It's All About Exopsure

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Brilliant sunshine and fast shutter speeds make for amazing results in the digital age: look at the mid-tone clarity on these figures in violent motion, the truthfulness of colour registration, and the frozen sharpness of edges. These are combatants on the field of honour at the Gumeracha Medieval Fair in May, 2009, photographed on the 'sport' setting to optimise results on a moving subject. The clear sunshine made possible extremely short exposure times, maximising the stop-action effect. The frame was enhanced slightly by the usual techniques. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic/sport. Image by Mike.

Extreme Stop-Action

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I finally had a chance to try out the 'sport' mode on the camera, this being a shutter-priority system which optimises for the fastest possible shutter speed, stopping violent action such as on the sports field. I'm not a big sports watcher, so the Medieval Fair at Gumeracha in the Adelaide Hills, in May 2009, was a perfect opportunity: a sunny day and violent action! Teams of armoured medieval warriors did battle for the audience in true 14th-century style, and I was quite surprised by how well the shutter priority system worked. The subjects were moving rapidly but are stopped as crystal-clear as the background. Obviously, as light levels fall the effectiveness of this system will be lost if exposure is to be maintained, so overcast days and other low-light situations do not lend themselves to this system (though you can compensate with rated filmspeed up to the 'virtual grain' threshold, and that's a matter of taste). Enhancements were 5% sharpening and a few points of extra colour saturation. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic exposure, telephoto, sport mode. Image by Mike.