[Elva]

Hi All
A technical question/ I have been taking some photographs of skydiving action all from ground level at 'ground zero', I have also been taking photos of aircraft taking off and landing as well a low level fly pasts all with the sky as back ground.. The parachutist are landing right at my feet. A I have only a 55 - 200mm zoom that can work in autofocus, Sigma DA and using a Pentax k2000. The usual exposure setting that I use is AV and the shutter speed ranges from 250 to well at times 4000, ISO at 200, did use 400 ISO as well is some cases, spot metering and spot focus.. The aperture is normally at f9.5. A slower shutter speed for the aircraft is better as it catches the prop blur where as the faster speed the prop stands still. The problem is that the sky tends to cause the skydiver to be under exposed where as the sky comes out a brilliant blue which is great. As most photos at low down is where the under exposed jumper becomes a problem as this is where you want their detail to stand out. Any suggestions on what setting would be best and what amount of exposure over ride i should use?

Some photos have come out spot on or close too. The images can be viewed at the following
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[Adam]

I'd recommend shooting all-manual here, and finding what aperture and shutter speed combination gives idea exposure prior to actually shooting the skydivers. The EV of the sky doesn't really change much, after all, so if you found that 1/1000 at F9.5 would give the desired results, you could just stick to that for all your shots!

[icywarm]

Flash fill! Ok since that will not work lets walk through how you could get the desired results.

Manual makes sense as this is going to be like a moon shot (technically speaking) the automatic metering will be very confused by the smallish dark object vs the bright sky.

So lets start with some assumptions: They will open their chute at 2,500.

So for your first series f6 at 200mm on a K2000 will give you focus from 800 ft to Inf at f8 from 600 to the sky and at f18 from 318 to the sky.

So know those are your first set of limits you need to figure out just how bright you can make the sky. Take some test shots of the sky and maybe around ISO 800 1/2500 f10 you will find something that is usable (I use those for BIF pics). If the sky is not blown, you should get enough light on the chutests as they come down. Or possible just cheat and use EV +2/3 or so!
I need to run, but chew on that for now and we can talk about once they are closer to the ground and when you are in the air. If you want.

[Elva]

Thanks
I will try some of these and adapt what I have been told and once I get the 'coeerct', well the settings that givethe best result then I am there.
Thanks Guys
I try and shoot on the last moments of fall right in the DZ.