Shot my first pro-sporting event last night. DC United vs Chivas USA

It was quite and experience for me! A coworker of mine was able to hook me up with press creds. He runs a blog and podcast devoted to everything DC United: www.unitedmania.com. I shot with my Canon 60D and 70-200 2.8L, and 5DII and 24-70 2.8L. Need a longer lens to get down-field action.

Crop tighter.

Agreed.

It'll be grainy and soft if I did.

cabinajm wrote in post #15039235
It'll be grainy and soft if I did.

Since they're for a web blog, I think you could crop away the dead space and end up with a much, much stronger set.

They seem a touch on the hot side to me. Drop your exposure in post about 1/3 to 2/3 and see what you think.

k, thanks for the input everyone.

Your shutter speed is too slow (1/250) and you should be shooting with aperture wide open to keep the ISO down as much as you can.

In terms of reach, not sure what time MLS games are normally played but a 100-400L might be the ticket. I've shot NASL with only a 80-200/2.8 but I can get on the sidelines.

from where I was at, I could only stay on the goal line. What shutter speed should I be shooting? I rarely shoot under lights. When I shot wide open I continually missed focus, but maybe that was because I was trying to push beyond the distance I could reach with the lens? No way I could afford a 100-400L right now. Something I would definitely like to get though... what about a 1.5x or 2.0x teleconverter? That should give me the reach I need at the expense of a stop or two, right?

For action I personally try not to go lower than 1/640. That should be fast enough to freeze player motion but you'll still get motion blur on the ball. To freeze the ball you'll need much faster shutter which is hard to achieve at night games.

Even when there's plenty of light the general rule of thumb is to shoot wide open to give the players some pop from the background. Nailing focus is part of the game when shooting sports. When the play is too far away I don't bother shooting for the most part as I know shots will be mediocre at best.

You could look at the 1.4x or 2.0x to get you some reach but I've not used the Canon offerings so can't give you comments on that. Another alternative would be to look at a used Canon 300/f4, you wouldn't need the IS version for this.

joeblack2022 wrote in post #15040442
For action I personally try not to go lower than 1/640. That should be fast enough to freeze player motion but you'll still get motion blur on the ball. To freeze the ball you'll need much faster shutter which is hard to achieve at night games.

Even when there's plenty of light the general rule of thumb is to shoot wide open to give the players some pop from the background. Nailing focus is part of the game when shooting sports. When the play is too far away I don't bother shooting for the most part as I know shots will be mediocre at best.

You could look at the 1.4x or 2.0x to get you some reach but I've not used the Canon offerings so can't give you comments on that. Another alternative would be to look at a used Canon 300/f4, you wouldn't need the IS version for this.

I disagree with shooting wide open all the time. When the light is poor you have no option, but in good light f4 or f5.6 are perfectly fine. The thing to watch for is filling the frame with the action to separate the action from the background. Not easy with a 70-200. You have to wait for the action to come to you.

If you get a converter you will lose your f2.8 so its not going to help under floodlights.

Now you know how hard it is to make a good sports photo.

Pick your backgrounds and shooting lanes wisely next time.

And, really?:

Next time, act like you've been there before

Even if you haven't

And I agree with Ajaffe, now you know it's a lot harder than it looks.

I agree with the rest, you need way faster shutter speeds and longer focal length

ZXDrew wrote in post #15037958
Crop tighter.

Actually, I would say shoot tighter. Fill the frame as much as possible. A soccer field is huge and at some point you have to say they are too far away and wait for the action to get closer.