Assisting Job

This weekend I got the opportunity to work for Scott Brown, doing some assisting while he shot a few sporting events over the weekend. We went to the U of R football game and the VCU vs. UNC soccer game at Sports Backers. Assisting was a great experience for me, I got to spend my Saturday out in the sun, on the sidelines for my favorite sport. I learned a great deal as well, just being able to have a friendly guy like Scott, made it easier to ask questions, and just talk back and forth during the game. It was really new working with Canon digital bodies, I haven't had a lot of experience with them, but it was good, I definitely feel you need to be well-rounded, know your way around different makes of cameras, not to mention I'd like to make the switch over to Canon in the future.

Most of the things I learned were about the style of shooting. Shooting sports is different from client to client, some people might ask for more portraiture, for a media guide for example, other might want more of action shots, like big catches, running plays, etc. It really has to do with what the images are going to be used for, which I've considered, but because Scott was shooting for a certain job, he'd tell me what he was shooting for and why, so it makes you think about the play-by-play a little more.

Most of the technical things I picked up on over the shoots were how to better use manual exposure, rather than aperture priority. I use manual, but in relation to the sun, sometimes its hard to determine when to stop up, stop down. Location was another thing that helped me out, I had the basic idea of where I should shoot, but being able to compare my notes with his, even give some suggestions, really worked out well. It especially helped at Sports Backers, because I shoot there constantly too, so I was able to learn the hot spots, when to use what mm lens, all these things were important. Now I just need to find someone with a digital body, preferably Nikon, with a wide angle lens, that I can borrow, so I don't have to switch lenses back and forth.

Another important thing I learned was when to use different exposure meterings, which you can really tell a difference when comparing, as Scott did while we were shooting. Typically you can stick with the matrix metering, but if you're working with a great deal of sunshine, such as having the sun over the players back, it creates drastic contrast between highlights and shadows, in this case, using center-weighted metering would be a good option.

I also learned you can dial in the kelvin white balance for digital cameras, which I am usually pretty good about adjusting white balance, but I didn't know you could fine tune to the temperature degree. This is also a great reason why you should stick to shooting RAW, if you have the hard-drive space and need the quality. They take up a great deal of space, typically about 100 or so images to a 2GB memory care, but you get absolutely no compression, the draw back to JPGs. You can also adjust your white balance to whatever, and if its a little off, you can adjust the temperature in post-production without the concern for color shifts, such as muddy greens or other colors. If I was shooting for a client, this is definitely the way I'd go, but seeing my shooting at this moment is for practice and the learning process, i'm not as concerned with the compression, just the amount of photos that I can take at a given event.