first soccer shots of the season from tonight

a battle with terrible field lighting that is horribly inconsistent but since i know the people i am shooting for care more about freezing the action rather than perfectly exposed pictures with motion blur. thankfully not all my games will be at night. all shot with 70-200 mkII +1.4X @f4 1/1000 various high ISOs. thankfully the 7D can do high ISO although not the best at handling noise especially with fast shutter speeds.

i tried to crop as tight as i can but like i said i know who i was shooting for and they wanted a certain thing and if i cropped too tight on some the noise would show more. i did some NR in LR3

few more since i was happy that i got some decent action. was not the most eventful game ever but a good first run for me. i plan to see a lot of improvement and better captures from games with daylight

Nice action. I just picked up the Sigma 70-200 2.8 because of shooting high school soccer at night and my 55-250 not being fast enough. Hopefully the Sigma will be able to stop the action. Unfortunately we've had 3 straight days of rain from that tropical storm coming up from the gulf, so I haven't been able to use it yet.

the 2.8 will work wonders for you. i think my next game ill try shooting at like 1/800 to drop my ISO and also shoot without the extender for night games so i can shoot at 2.8 because the difference between 2.8 and f4 on my soccer field at night is huge lol

Yeah, I hope the 2.8 is going to make a difference. That last shot is killer! Great timing. You guys have trouble with concussions at your high school? Our girls are required to wear head gear now and apparently next year the guys will, too.

this is DII college. the guy in #4 was on the ground for a min but was ok. generally we dont have too many head injuries unless they take a full power kick to the face

Great shots considering the light. I especially like #4 in your first set.

Brian, these aren't bad at all action wise but you really have to fix the horizons on nearly all of them. Everyone misses a horizon or "corrects" one incorrectly now and then but when I see an entire thread of horizons that are off it makes me cringe. I'm not busting your hump unnecessarily here man, if you are getting paid for professional images, then simple things like this need to be fixed every single time.

Another thing to mention is that if you drop the tc to get that extra stop, you'll need to really be patient and wait for action that is right in front of you since otherwise you'll offset the 2.8 by having to crop much more due to having less reach. Just something to think about. I'd rather see you use flash and keep your reach at f4 using the tc.

thanks i feel bad for forgetting to straighten the horizons. i dont have access to a fast enough flash but i will have to just be more patient shooting at 2.8 so i can get that extra stop.

im glad that the people im shooting for care more about the content of the shot but i do wish to be able to give them better shots that have less grain. thankfully soccer isnt the only sport im doing for them and i am able to get some better action at basketball, tennis, track, golf, and daytime soccer. unfortunately our budget is low so they are happy to get shots although i want them to be a professional as possible even if they dont care since they cant afford a professional and dont have anyone else to shoot for them.

nice shot

I like the last photo.