My brand new 5D Mark III - what am I doing wrong, please help!

[bycostello]

you are shooting manual....  so you need to change your shutter speed and or aperture...

[Martin]

I had 5d2 and have 5d3 and those cameras underexpose permanently by ca. 1/2 EV, 2/3EV. I sent the 5d2 to the service and they stated that everything was ok, despite the fact I tested the cameras with wall against Sekonic external meter and a Nikon body.

[PeterJ]

You probably know this, but metering is only on the center point and it's not tied to the selected focus point. Just mentioning it because looking at some of those images when I look at the dead center of each image I can sort of see how the camera might have come up with those exposures. Also after using a 550D maybe you are getting away with faster shutter speeds causing the 120Hz flicker metering problem a few others mentioned.

I don't do a lot of that style of photography but in my limited experience sometimes you're best to go for full manual. The real lighting probably won't change a lot so try a bit of 'chimping' on initial shots and dial in the ISO. While at high shutter speeds it won't solve the flicker entirely I think it should improve things.

[bchernicoff]

you are shooting manual....  so you need to change your shutter speed and or aperture...

He says he was using Auto ISO, so the camera still meters and adjusts the ISO based on the calculated exposure.

I think he's dealing with a highly reflective floor and less reflective players. The camera is metering off light reflected from the floor.

[Northstar]

I had 5d2 and have 5d3 and those cameras underexpose permanently by ca. 1/2 EV, 2/3EV. I sent the 5d2 to the service and they stated that everything was ok, despite the fact I tested the cameras with wall against Sekonic external meter and a Nikon body.

martin...I share the same opinion - about 1/2 EV

[TAF]

LED's (the future) may or may not blink depending on the power supply they have.  LED's run on DC (which shouldn't blink), but some of the power supplies are simply AC rectified (all the humps are on one side of zero), which on average looks like DC, but which to a fast acting LED is (again) 120 peaks per second.

You also have to watch out for LED Christmas lights, they usually only have a half wave rectifier, so you only have 60 peaks per second, and half of each cycle is at zero.

Thank you for that warning, I didn't know that (although I suppose I am not surprised).

I run a number of LED lights around the house, and use 'wallwart' power supplies to supply them.  I make certain that the supplies are regulated DC to both protect the LED's (which still aren't cheap), and to avoid all these issues.

[helpful]

There's some bad advice being given here.

If you use manual exposure [begin edit] in situations like this[end edit], make sure auto ISO is turned off. When you are shooting from slightly above the court, as you are, the floor (and advertising signs) will reflect light into your camera's light meter. When your lens is pointed towards the floor, your light meter will read at least two stops brighter than the subjects actually are. If there is some dark in the background to make up for the floor, the meter reading won't be quite as bad. When auto ISO is turned on, your camera changes the ISO to obtain what it thinks is proper exposure, so all your work with shutter speed and aperture is undone.

Exposure compensation doesn't help a lot either, because as you are tracking your subject, the background changes with every shot, but your exposure actually should change only slightly, depending on whether they are in mid-court or near the basket facing towards the darker perimeter of the stadium. But the exposure definitely shouldn't change based on the background, but on the subject.

My manual exposure settings for an average Division I gym using the 135mm f/2 are about like this:

Fixed ISO 2,000
f/2.2
1/1000th
Picture Style Contrast set to very low (next to the leftmost setting)
If possible, use a manual white balance reading taken from a gray card positioned vertically slightly within the 3 point line and facing the basket. You need to catch some reflection from the floor as well as direct illumination from the lights. Ideally, the card should represent the light reflected from a player's face and eyes as they are moving the ball towards the basket or shooting. If the lights are flickering, then you need to use a time value under 1/15th of a second to get a perfect white balance reading that avoids the red/brown or other color shifts. But when I am actually shooting the game, I do not force myself to use a slow shutter speed. Go ahead and shoot fast enough to stop action, which at the very minimum is 1/500th of a second. I virtually always keep it at 1/800th or higher. Even if 2/3rds of your photos have a terrible color cast, the the other 1/3rd of them will be fine, and it is better for 1/3rd of them to be sharp and properly colored than for none of them to be sharp because of motion blur.

For darker gyms, light quickly goes down by a factor of five. That's when I would go down to 1/500th and ISO 5,000 if there is also color casting happening, or just go up to ISO 10,000 if there's not.

A few gyms are actually one stop brighter than the case mentioned above, and so I would use that as an opportunity to bump aperture, ISO, and shutter speed each by a notch to f/2.5, 1600, and 1/1250th.

** One other thing, when I'm taking pictures of coaches, players standing there, and whatever isn't action, I have a separate body with either a 300mm or 70-200 lens on it, and in that case, I definitely will use a slower shutter speed, like 1/200th, if there is any chance of color casting, to make sure that my photos don't have that color problem. But for action, the weird colors on some shots are just something to live with, because slowing down the shutter speed would only blur their faces too much. **

[bchernicoff]

There's some bad advice being given here.

If you use manual exposure, make sure auto ISO is turned off. When auto ISO is turned on, your camera changes the ISO to obtain what it thinks is proper exposure, so all your work with shutter speed and aperture is undone.

I disagree. There are times when manual + auto iso is the way to go. If you want to set a fast shutter AND control depth of field AND have the camera meter... auto iso is the way to go.

Real world example: I was shooting a pro motocross race. I set a specific shutter speed that balances motion blur with stopping action. I set aperture to 5.6 (on 70-200 f/2.8 IS II) because it's outdoors with hills and crowds in the background and I don't want them blurred to nothing. Also the extra depth of field helps fudge focusing accuracy on fast moving riders. In some areas they move from open track to the shade under trees causing the lighting on them to change, so I used Auto ISO to allow the camera to meter and expose them correctly. It worked like a champ.

[helpful]

There's some bad advice being given here.

If you use manual exposure, make sure auto ISO is turned off. When auto ISO is turned on, your camera changes the ISO to obtain what it thinks is proper exposure, so all your work with shutter speed and aperture is undone.

I disagree. There are times when manual + auto iso is the way to go. If you want to set a fast shutter AND control depth of field AND have the camera meter... auto iso is the way to go.

Real world example: I was shooting a pro motocross race. I set a specific shutter speed that balances motion blur with stopping action. I set aperture to 5.6 (on 70-200 f/2.8 IS II) because it's outdoors with hills and crowds in the background and I don't want them blurred to nothing. Also the extra depth of field helps fudge focusing accuracy on fast moving riders. In some areas they move from open track to the shade under trees causing the lighting on them to change, so I used Auto ISO to allow the camera to meter and expose them correctly. It worked like a champ.

It depends on the background. If you're shooting against bright walls or dark stadiums interspersed with flashy advertising, then auto ISO is going to mess up the whole point of using manual exposure to get the right exposure.

If you are trying to have precisely the right shutter speed to track a vehicle while also conveying its motion, and exactly the right aperture for being able to have the crowd blurred just the right amount, then yes, auto ISO is good.

I should have been more clear that I didn't mean to always turn off auto ISO whenever manual exposure is being used.

[bchernicoff]

I should have been more clear that I didn't mean to always turn off auto ISO whenever manual exposure is being used.

I figured that's what you meant, I just wanted anyone reading to realize that it has its place.

[Enrico]

And another thing worth pointing out (that you praobably knew) is that the DOF - Depth of Field gets alot narrower on a FF like 5D3 than on a crop body.

When I moved to the 5D3 I was dissapointed with the wide open shots in the beginning not being sharp... but if I looked closely I could see where the focus was

IE. I had to start paying more attention on where I put the focus (than on the crop body) AND I had to AFMA all my lenses. 135/f2 not tuned perfect to your new body will give images out of focus on f2.

You might also have had the settings on your crop body JPEGs being boosted with brightness, contrast, sharpnes etc whereas you don't have that on the 5D3 as of now.

[Kernuak]

And another thing worth pointing out (that you praobably knew) is that the DOF - Depth of Field gets alot narrower on a FF like 5D3 than on a crop body.

Actually, that's only true if you have the same field of view, because then you are either using a longer focal length or are closer than if you were using a crop sensor camera. If you are standing in the same place with the same lens (which is likely in a gym/sports arena), then full frame actually has greater depth of field.