Alabama running back Damien Harris (34) blocks a punt. No.1 Alabama defeated No. 3 Florida State 24-7 in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, the first college football game ever to be played in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. [Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8, TC-2001, ISO 14400, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000]
Yesterday, I had the privilege of shooting the brand’s first college football game new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
Here is a shot above from the game, and I want to make a quick comparison to the photo I shot last year at the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game.
One significant difference is the color temperature of the lights. In the Georgia Dome last year, I shot Kelvin 4600 with +33 Magenta. This year in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Kelvin was 5000 with +11 Magenta. The Georgia Dome was closer to fluorescent light, and the Mercedes-Benz Stadium was more packed to daylight.
The closer you are shooting under 5000º K, the better the latitude of your image. You have better colors and contrast range.
While not a massive difference from the 4600º K to 5000º K, the difference in the Magenta was much more significant, in the Georgia Dome, everyone was a lot greener.
Even shooting RAW, I always do a custom white balance. It helps in post-production. I rarely have to do anything with the white balance.
I use the ExpoDisc over the front of the lens and do an incident light reading setting my white balance.
ExpoDisc EXPOD2-77 2.0 Professional White Balance Filter 77 mm, 82mm (Black)
The amount of light in the stadium, particularly in the end zones, is just over a stop brighter.
The new stadium uses LED sports lighting, a constant light source. Energy-efficient fluorescent and metal halide lighting were in the Georgia Dome. The most significant difference is the Georgia Dome lights flicker, and the Mercedes-Benz lights are constant. You sometimes got banding in your photos in the Georgia Dome. Not as bad as some stadiums, but the continuous LED light source is brighter and constant.
I thought the end zones were much better with lighting than the older Georgia Dome.
I look forward to shooting tomorrow in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the second Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game over the Labor Day weekend where Georgia Tech takes on Tennessee.
I noticed that the building is much more significant due to the fans having a wider concourse and seats with less vertical incline. My feet had to walk much more to get to the field and from the area to the media work room.
