HS Football. . . 1PM Sun. . . C&C Please

[picprinter]

Hello and thanks for looking. I haven't shot football in a few years but was asked to do it this past weekend. And, actually it was my first time ever shooting HS Football during the day. I had a real challenge trying to get light on the player's faces. With the high bright sun a flash wasn't much of a help either. I'm sure there are many other problems or areas for improvement so I've come to you to point them out and give me advice. Just so you know, I was shooting for the team in white and the spec for the job was for me to deliver 4X6 proportion images showing action and as many players as possible thus these are samples of what I will be delivering. Next week I'll be shooting another game but it will be at night. Your comments on these images may help me improve for that job so thank you for looking and for your C&C.

Image#1

http://www.photofinishingstation.com/images/2007DHS_FB/PFS_DHS_092907_021.jpg


Image#2
http://www.photofinishingstation.com/images/2007DHS_FB/PFS_DHS_092907_022.jpg

Image#3
http://www.photofinishingstation.com/images/2007DHS_FB/PFS_DHS_092907_077.jpg

Image#4
http://www.photofinishingstation.com/images/2007DHS_FB/PFS_DHS_092907_228.jpg

Image#5

http://www.photofinishingstation.com/images/2007DHS_FB/PFS_DHS_092907_237.jpg

Image#6
http://www.photofinishingstation.com/images/2007DHS_FB/PFS_DHS_092907_248.jpg

Image#7
http://www.photofinishingstation.com/images/2007DHS_FB/PFS_DHS_092907_234.jpg

Image#8
http://www.photofinishingstation.com/images/2007DHS_FB/PFS_DHS_092907_246.jpg

[dmwierz]

Pic,

Day football. What a concept! You captured some good action, there.

You didn't provide much information (camera, lens, EXIF data), so it's a little hard to provide much help.

4,6 and 8 are nice captures, but 4 is a little loose. Also, there seems to be motion blur on the feet in some of them. Really not used to seeing this with day sports, and without EXIF data I can't tell what shutter speed you were using.

Regarding the bright sun and shadows under the helmets, were you shooting manual, or what? If M, take an exposure reading on the grass, and then one on a white uniform (or a gray card) and shoot at the average of these two. If shooting Av, add 1/3 or 2/3 of FEC. You risk blowing the whites a bit, but this is normally considered OK when you're looking for faces.

In general, the backgrounds are pretty busy, which happens when you shoot only from the sidelines. I would suggest shooting more from the back of the end zone. In most prep and college stadiums, the ends are open which cleans things up quite a bit, plus you won't have all the players and other crud in the background.

the spec for the job was for me to deliver 4X6 proportion images showing action and as many players as possible

I presume you mean shots of as many players as possible, and not get as many players in each frame as possible. If the former is correct, then you'll probably need to shoot a LOT tighter.

Hope this helps,

Dennis

[picprinter]

Hi Dennis and thank you very much for your time and comments. They are great comments and very much appreciated.

I remembered the EXIF data in my first post but forgot it in this my second post. Sorry about that. . . . . All images taken with 1D Mark2, 70-200f2.8 lense .
Images #1 and 2 1/320, f7.1, 200mm, with polarizer
Image #3 1/500, f7.1, 200mm, with polarizer
Image #4 1/1000, f7.1, 130mm
Image #5 1/1000, f7.1, 200mm
Image #6 1/1000, f7.1, 78mm
Image #7 1/1000, f7.1, 200mm
Image #8 1/1000, f7.1, 200mm

Thank you for the advice on the backgrounds. No excuses here but at this particular field the background from one end zone was a two story brick school building with several garbage dumpsters in full view. This was the end zone that would have placed the sun over my shoulder and helped with my concern on the faces. The background from the other end zone was a three story construction site complete with big yellow heavy equipment, piles of materials covered with blue, green and yellow tarps and piles of dirt. That being the case I thought having the opposite side line in the background more attractive. With that being said, do you think that if I would have compressed my depth of field to make the background more out of focus the images would have been better?

[dmwierz]

pic,

OK, now we're gettin' somewhere ;)

Well, let's address the game you shot (daylight) first, then we can consider a night game.

if I would have compressed my depth of field to make the background more out of focus the images would have been better?

What mode were you in, Av, Tv, M?

I would definitely open up at least to f/4.0 if not all the way to f/2.8 . This would do two very good things for you. First of all it would really throw the background out of focus, which is positive. Second, it would get your shutter speeds up over 1/2000s which is going to eliminate any motion blur. On the negative side, it decreases depth of field which makes nailing your focus points even more important. However, you seem to have done a pretty good job of focusing so you would probably still do well at f/4.0 or even f/2.8 .

Regarding the sun position, we can't always shoot with the sun at or close to our backs. Actually, learning to shoot backlit (light from behind the subject) or cross-lit, can not only make you a better photographer, it can yield really spectacular results. Shooting backlit really can isolate the subject, giving them almost a "hair light" effect. To do this, though, it's almost required that you shoot manual, as anything else will be fooled by the strong light behind the subjects.

Once you get your exposure nailed, you can deal with the helmet shadows much more effectively (lotsa discussions on this board about how to do this, since it's a challenge that is also faced when shooting daytime baseball, tennis, etc.).

Now, when shooting at night, you're going to pretty much HAVE to shoot at f/2.8 unless you want to play with flash. I think flash is a good thing for night football, but it adds an entire new set of variables into the shooting equation which may be best left for another day.