Shooting football at night.

[insurancepi]

I have been shooting highschool football at night with my rebel and a 70-200 2.8 lens. Alot of people I talked with including a camera shop all told me to shoot in AV mode. I have shot in AV mode, however I have obtained brighter and better pictures in the manual mode, locking the Fstop in 2.8 and shooting at eithor 250 or 340. Does that sound strange to anyone. I guess I like to control the speed on the camera rather than let it do it for me, maybe that is it. A funny thing about football fields, some are lighted better than others and the end zones are like shooting from a black hole.

[MazerRakhm]

I have been shooting highschool football at night with my rebel and a 70-200 2.8 lens. Alot of people I talked with including a camera shop all told me to shoot in AV mode. I have shot in AV mode, however I have obtained brighter and better pictures in the manual mode, locking the Fstop in 2.8 and shooting at eithor 250 or 340. Does that sound strange to anyone. I guess I like to control the speed on the camera rather than let it do it for me, maybe that is it. A funny thing about football fields, some are lighted better than others and the end zones are like shooting from a black hole.

I just started shooting HS football with my DRebel (I wish I had your f2.8!) and I find I mostly have to shoot in TV to adjust my exposure so I can try to get a decent shot.

What ISO are you using at F2.8?

[insurancepi]

is to low. I have been getting pretty good shots at 250 to 340 in the Manual mode. I spoke with a professional on the sideline the other night and he shoots college games. He told me that on most college fields with a 2.8 lens he can shoot at 800 to 1000 and get really good shots. The problem with high school is that the lighting is not very good.

[MazerRakhm]

I was hoping I could step down from 1600 with an f2.8 but I guess not. I decided against trying to shoot in the end zone much at the last game because it was so dark. The side lights aren't much there but they are better than nothing.

[insurancepi]

flash if they will let you, not the little one on the camera, but one that attaches to the camera shoe. Sometimes I will use a flash, but the fastest the flash will sinc at is 200, which is really not that bad. A 2.8 lens makes all the difference in the world, the Sigma is not nearly as expensive as the Canon and I have really liked the results of the Sigma.

[MazerRakhm]

Do most schools let you use flash during the game?

I've just been going by what I see others doing, and so far on the field seems to be a no flash zone, which I can understand, but at the last game one guy was using his flash while the rest of us were not and I wondered if he was special, knew something we didn't, or was just getting away with it.

[insurancepi]

newspaper people, school photographers and others, next time you go out, find someone who is shooting for a newspaper or the school and ask them about shooting with a flash. The flash will help on the closer shots.

[cecilc]

Most high schools will let you use a flash on the sidelines. I know the local paper photogs are shooting with flash ..... and no one ever tells them that they can't .....

Here are some shots from a Friday night using flash:

http://www.awesomehouse.com/images/1.jpg

http://www.awesomehouse.com/images/2.jpg

http://www.awesomehouse.com/images/3a.jpg

http://www.awesomehouse.com/images/4.jpg

Thanks for looking ....

And good luck to everyone shooting football under the lights - it's a tricky business ....

[DigitDan]

I shoot a lot of high school football. No school seems to object to the use of flash, and all the news media photographers there use flash.

I shoot with a Canon 1D Mark II and a Sigma 120-300mm f2.8 lens. I set my ISO speed to 1600 and shoot in manual mode at f2.8 and 1/250.

Dan in Phoenix

[insurancepi]

200 or 250?, on a 300D