Just back from another MB tourney...Calling all experts...

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Nope, not metering mode, Auto Focus Mode. When you look through the view finder you see, I'm guessing here, 9 small rectangle boxes. These are your focus points. Either you can decide which of these 9 boxes to use to focus on your subject, or the camera will decide for you. Default is to let the camera decide. I've found this doesn't always work the way I want so I switched the option to Spot Auto Focus and I choose the box I want. More often than not I use the center box.

I do the same. More often than not I use the center box. Occasionally, I'll move the focus spot if I want to make sure something not in the center comes out more in focus/prominent than whatever is in the center. That's what I was doing in the original sets of photos I posted -- that's why the drum line was often in focus and everything else around it wasn't.

By motion blur I mean the subject moved while you were taking the picture and that movement shows up in the picture. Notice the signs in the background, they aren't in sharp focus, but that is because of DOF, IMO.
Also remember your using a lens with Vibration Reduction. You don't need a tripod unless your having issues holding it because of its weight. If you are using a tripod you have to shut the VR off. If you don't it will have an effect on the final image giving it an out of focus appearance. Its something with the tripod and the VR working at the same time actually gives it a bad outcome. The vibration works opposite.
The VR will counteract any issues you have with camera shake. If your at the 70mm end of the lens and use 1/60th for a shutter speed and the VR is on, you should have NO issues with camera shake if your hand holding the camera. If its on a tripod, then you'll have issues.

I did shut off VR in the second set. I'm wondering if something is wrong with my VR lens because everytime I try to zoom all the way out to 300 and take a shot handheld I'll get about 9 shots out of focus and maybe 1 in focus while handheld. I'll post some pics later to show you what I mean.

Thanks!

 

[Master Mason]

Here's one example of what I consider OOF:

this photo is in focus, it is just focused on the people in the front row of the stands and not the people on the field....

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Nope, not metering mode, Auto Focus Mode. When you look through the view finder you see, I'm guessing here, 9 small rectangle boxes. These are your focus points. Either you can decide which of these 9 boxes to use to focus on your subject, or the camera will decide for you. Default is to let the camera decide. I've found this doesn't always work the way I want so I switched the option to Spot Auto Focus and I choose the box I want. More often than not I use the center box.

Hey handicap18, I think I just realized what you were referring to in the above post. (I hope this is correct.) I just checked the custom settings in my menu and I have the AF -area mode set to Single area.

I did try different metering tonight. For some shots Matrix was fine. (Lighting was really good.) For shots far away in the stands, Spot metering was better. I also tried Center weighted -- and honestly didn't see much of a difference or improvement in those photos.

I forgot to change my camera to Manual mode. I just shot everything in Aperture priority. Tonight's show was at the Aloha Stadium once again, so the lighting was really consistent and good. I'll try to post a few later...

Thanks everybody!

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

this photo is in focus, it is just focused on the people in the front row of the stands and not the people on the field....

You're right. It's obvious that my focusing was off...

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Sure thing. Under the Custom Setting Menu, you'll see option #12(Center-weighted). Selecting that will give you 3 different sizes in which to choose from.....6mm, 8mm, and 10mm. I prettty much leave mine at 8mm most of the time.

Mine was set to 6mm...I'm guessing that's not really a good thing...

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Why are you using spot? That's almost certainly the source of your metering problems.

As for the blurriness, that's coming from several different things - camera shake, subject motion, or wrong focus point.

Hi Mark,

The reason I was using Spot meterng was because in previous photos I posted you could see a lot of the dark sky and my photos were all blurry. So someone suggested Spot metering (said the D80 sometimes gets confused when there is too much variability in the lighting conditions) and to raise the ISO and voila, I started getting decent, usable photos. I think the blurriness is subject motion and wrong focus point based on Master Mason's assessment.

To reduce camera shake, try using a tripod or monopod. If you can't, try to get your shutter speed up to at least 1/100 and higher would be better. It looks like you are trying to handhold shots at 120mm (180mm equiv) at 1/30s. The standard guideline says that you should be using 1/180s or faster for that shot.

I actually was using my CF tripod w/ a VR lens but the VR was off. I probably did introduce some movemet because I was panning up and down and left and right.
I do have a lot to learn about exposure and shutter speeds, etc. I don't even know what the 'standard guidelines' are regarding shutter speed, etc. Do you have a website with that kind of info you could point me toward?

You can't do much to keep your subjects from moving, so you would also benefit from a faster shutter speed. The shutter speed you need depends on how zoomed in you are and how much your subject is moving. Study your shots to see what works and what doesn't. If you get to about 1/90s or higher, this shouldn't be too much of a problem for most stuff.

In order to get a faster shutter speed, you want the widest possible aperture. Unfortunately, a wide aperture is going to give you a narrow range of in-focus area. There isn't much you can do about that because you don't have enough light for a narrow aperture. Just watch your focal point closely.

I would start with a goal of getting a good shutter speed (faster for hand-held shots and shots with motion, slower is OK for others). If you're goal is 1/100s, then open your aperture as wide as it takes to get there. If a wide aperture still doesn't get you there, then try increasing your ISO. If you are at your max aperture and max usable ISO, then you hae to choose between two bad options. You can either shoot too slow and get camera shake and motion blur or you can dial in exposure compensation and purposefully underexpose your shots. If you do that, shoot in RAW. You can fix the underexposure by a stop or two in post production, but it will make noise problems much, much worse.

I bumped up the ISO to 1600 and +3 EC. n (Last time someone suggested I shouldn't go any lower than 800 ISO, so I thought let's try 1600.) That's why I was confused about how much worse the photos came out than the last time when I used ISO 800, 0 EC, and Spot metering.
Sorry I don't know how to render RAW images yet, but will hopefully learn to do so in the near future as time allows.

And just to repeate again, DON'T USE SPOT METERING unless you are taking the time to get a careful reading off of a mid-brightness part of your subject. In fact, if the light doesn't change at all during your shoot, try shooting manual. Get the exposure where you want it by trial, error, and looking at your preview and histograms. Then just leave it there all night.

Thanks, I'll have to try that next time. I forgot to try Manual mode tonight. Since the lighting was very consistant, I was messing around with the various metering modes and with settings on my VR lens.
Thanks for your feedback!

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I think that your problem is that you were using spot metering and not paying attention to what you were metering on. Stick with matrix metering mode. Don't use spot until you've done some studying on how it works.

Matrix looks at the total picture and picks an exposure level that will work for that. Spot looks at a tiny spot and meters based on that spot. If that spot is bright, your picture looks dark. If that spot is dark, your picture looks bright.

Thanks Mark. I realized upon looking back at the photos I posted that you are right, the dark ones were because I wasn't focusing on the right spot. I must've been off and focusing on the darker areas behind the car and that's why the whole shot is too dark.

 

[NostalgicDad]

I actually was using my CF tripod w/ a VR lens but the VR was off. I probably did introduce some movemet because I was panning up and down and left and right.

In this case even though you are using a tripod, movement is involved and can be helped by using the VR function. Keep in mind that if you are panning horizontally then you should switch from Normal to Active VR on the 70-300 which is the preferred mode.

Only if you are using your tripod for stability is when you should turn off VR.

 

[MICKEY88]

Thanks Mark. I realized upon looking back at the photos I posted that you are right, the dark ones were because I wasn't focusing on the right spot. I must've been off and focusing on the darker areas behind the car and that's why the whole shot is too dark.

actually if you were metering off of a dark spot the pics would tend to be too light...

metering off of a bright spot would cause dark pics..

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

actually if you were metering off of a dark spot the pics would tend to be too light...

metering off of a bright spot would cause dark pics..

Duh!