Dealing with contrast

Often you’ll have to constantly switch between shooting in both very bright and very dark conditions – think of a football match where one side of the pitch is in bright sunlight and the other is in deep shade due to the shadow cast by the stadium. In years gone, I would have to manually change my settings and that could make me lose the moment. Now I use the Recall Shooting setting. However, if you have a player running into the shadow with a bit of light on the face I will then continue to use the settings I’d reserved for the lighter half of the pitch as this creates a dramatic effect.

Above left: These figures are roller skating. Joel took advantage of the sunlight hitting the athletes as they moved in from the shadows to highlight the foremost skaters.