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BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: Photo Exposure Troubleshooting

Photography Question 

KYLIE MCDERMOTT 		 

Dark Backgrounds


I recently went to a football match, which was played at night. I took a lot of photos, but although the players stood out, the background was dark and blurred. I was wondering if anyone knew how to solve this. The camera I used was a Fujifilm Zoom Date 125s, which is also the one I plan to use in future if I could get advice on how to get clear coloured backgrounds. Any help appreciated.


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September 30, 2004

 

Diane Dupuis 		  You can't create light if there isn't enough. Your camera's flash probably isn't strong enough, and unless the field is super well lit, you may be out of luck. Why don't you upload an example? As long as we can see the players clearly, it may be OK.


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September 30, 2004

 

KYLIE MCDERMOTT 		 
 
 
Here is one of my pictures:


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October 01, 2004

 

Scott Pedersen 		  Picture didn't load. But, there isnt a flash big enough to light up a football field. I suspect that the camera selected a wide apature/slow shutter speed due to the fact there was no light. You would need a 400 or maybe 800 asa film to shoot in low light and attemt to keep your shutter speed up enough to prevent any blurring of your subjects.


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October 05, 2004

 

Ken Henry 		  Your eyes can see details in all ten levels of light from white to black. Nagative film can see seven levels, slide film and digital see only five levels of light.

The following five light levels as an example;
light f4 f5.6 f8 f11 f16 dark
At exposure f8 you should see a balance exposed picture showing details from light to dark.

So therefore the playing field is well lit up and there is not enough light on the background. And if you use flash you are increasing the subject brightness and decreasing the background brightness.
So if you were to mid expose between the dark background and light subject, what will happen? Will your subject now be too light? What is more important?

I just now tested my digital A75 Canon on a white fence. The sunlit portion read f16, the soft shadow portion @ f5.6, the hard shadowed area @ f2.8
At f16 exposure the dark portion -5 stops went black, the soft shadow -3 stops went dark but I can still see all details.
For my second exposure I changed my setting to f22 to pick up more detail on the well lighted white fence. Now the soft shadow changed to -4 stops and is almost black.

Hmmmmm...I hope you understood this.

Regards, Ken


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October 05, 2004

 
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