Football is Back! UM vs Marshall

[Billginthekeys]

Well its time for another Miami football season guys.
Heres my top highlights from Saturday's game. (more on my pbase if you want to view)

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/6310/img4526rv8.jpg

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/2679/img4430kf7.jpg

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/6631/img4287xq0.jpg

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/2026/img4575et5.jpg

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/1761/img4579vm4.jpg

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/6691/img4604wl4.jpg

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/6038/img94964899iy9.jpg

Thanks for viewing, comments appreciated,

[dmwierz]

Billy,

Good to see you posting football again from The U. Nice job on the game. Where these with the 400?

Did Freeman get the start or Wright? I see the shot above of Kirby F.

Dennis

[eigga]

Nice pics, hope you get a lot of the Aggies scoring some touchdowns in a few weeks. Not a forecast just a hope:D

[Billginthekeys]

Billy,

Good to see you posting football again from The U. Nice job on the game. Where these with the 400?

Did Freeman get the start or Wright? I see the shot above of Kirby F.

Dennis
Nope, they were shot with the 300 2.8 and 2x extender. The 400 is on vacation in Alaska with a friend of mine. and the last (a fumble made touchdown) was with my 70-200.

Freeman started this game, Wright warmed the bench. At the moment that is the way its going to stay. I think Kirby is doing a lot better than last year, but he still can't throw the ball as far as Wright.

Thanks for the comments both of you!

P.S. Chicago? what did the heat get to you :)

[asysin2leads]

You have some nerve posting pictures of the 'Canes. How dare you post pictures of the team that beat my beloved Buckeyes?;) Nice shots you got there. #6 is my favorite of the bunch. The 'Canes still have some of the best school colors....next to the Oregon yellow and green.;)

[Palladium]

Nice - next time post in this thread :cry:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=371402

[calicokat]

Those shots are terrible, there are Miami players in them :eek: j/k, they do look great ;)

[danphoto1]

Great shots nice to see excellent work.

[Rohn_S]

You lucky dog....I was at that game, home side, five rows up around the 35 yard line on the west side of the stadium. Took pics, but obviously could not get up close and personal like you did. Nice looking photos..

[MazerRakhm]

Excellent shots, they look great! Thank God for football!

[Billginthekeys]

Thanks for all the comments guys!

[GoHokiesGo]

Nice pics. I've been counting down till the start of football season, seems like it took forever!

Do you go to away games also or just home? Would be cool if you came to the Miami@VT game.

[Billginthekeys]

Nice pics. I've been counting down till the start of football season, seems like it took forever!

Do you go to away games also or just home? Would be cool if you came to the Miami@VT game.
just home games, unless we get a good bowl game. I would love to go to the away games as well but alas they arn't paying me that much.

[kantonburg]

just home games, unless we get a good bowl game. I would love to go to the away games as well but alas they arn't paying me that much.

Pics are great! Where are you shooting from? Press pass?

[Billginthekeys]

Pics are great! Where are you shooting from? Press pass?
Thanks. I shoot on the sidelines. Yes i have a press pass, currently shooting for the school paper. Glad you liked them!

[kantonburg]

I really do. I've always been interested in photography, but never had much reason to get into it. I picked up an Canon S3 IS last week for the zoom and boy I'm drooling for an SLR already. I know I should have saved up and just went that route but my son started soccer today and I wanted something that could get me a little closer now. The pics I shot today turned out pretty good.

Sports photography would be my area too. I have always admired the shots in magazines like SI, ESPN, etc. So seeing yours just touched a nerve. The small DOF with focus on the players makes it really stand out.

I agree with the hokie guy above, you should 'try' to make it to the VT/UM game. It'll be a big one and Lane stadium is absoutely cRaZy.

But again. Great pics.

[Billginthekeys]

I really do. I've always been interested in photography, but never had much reason to get into it. I picked up an Canon S3 IS last week for the zoom and boy I'm drooling for an SLR already. I know I should have saved up and just went that route but my son started soccer today and I wanted something that could get me a little closer now. The pics I shot today turned out pretty good.

Sports photography would be my area too. I have always admired the shots in magazines like SI, ESPN, etc. So seeing yours just touched a nerve. The small DOF with focus on the players makes it really stand out.

I agree with the hokie guy above, you should 'try' to make it to the VT/UM game. It'll be a big one and Lane stadium is absoutely cRaZy.

But again. Great pics.

Much thanks for you comments, i really appreciate it. DSLR's definitely make sports a lot easier to shoot well, but can easily become an expensive toy. Best of Luck with your soccer shots :D.

[kennys350d]

#3 stands out to me the most. "cant touch this" picture eh.

[kennys350d]

Okay now what the heck are people doing to get these amazing pictures. And why do mine keep coming out like crap. It just doesn't matter what I do withg the settings. This is what I get.

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/6942/img0044pg0.jpg

johnny, dont mean to be rude..but is thread jacking allowed? heres a tip, try to get on the sideline. you'll get much better photos then the one posted. ask the HS principle if its possible for you to get on the field. more than likey he'll say no, but if your kid/s on the team, he'll agreed. just say your shooting for the team.

[dmwierz]

Johnny,

Not sure if you're serious or not...

The data from your shot is: Canon PowerShot A710 IS, 1/30s f/4.0 7.7mm . First of all, the shutter speed is WAY too slow, the focal length is WAY too short, and even if these two are improved, there is no action happening in your image - players are just standing around getting ready for a play.

I'm not familiar with the A710, but action photography requires long glass (200mm minimum for football, and this is when you're shooting from the sidelines), wide apertures (especially shooting at night, where I wouldn't even think about not shooting wide open - I don't own a single lens smaller than a f/2.8 ), higher ISO's to allow you to maintain high shutter speeds (for night shooting), and fast shutter speeds (>1/400 - higher if possible). You don't necessarily HAVE to have a DSLR. I've been playing around with with my wife's S5 IS and found it does amazingly well for being a P&S camera.

[seed808]

Great pics....love every color.

[kantonburg]

But if I turn the shutter speed to a faster speed, the picture gets way too dark. If I open the F to a lower number like 2.8 or whatever, the focus is not consistent from one side of the picture to another. How do I adjust the focval length? If I increase the ISO then the stupid picture gets really dusty looking. It's like there's no way to win.

And what's a "P&S camera" ?

P&S = Point and Shoot i.e. non SLR

I'm a complete noob here so I'm just replying to give you something to ponder on or research in the time being so take my answer with a grain of salt. I'm sure someone else with more exprience will chime in. But from what I understand having the F wide open is what they're looking for in this thread or type of shooting. Subject in focus and everything else blurred out. Upping the ISO in a P&S (espcially at night) is just a downside to a non-SLR camera. SLR's handle higher ISOs much better and cut down on the noise. This can be corrected somewhat with software. Look into the program NeatImage. I've used it and it works well with removing noise from images.

Hope that helps some :oops:

[dmwierz]

But if I turn the shutter speed to a faster speed, the picture gets way too dark. If I open the F to a lower number like 2.8 or whatever, the focus is not consistent from one side of the picture to another. How do I adjust the focval length? If I increase the ISO then the stupid picture gets really dusty looking. It's like there's no way to win.

And what's a "P&S camera" ?

Johnny,

You're asking good, but very basic questions.

If you raise the shutter speed to better capture action, you are cutting down the amount of light that gets into the camera. Therefore, you need to increase the ISO (sensitivity) and/or widen the aperture. As you discovered, raising the ISO increases the sensitivity to light but at the cost of increasing the amount of noise in an image (you called it "dusty looking"), and opening the aperture up decreases the Depth of Field.

You say "It's like there's no way to win", but there is: you are bumping into the limitations of your camera, and discovering why DSLR's and their associated lenses cost so much more than your camera did. However, there are ways to improve your shooting and get better results. You just need to learn how to use the camera you have. Have you read the manual?

As mentioned above, DSLR's tend to handle higher ISO's better than P&S cameras, but getting a noise reduction program like Neat Image or Noise NInja will allow you to shoot at higher ISO's and fix the noise in post processing.

You are limited in how wide of an aperture you can shoot at - limited by the integrated lens on your camera, but you should still be able to shoot in Aperture Priority (Av) or Manual and set it to its widest (smallest number) setting.

I did a little research and found that your lens length is the equivalent of a 35-210mm zoom. 210mm is a little short to shoot football, especially from the stands. So, as suggested, you might want to explore getting closer to the sidelines.

In addition, maximum apertures vary from f/2.8 to f/4.8 across the zoom range (the smaller apertures are what you will get at the longer focal lengths). These are not bad for a P&S..

The ISO range equivalent is from 80 to 800, while shutter speeds from 1/2000 to 15 seconds are possible.

Automatic, Program AE, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and Manual exposure modes are available. This is all in your manual which you might want to read.

You ask how to change the focal length, which leads me to believe you haven't read your operations manual . Have I mentioned you should read the manual?!

According to the online manual I found after a 20 second Google search, "Zoom Lever: Surrounding the Shutter button on the top panel, this lever controls the optical and digital zoom while in Record mode." Speaking of zoom, the first thing you should do is disable the "Digital Zoom" as this "feature" produces garbage results.

This should get you started...

Dennis

[kantonburg]

Johnny,

I read this last night and it's very helpful. Examples and comparisons to help explain some of the things there were especially confusing to me when I started out. Lessons 1-10 are basic and would be informative to anyone regardless of camera.

http://www.usa.canon.com/content/rebelxt_tutorial/rebelxtlessons.htm

[asysin2leads]

Thank God for football!

AMEN!

[aiian]

op. awesome shots. I'll be looking forward to seeing more from now on.

i hate you and your press pass... sorry.

go canes.

allan