The assignment for the week of 14-20 September 2009 is "Competition." ("The process of trying to win or do better than others.")
Since most competitions are fast-paced events, this assignment should exercise your ability to "think on your feet" and react quickly to an unfolding competition or scene. Experienced photographers will "anticipate" or try to predict how the competition will unfold, and adjust their techniques accordingly.
Will the competitors be moving from sun to shade and back into sunlight again? If so, how will you obtain an optimum exposure in these "mixed" lighting conditions? Remember that spot metering will set your exposure based purely on the active focus point or chosen "spot" for exposure, so if using spot metering you will need to ensure this "spot" is always placed over a mid-tone portion of your primary subject. Matrix metering will try to adjust for the overall lighting in the scene, but is heavily weighted toward the active focus point, and so again, you should try to ensure your active focus point is always placed over a mid-tone portion of the primary subject. (By the way, if you are trying to capture the "emotion" of the event, the focus point should most often be placed on the eyes of your subject.) Center-weighted averaging is not influenced by the placement of your focus point, and will result in an exposure based on average scene luminance, weighted toward the center of the frame.
Is the scene that you will be photographing high enough contrast that you will need to use negative exposure compensation in order to protect the highlights (sky) from blowing out? Take a few test shots to see if a negative exposure compensation of -0.3 EV or -0.7 EV will give you a better overall exposure. If the sky is still blowing out even with -0.7 EV exposure compensation, then consider repositioning your camera or recomposing the scene to eliminate the bright sky. If you are close enough to your subject, think about using fill-flash techniques (see our previous assignment) to control the contrast in the scene.
Does the success of the images you anticipate capturing depend primarily on a specific range of shutter speeds (to stop or show motion) or apertures (to "isolate" your subject or include the environment)? Visualize the images you hope to capture, and set your exposure mode accordingly. If you want the ability to control shutter speed during the course of the event, then use shutter priority or program modes (with program shift enabled). This will allow you to slow the shutter speed to show motion, and increase the shutter speed to stop motion. Are you going to try panning techniques? If so, the most effective shutter speed for a successful pan will depend on the speed of your primary subject. If you aren't experienced enough with this technique to know the proper setting, then try rolling the shutter dial while panning to "bracket" a series of different shutter speeds (1/15th to 1/250th of a second would be a good range to try, depending on the speed of your subject.)
If you want the ability to control the aperture so that you can either "isolate" your subject by using a large aperture, or include the entire scene by using a small aperture, then you will want to use either aperture priority or program (with shift enabled) exposure modes.
Visualize the compositions you hope to capture during the course of the event and determine where you will set your active focus point. Remember that most effective compositions show subjects moving into the frame, not out of the frame, so you will want to leave enough "space" in front of your subject so that it doesn't appear to be leaving the frame. There is a good chance that your center focus point is not the optimum focus point to capture the best composition, so try to anticipate how the scene will unfold and select an appropriate focus point, being ready to adjust the focus point as needed.
Before the event starts, set your camera to continuous focus. Chances are that if you try to use a "single servo" or single shot focus mode, your subject will have moved between the time you press the shutter release and the time the image is recorded. It is much better to use continuous focus modes in this situation.
Many modern cameras also have the ability to select the
number of active focus points. You can select a single active focus point, make all the focus points active (in which case the camera will try to use all of them to follow the subject) or select a subset of available focus points. In general, you should select the lowest number of active focus points that will allow you to stay "on your subject." If your subject is moving very erratically, you might have a difficult time keeping a single focus point on the subject, and selecting more active focus points will give you a "margin of error" around the subject. For Nikon D3, D700 and D300 cameras, selecting 9 active auto-focus points will give you a "selected" auto-focus point with a "margin" of one focus point all around the selected one. That way if the subject moves out from under the "selected" auto-focus point, you will hopefully still have a focus point in the surrounding "margin" on your subject and can react to reposition the camera and retain focus. Selecting 21 active auto-focus points gives you a margin of two focus points all around your selected auto-focus point, which allows for a more erratically moving subject (or slower reaction time
. Selecting more active focus points than you actually need increases the chances that one of the active focus points will "steal focus" by focusing on a high-contrast element in the background, so again you should choose the minimum number of focus points needed in order to keep your active focus points on your primary subject. ("Following" a moving subject is a skill that gets better with time and practice, so experienced photographers are usually more successful with fewer active focus points.)
By now you are probably thinking "this is too much to think about while I'm trying to photograph the pig races at the state fair."
I find that reciting a short "mantra" to myself while I'm photographing sometimes helps me to remember all the critical elements. As I'm preparing to take the picture I will think "expose, compose, focus, squeeze." "Expose" cues me to think about whether I have the appropriate metering mode, shutter speed or aperture, and exposure compensation set. "Compose" helps me to think about the image composition, and helps me get "off center" and appropriately place the subject in the frame. "Focus" cues me to think about my focus mode (single or continuous) and to place my active focus point correctly in relation to the composition and subject. "Squeeze" reminds me to use good camera technique, holding the camera steady and gently squeezing the shutter instead of "jabbing" it. This is especially important when using slow shutter speeds, and/or panning techniques.
The assignment for the week of 14-20 September 2009 is "Competition." You should strive to convey the
emotion of the competition in your images. Please upload your images to the "Competition" album in the Weekly Assignments category of the Gallery no-later-than midnight, Mountain Time (GMT-07:00) on Sunday, 20 September 2009.
