Ballpark Exposures for the Ballpark

The Detroit Tigers baseball team is coming back to Comerica Park for the next round of the playoffs. I was told that some fans who could not get tickets for some recent sold out games were watching them from the top of a parking structure across the street from the stadium.

I thought this might be a good vantage point to set up my 4x5 camera for a shot. The games will be played at night under very bright lights but of course I will be in the dark (literally). I only have Fuji Provia 100 and Kodak T-Max 100 on hand.

I have never shot under these conditions and I only have an incident meter. Any exposure suggestions?

Good Morning, Frank,

I can't comment on the use of Provia, and I am not familiar with the stadium in Detroit. I have, however, used T-Max 100 to make similar night shots of Busch Stadium in St. Louis. If I recall correctly, I bracketed four shots from about 1 minute 30 seconds to 2 minutes 30 seconds at f16. Processing was in Technidol for 12 minutes in a rotating drum; I used the Technidol packet to make 10 oz. of solution instead of the 8 oz. specified by Kodak.

Obviously, there's some experimentation involved with most night-shooting situations, so you might be prepared to regard the first outing as a time to keep careful records of exposure and development times and then return the next night for a subsequent effort. Actually, doing this kind of shot is not especially difficult from a photographic point of view. The hassle is in having a good location, dealing with traffic and crowds (and maybe security employees in a parking garage), and incurring the probably-inflated parking charges during play-off events. Good luck!

Konical

You might try asking the question at www.sportsshooter.com. I'd bet someone there knows what the light levels are at that stadium. It might give you a starting point that is close enough to give you usable results. That sounds like a great idea. Good Luck!

According to this article:
http://livedesignonline.com/mag/lighting_lair_tigers/index.html
The illumination at the field is 280fc which is about EV10@ISO100.

Thanks Chan, just what I was looking for.


GO TIGERS!!!!!!!

Good Afternoon, Frank,

I'd be interested to know how things work out; please keep us posted.

Konical

Well, I was telling my idea to another photographer today and he told me that the parking structure I had in mind belonged to the Detroit Athletic Club; a very private club with membership dues costing $25,000 per year. (http://www.thedac.com/public/)

The parking structure is not open to non members.

why not call the DAC and tell them what you want to do and offer some photos for their "walls".
The worst thing that can happen will be hearing "no".