This year’s North American Chinese Invitational Volleyball Tournament was held in Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) from September 1st to 3rd.
Building off of my last post about my Canada Day photos, I’m still learning how to become a better photographer. It’s tough, sometimes, to be a player and want to take photos at the same time. Maybe someone should just attach a GoPro to their head and record volleyball matches. =D
Day 1: 197
Day 2: 276
Day 3: 364
Total: 837
White Balance
White balance was definitely something I had to adjust when I looked at my photos in Lightroom. The white balance settings from left to right are: As Shot (3850 K, Tint -4), Auto (3200 K, Tint 0), and a Custom setting (3400 K, Tint -10). The Custom setting was chosen by utilizing the dropper tool in Lightroom and selecting the top tape of the net.
Out of the three photos, I’d have to choose between Auto and the Custom setting. The As Shot setting is too warm and this results in the players’ arms and the walls of the convention centre being really yellow. The Auto setting seems to have done a good job of selecting the right white balance but everyone’s arms seem a little too white. Having said that, I prefer the Custom setting the best.
Batch Processing and Deleting Photos
Having 800+ photos to go through was definitely a chore. I pretty much posted everything I had on Facebook since I figured that everyone enjoys photos of themselves even if they’re out of focus. Whenever I take photos, I don’t usually spend a lot of time reviewing the last photos that I’ve taken, mainly because I don’t want to miss any action. I think I have to get into the habit of deleting photos during breaks/timeouts as it’ll cut down on the workload I have AFTER I dump all the photos onto my computer. After all, RAW files take up a huge amount of space compared to regular JPG’s. Thank goodness for the 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green. =D
The next question would be: what photos do you delete? Do you delete photos that look similar to the ones you’ve taken already? Do you delete photos that are slightly, moderately, or completely out of focus? Do you just save everything and then delete it when you transfer all your photos back to your computer?
In terms of batch processing, I got lazy when trying to figure out how to fix certain photos (ex: over-exposure, white balance, needing to increase the amount of fill light, etc.). Due to the windows in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the white balance, as far as I know, need to be adjusted depending on whether or not the photo has light coming in from the windows or not. For example, if I took a photo that only used the light from the convention centre, I would simply set the white balance to an appropriate setting and move on. However, if I take a photo that has lighting from the convention centre AND outdoors, then I have to do something different. Using that line of thinking, I would have to go through all my photos to see which ones were affected by the windows and which ones weren’t.
Manual Focus vs. Auto Focus
Using the Rebel T1i, I have 3 Auto Focus settings available to me: One Shot, AI Servo, and AI Focus. Based on what I’ve read, One Shot is used for static subjects and AI Servo is used primarily for moving subjects as it is a predictive focusing system. AI Focus is a combination of the two with the camera deciding which focusing system to use.
For the tournament, I generally used AI Servo with back button focusing and a bit of manual focusing. AI Servo was generally okay for shots that weren’t directed at the windows. I think the high contrast between the windows and the players caused the auto focus to not function as effectively. There were times where the camera would constantly lock onto the windows instead of the players or the volleyball net.
After noticing that some photos were out of focus, I decided to switch to manual focus to see if that would do the trick and it did. Using manual focus took some time to get used to as what I saw while looking through the viewfinder didn’t exactly match up with what was in focus in the photo. This could be because the viewfinder isn’t as bright as it needs to be to discern what’s in focus or not. Another reason could be that the diopter on the camera wasn’t set correctly (see Setting your Diopter).
Conclusion
Overall, I had a great time at the tournament and I definitely loved the tournament atmosphere. It reminds me of the good ‘ol volleyball days in high school.
Hope you enjoy the photos!
Photos
Head over to the NACIVT 2012 gallery.
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