular polariser would be useful

Otherwise you just have to try and get much less sky in the shot (get closer to your subject and shoot with the sun behind you)

[andyr30]

Yeah that all makes sense, thank you for the reply

Here's another I think is a little better, at least you can see a bit more!

[Pixel Pusher]

I guess you'll prefer to remedy the issues within the camera setup but putting a correction through Photoshop returns this. This is just nudging up the shadow & mids.

[andyr30]

thats better, looks like I need to learn how to use photoshop better too, as I gave it a try but couldn't get it right!
As you say I'd like to try and get a good shot to start with, but photoshop can save some of the ones I've already taken. I'll go an have a play now with shadows and mids on some of the others.

Cheers!

[Gizmo!]

You might also try a graduated ND filter: makes the sky darker and helps the camera expose correctly.

[andyr30]

Thanks, will look into those

[Tom_G]

If you can a fairly easy thing to do in future (without the requirement for any extra equipment) is to just dial in approx EV +2/3 - +1. That way the bike and interesting parts will obviously be brighter, but you should be able to find a decent compromise between the exposure of the bike and the sky - You say the sky is overexposed in the image but it doesnt look too bad to me.. I reckon it can be pushed further. I did the same technique when taking pictures of planes at an airshow last year and they turned out fine.

After that you can further adjust levels in PS and you should have a decent shot.

[andyr30]

Excellent, thanks for that tip, will give that a go also!

Plenty things to try next time I'm out

[tinman0]

Gizmo! said:

You might also try a graduated ND filter: makes the sky darker and helps the camera expose correctly.

^ This is about the only thing that works. Kill the sky and the ground exposure will come up really well.

Not sure about using a circular polariser as it'll just make the dark ground even darker.

[Tom_G]

tinman0 said:

^ This is about the only thing that works. Kill the sky and the ground exposure will come up really well.

Not sure about using a circular polariser as it'll just make the dark ground even darker.

The problem with the ND filter (even soft ones) is if the picture is of the bike against the sky, the bike will be darker along with the rest of the sky. The ground and the sky will be nicely exposed (hence their main use - for landscapes) the bike will be exposed along with the sky, i.e. dark to balance with the ground.