Advice for Newbie - Football Training Camp

[patsfan]

I will be attending the New England Patriots Football Training Camp on Wed. and hoping to catch some good shots with my new Rebel XT. I wanted to ask from some advice on things like settings, lens choice etc... I am a newbie and still learning, so any and all advice is helpful. As I mentioned, I have the Rebel XT and the following lenses: The Kit Lens, 50mm 1.8, 28 - 135 IS, and 75 - 300 USM

[MikeMcL]

depending on the location of your seat, you will probably have to shoot at about 300mm the whole time. this is not a bad thing, you can get nice shots with that lens. you can use the sports action setting on the camera to freeze the action. if you want to do manual settings, you will need to do a bit of reading to learn all that. My advice is to get a monopod of some type. the less expensive ones are in the 25-50 dollar range, and it will eliminate alot of the camera shake that you will be fighting. if it is daylight you will get great results pretty easily. Try to meter off the players uniforms whenever possible, the camera will do the exposure calculations for you. If any of this is way too basic, or way too complicated for you, let me know. i am assuming that you have a "new" XT and only 4 posts that you are a beginner. This is a great opportunity for some awesome pics.

good luck.

[patsfan]

Thanks for the tips. I have been reading a lot on the forum and in a couple books - so most of what you are saying makes sense. When you say to "meter off the players uniforms", you lost me there. Also, I have been experimenting with the AV and TV modes on the Rebel and feel comfortable with making changes to the F stop and shutter speeds etc... Just curious what you and others think are some good settings to try out/practice while I am there. I figure that is the best way to learn. The practice tomorrow is from 8:45a - 10:45a, so based on that time of the day, would that be considered good for lighting? Tomorrow in my area is supposed to be a clear day.

[MikeMcL]

the camera meters for the amount of light reflected to you from anything you have in the viewfinder. if you want the auto modes to expose the sky, meter off of the tones in the sky. the foreground may be "blown out" but the sky will be exposed properly. same goes for uniforms. if you get settings off of a white uniform in one shot, the finished product will look very different than if you get the meter off of the green grass in the same shot. the 2 colors are sending a different amount of light to the lens. read about metering in your manual it explains it very easily.

that is a good time of day to shoot. try to get a spot where you arent shooting toward the sun, and experiment with stances and location.

one thing that newer folks do that kills their pictures is just composing "snapshots". for instance. dont just stand there, and point and click. try to get down on a knee or setup a low tripod... or get an angle from the top row of the bleachers for a more creative angle. imagine taking a picture of a crawling baby, just stood up normally, and snapping the pic... now get down on the carpet and take the same picture looking "up" at the crawling baby, the second will probably be a much more interesting and stunning pic, while the first looks like a kids crawling on the floor.

I dunno, i might be confusing you. try to be creative, try to get the sun at your back, and make sure that you meter off the items that you want to expose.

if you shoot a ton, and start to get bored, mess around with 1-3 second shutter speeds, they can be alot of fun, and you might get a few awesome motion shots. remember to at least have a monopod... tripod if you can.

have fun!