Frustrated amateur photographer needs help w/settings for nighttime football!

[Susant707]

Hey, guys!

Thanks for asking. Things went MUCH better. Of course, it probably helped that the stadium was very bright. I'm not sure I had the flash set up right. My husband (who isn't into photography) picked up the rented lens & flash. The owners told him the flash was set & ready to go--just needed to be attached to the top of my camera. Did that, turned it on, etc., but it still didn't seem to flash (at least, according to the data on the few pics I've looked at). While the stadium was bright, there were still times it needed flash . . . so I'm not sure about all that & have some learning to do.

I'll try to get some pics uploaded today--still need to figure out how to get the EXIF data attached to the picture in Lightroom 2 (just bought this about a week ago & am trying to figure out how to do everything--never had Lightroom 1--and have the beta 3 version, too). Just received CS3 as well. Doing some reading from Scott Kelby's Lightroom 2 book and am watching free tutorials online.

Also in the process of looking for presets that might help with the nighttime stadium shots, too. I had never even heard of presets until a week ago, but anything that will cut down on editing time would help immensely. Obviously the first thing is to take the best possible pictures . . . then weed through them . . . then if I can do most editing in Lightroom (with the help of presets!) . . . life would be much easier. Hope to get them to one of the online pro galleries to sell some--need to help pay for some of these photography expenses.

Then what to do with the four boys . . . homework . . . home duties . . . church activities . . . ha ~

Thanks for checking on me. I'll get pics up ASAP.

Blessings,
Susan

PS Also shot about half the game in RAW to experiment with that. Talk about clarity! Now I just need to learn what to *DO* with them! Told you I'm new at all this. Please be patient with me!

[Matt_G]

Oh boy.... flash is whole different ballgame :)

I use the Manfrotto bracket 223B to get the flash above the camera. There is a "cheaper" way to do it below the flash with an L bracket too. Regardless get the flash off camera if possible. Second you need a lot of batteries or a battery pack to do it well. I use the Quantum 2X2 but the Turbo will work great too. Most people use ETTL (whatever that is on Nikon) for their flash. I prefer to do it myself and set the flash for the best exposure at my typical distance and then adjust the aperture as the play moves closer.

Looking forward to your results... Playoff football start tomorrow!!!

[snydersnapshots]

Originally Posted by Susant707

Then what to do with the four boys . . . homework . . . home duties . . . church activities . . . ha ~

What, you mean you didn't buy the optional "36 hour day/12 day week" package with your camera?

I'm glad things went well. I'm anxious to see the pictures.

Ken

[Susant707]

Matt,

Had to laugh at your first sentence; I was AFRAID you might say that! ha! Shewwww ~ !

Still planning to get some pics posted. Regarding playoffs . . . ready for this one? Our first playoff game was FORFEITED by the other team! A PLAY-OFF GAME! They cancelled on us yesterday. I'm still in shock. I'm disappointed for our sake, but especially for any seniors that are on that team . . . unless they're playing on the college circuit (and few are), they're FINISHED with football . . . forever. Makes me sad.

Okay, sorry guys. Guess that was off-topic, off-forum. Anyway, no game for me tomorrow night. We're thinking our next game (11/20) will be in Waco.

Have fun tomorrow night! Where are you shooting?

Susant707 added 7 Minutes and 34 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Funny, Ken! Guess they failed to offer me *that* package! Wonder if I can get a refund?!

Just remember . . . my "went well" may not mean the same to you guys as it does to ME . . . because really, just about anything over the pictures from the week before would be a HUGE improvement! As they say, "nowhere to go but up!" ha!