I'll save some of my football/weather experiences for another day. Today, the theme is light. Good light, bad light, so-so light. It's also variable. Even during the same game.
A few games I cover each season are daytime games [places where the fields don't have lights], but most are at night. Some places have good lighting. Others leave something to be desired. But the digital camera and computer processing (the office uses Photoshop 7) sure beats the pants off olden times, not too long ago, when I was playing with chemicals, rolling film onto reels in absolute darkness and then playing with a stubborn enlarger under red light. And more chemicals.
Yes, I could talk about times when I turned on the darkroom light, only to realize I still had the film reels with the undeveloped film (instantly ruined) in my hand. I could tell you about that. But I don't really want to. The memory still hurts.
My little camera (the one I use for work) is just a toy compared to what daily newspapers use. I've covered several state championship games, using my little water pistol next to the guys with the big cannons. Big long lenses. (Sigh!) Today, it seems everyone has a digital SLR. Everyone except ... well, my little camera does well enough, I guess. (Except indoor basketball pictures. And volleyball, especially. Ever hear about "shutter lag"? Grrrrr!)
But I was going to talk about lighting and how variable it can be.
Here are some pictures from the game I covered last Friday. It started at 6 p.m., about an hour before sunset, so I had good light for much of the first half. Here's a shot from the first quarter, when one of our guys was returning a punt 68 yards for a touchdown, running down the sideline towards me ... and ol' Sol, 93 million miles away.
I normally crop my pictures, but in this case it would have meant cropping out my shadow along the sidelines. Also, note the trees in the background--a little color, but not much so far. That will change pretty quickly.
OK, that was about midway through the first quarter. This picture was taken just before halftime, with the sun now below the trees.
Quite a bit darker. In cricket, the players would go off for "bad light."
In the second half, we go from bad to worse. The field is only illuminated by the light standards around the gridiron, and they aren't the greatest. So I have to use a big flash unit attached to my camera's hot shoe. (Hot shoe? Gesundheit!)
If I didn't use the flash, this is what I would wind up with ...
It's not quite a black cat eating licorice in a coal bin at midnight, but it's pretty close.
However, the software can do some pretty amazing stuff. This is the same picture as above after a little work with Photoshop.
It's pretty grainy, and the colors aren't great, but this is a major improvement. You can see that the shadows are coming from the lights. Getting any kind of an image off a superdark film negative like this would be nigh onto impossible.
The flash, though, really brightens things up (as long as the players are on this side of the hashmarks--my rule of thumb). Here's a shot I got late in the third quarter ...
That's the picture, just as it comes off the memory card. We can make it even brighter with the software--I'd probably want to brighten it just a little if I was going to run it in the paper. If I brighten it a lot, you can see the press box on the other side of the field.
This week, the game starts at 7 p.m., so I'll be using the flash all throughout. Except I might try some without the flash--our field (where Friday's game will be played) has much better lighting than this one. A little "pushing" with the software, and we'll see what we can get.
Anyway, it's football, and I enjoy the fun and excitement, the combat on the grass and the handshakes after the final horn. It's a nice night. I'm really glad I can do that. For all the hustling and hazards along the sidelines and occasional confusion, it's the most funnest thing I do on my job. I cover every single game that I possibly can.
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