flash and freezing the action

i have a 60d with 70-200 2.8. i was shooting on 3200 in football sat nite. they looked ok but not sharp. if i use flash would that make it look better and freeze the action at 1/250 beings i cant go higher then that on the shutter with using flash. attached is one i dont think that looks that good.

Do a search for "Flashed Football" and start reading.

i cant get nothing to come up when i do searches

I would think that you would have to get one huge flash, sort of like what the arena guys use or get really close to be effective. Then, do you really want to flash a receiver just as he's about to make a catch? I know I would be pretty pi$$ed off if you blinded me just at the critical time. You have a 60D, jump on up to ISO 6400 and do some noise processing on them Canon's 18mp sensors do quite well at ISO6400 if you take a bit of care processing.

pl gj i sure will do that. i have to practice at noise reduction. not good at it. is there a thread here somewhere about that?

Shooting football with flash can be done successfully. Though it gives a different look that some people don't care for.

When shooting with flash, shutter speed is not what freezes the action. The flash duration freezes the action. Unless you want to mess around with HSS (high speed sync). Balancing the ambient exposure with the flash is where things get tricky.

Here are a couple threads to get you started:

https://photography-on-the.net …&highlight=foot​ball+flash
https://photography-on-the.net …&highlight=foot​ball+flash

Click on and read the lings rdalrt gave you. It will give you a great place to start. Shooting flash football is sort of an art...and very tricky as Rdalrt also pointed out. I'll be shooting FB flashed for the forth season this year. I hate doing it...but like shooting strobe basketball...the results are worth the extra effort.

dwarrenr wrote in post #16204814
Click on and read the lings rdalrt gave you. It will give you a great place to start. Shooting flash football is sort of an art...and very tricky as Rdalrt also pointed out. I'll be shooting FB flashed for the forth season this year. I hate doing it...but like shooting strobe basketball...the results are worth the extra effort.

Agree 100% with you on the basketball. No comparison between strobed BBall and VBall and ambient shooting. I strobe the same few places, so getting the strobes up and down really doesn't take too long anymore.

I will be shooting some flash football this year too. Our home field lighting is brutal, so flash helps there. Our away games are played at one of two other fields with better lighting, so I don't usually flash there.

If your flash is 2 stops brighter than the ambient (not hard on a football field) then the duration of the flash is key consideration. A speedlite at half power has a duration in the neighborhood of 1/1000 of a second or less so thats what freezes the motion. Shutter speed becomes nearly irrelevant.

Found one more giant old thread about flashing football: https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=375847

Every since I got my 5dIII, I ditched the 2 stops below ambient and went with ambient and (-2/3) ettl, HSS flash. My results have been much better and I don't have the shadows like before. Very little noise and it can be removed in LR4.

Hi, What is HHS? do you mean HSS (high speed sync?)

jason69 wrote in post #16222302
Hi, What is HHS? do you mean HSS (high speed sync?)

probably

more info on using flash at night football games
http://strobist.blogsp​ot.com …/friday-night-lights.html

jason69 wrote in post #16222302
Hi, What is HHS? do you mean HSS (high speed sync?)

Yes, key punch error.

amaturephotographer wrote in post #16202052
i have a 60d with 70-200 2.8. i was shooting on 3200 in football sat nite. they looked ok but not sharp. if i use flash would that make it look better and freeze the action at 1/250 beings i cant go higher then that on the shutter with using flash. attached is one i dont think that looks that good.

Hosted photo: posted by amaturephotographer in
./showthread.php?p=162​02052&i=i106650857
forum: Sports

I like using my flash mounted on my monopod. I ask the players did you see the flash when I took the picture? They reply "what flash" lol

http://joserodriguezph​oto.zenfolio.com …52727/h5078e258​#h50a01f64

Shooting at night will give you a little noise but I'm ok with it. I just don't have the time to edit for noise.