High School Football - Flash not required...

nothing beats High School football... These guys playing for the love of the game.....

I coach 12 - 15 Yr old kids (pop warner), and these guys play just to play, no money, no glory, they just love the game... The college and pro level has become such a joke, it's not wirth watching anymore.

The last home game is mostly where a lot of emotion comes to play, hugs, friendships, memories comes together as 1.

Here's my equipment:
Tokina 28-70mm lens (pure crap)
Canon EOS-1D

Here's my football night football settings:
Shutter Speed: 250-300
ISO: 1600
Apt: 3.5
Flash: None

*Because of lense limitations, it's normally in full zoom all the time.

Are these where they should be? Or not? All I want is clarity, and lately, that hasn't been the case.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks...

A Canon 20D with the 70-200 f/2.8L USM anywhere from 1/400-1/3200 works great in various qualities of lighting.

www.scraddockphotograp​hy.com various football pix from this season

I hope your season continues longer than ours so you get more time to experiment

try IS0 1600 F3.5 1/250 and shoot from their with out a flash for football ( depending on the lighting, but if recenlty built (5 years or so) it should be good.. 3.5 is asking for darkness, if so slow down to 1/200...If that doesn't work, and absolutely have to, shoot at 3200... But I recommend ISO 1600F3.5 and when you get home, you can brighten/ sharpen them up.. or get a 50MM 1.8 and set it on ISO 1600 1.8 1/320

oh, almost forgot, always wait for the action/ get close to the action as much as you can, try not to take far away shots, that way you have to crop. If you crop faraway action, they won't come out to begood quality.... And there is always picture moments on the sidelines.... Remeber, think 1 second a head, not 2 seconds ( unless you have 8.5 FPS)...Don't chimp unless you hear a whistle,and keep 2 eyes open (it saved me more than a few times), one for your safey, and 1 for the picture. Also take pics of the reaction, not just the action...

that should do you good, Good Luck.

Excellent work. Numbers 4 and 5 are exceptional.

This is truly excellent advice... also having both eyes open can help you spot where the next picture is likely to be coming from and where the play is going...

---- Gavin

perfect shots. dont change a thing.

Croasdail ....

Excellent images ! ..... and that field certainly seems better lit than most I shoot on .... but those shots are great - tack sharp and very colorful .... well done!

I've shot night football without flash and with flash - I'd prefer to shoot without flash, but with the lighting at some of these high schools a little "extra" light is just a must. Particularly if you want to see faces up under the helmets .... without a flash and some "extra" light that's almost impossible ....

I'll post two that I had from last Friday night. These were taken with a 20D with a Sigma 120-300 2.8 with the following settings: manual; 1600 ISO; anywhere between 3.2 and 4.0; shutter usually at 1/320. I had a Vivitar 285 set on manual at 1/16 power attached on my monopod about 2 feet below the camera. I try to use the flash as "fill" to get up underneath the helmets to illuminate some faces ....

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cecil - nice shots. I need to learn the ways of the doing really good flash photography...just haven't done it. I've read the dang manuals, listened to great advice given here.. but still haven't been able to get it to the point where it is just a subtle fill, to the point the shot doesn't look like any flash was used.. I will have to give your method of having the flash low a whirl as well. Cheers.