All white on the night

A good trivia question is by what name the New Zealand football team are usually known. The answer is the All Whites, the traditional black of the referee precluding their matching the country's other sports teams in their colours. A similar kit was worn by Trafford in their visit to Prescot Cables this week.

Enzo Benn challenges an unnamed Trafford player (numbers on the front of shirts - you know it makes sense)

At evening games I am pushing my consumer kit to the limit of what it will capture, and beyond what the system recommends. Not that this is the risk presented by using it in extremes of temperature or humidity, the worst that will happen in lower light than recommended is a very dark photo.

Under Prescot's floodlights, installed to give an average value of 180 lux, I am usually using a shutter speed of 1/200s in shutter priority, as slow as I can get away with to capture the action. Under these conditions, the camera chooses the maximum aperture the lens will allow: with my 70-300mm lens, this will be between f/4.5 and f/5.6. At ISO 6400 equivalent, I am usually under exposing by between 1 and 2EV. This is about the highest level of under exposure we can rescue on the computer, at the cost of some loss of detail in the darker areas, although the darker area is the sky or the trees or houses around the ground, this is not a cause for concern.

Dave Dempsey takes a throw in with the houses in Hope Street disappearing into the dark

With a player in white in the picture, the exposure indicator suggested the level of under exposure was lower, around 1/3 to 1EV. This is to be expected: white kit will reflect all the available light, and we get the full benefit of it.

Sean Myler

I noticed too, that there is some improvement in the results for our players, who were in the normal amber and black kit. I was getting an indication that the picture was likely to be under exposed by about 1/3 or 2/3EV less than I was expecting, and I got a couple of shots a bit more towards the wings than I am used to.

Joe Evans

Again, that is to be expected, even when a player in white is not in the picture, one is likely to be nearby, apart perhaps from when the goalkeeper is releasing the ball up the field, which we solve in our case by putting him in lime green.

Adam Reid

We had had no rain for about 3 weeks, which considerably improved the state of the pitch (and ensured that white kit stayed nice and reflective). This is due to the grass not being wet and slippery, and the ground being firm enough for Doug and Harry to get the tractor and its attachments on it to make some repairs to the surface.

The game was one of those that make me out of breath just following it, Trafford immediately set up a fast pace. Prescot were the first to score with a goal from Jonathon Bathurst. I was in the wrong place to get a decent picture, even with the assistance of the white kit, although it made it in to the slide show on the "goal is a goal" principle.

Jonathon Bathurst (no 10) watches his goal go in

By the second half, the main objective was to defend our lead, in which we were ultimately unsuccessful, succumbing to a goal in the 3rd minute of injury time. However, this was another point we were not expecting at the start of the game.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.