Football Turf--Grass vs Artificial

[Zivnuska]

My home football field has changed from grass to artificial turf this year. Reportedly, the artificial turf reflects the lights more. How pronounced of an effect is this? A full stop? Less?

Does this cause more light to reflect up into the helmets for those high ISO shots at night?

[DC Fan]

No effect.

http://www.kevinlillard.com/racing/10252008c0335.jpg

Football on grass.


http://www.kevinlillard.com/racing/10182008b0206.jpg

Football on artificial turf.

Lighting and time of day and angle and game action make the difference, not the playing surface.

[Zivnuska]

Those shots are in the daytime. I'm referring to reflecting the lights at night.

[Dan-o]

It should help a little Phil doubt it will be a full stop.

[AdamLewis]

It should help a little Phil doubt it will be a full stop.

I doubt it would be anything at all to be honest with you.

Changing the field surface still doesnt change the amount of light that falls on the players. There may be some measurable difference but I doubt its anything your camera would notice.

[Dan-o]

Probably Adam. I think it is a little mental for me as well because all the nice turf fields I shoot have pretty good lighting. All the terribly lit fields are grass.

[tfizzle]

my equation is this

If they have the money to put turf down then the probably have enough money to have good lighting which might make it seem like there's better lighting on turf.

[bobbyz]

The only difference I see is when shooting during mid day where artifical turf gives lot more crazy bookeh when using superteles.

[clarence]

Crazy heat waves off of artificial turf, especially when you're down low and shooting long.

I don't like the black pellets either... but I've always been a sucker for kicked up dirt and grass frozen by shutter speed.

[tfizzle]

I can't wait to shoot football. Last year I had just gotten into photography and had decent gear. It's been a year and I'm just "ready" to shoot some action and I've upgraded all my stuff (and learned a lot).

[patwill]

Turf doesn't reflect noticeably more light than grass.

The biggest difference I've noticed is that for day games in warm weather the turf gets really hot. It was very uncomfortable to kneel on when wearing shorts. And when you get home you find some of those little black rubber pellets in your shoes, lol.

[snyderman]

Probably Adam. I think it is a little mental for me as well because all the nice turf fields I shoot have pretty good lighting. All the terribly lit fields are grass.

My home HS stadium is grass and incredibly well lit. Another school in the conference went over budget on the installation of the turf field and the kids play in the dark! Lining up a few pickup trucks with the brights on would be an 'upgrade' to the current lighting on THAT field!

dave

[patwill]

I wish there were more day games in HS football.

In my area almost all of the public HS games are "Friday Night Lights" affairs. One private school (with plenty of funding) has resisted putting in lights even after shelling out for artificial turf. I asked their AD why and he said that because no one else plays in the afternoon, the newspapers and TV stations are more likely to cover his team. And he uses that to recruit players by promising them more exposure.