Need Help Shooting Night Fball

I might have a job opening coming up soon and I'll be shooting the rest of the year hopefuly for HS football. I have a 20D I plan to pair up with my 70-200 L w/ 1.4xtc. Should I bother using a 580 flash or just bump the ISO up to around 800 Im guessing ?? And Ive read shutter speeds around 500 are spot on. Anymore tips would be greatly appreciated thanks!

I always use a flash for football, but then I don't have the good glass either.

What 70-200 is it? F4 or F2.8? That makes a big difference. I used very little flash last Friday, which was my first time shooting high school football. I had a flash on my 70-200 f2.8 and then no flash on my other body, with the Sigma 120-300 f2.8. I liked the shots without flash as the night got darker. After the 3rd quarter, it was so dark I was around 1/250 - f2.8 @ iso 1600. 1/320 or 1/400 is enough for me, but if you can get more shutter, do it.

Hi DevinL,

Your plan seems good - 70-200 f2.8, 580EX and then ISO up to get the shutter speed to the 500-1000 range. You may be able to go lower than this for shutterspeed, but at ~250 you will get motion blur. Aim for 500+. The 1.4TC will reduce you speed so you might be best to try without it if you can. (you seem to know what your doing here )

When I shoot in bad light, I go to Av mode and set the ap to f2.8. Centre AF point and center average metering. Half press and see the shutter speed and adjust the ISO up (or just stay at 800). Take a few shots and then use FEC to adjust the histogram to something nice.

You will most likey be shooting under flood lights. If you can shoot in RAW and set the white ballance for the correct lighting. I am a little lazy here so I use AUTO most of the time and then corrent the color temp in photoshop.

Good luck and post the results when you have them.

Avoid flash, looks un-natural.

Depending on the light you may have to bump up the ISO to 3200. You can get very acceptable results at ISO 3200, so don''t be afraid to use it, just make sure the exposure is spot on. Depending on what the pics will be used for you may wish to shoot RAW.

Tele converter will affect AF performance, coupled with the likely low light under floodlights I would not use it too often. OK in good light but not in lower light situations.

AWB should be OK.

Try shooting manual. AV can be thrown off by team colors and under expose images, at high ISO this will be an issue.

Aim for 1/500s as a minimum.

Thanks a ton guys ..Its the 2.8 L ..I was thinking 2.8 1/1000 1600 if i can get away with it ...

Shoot the 2.8 wide open at ISO 1600. Unless you have unusually good lighting, you'll likely not get a shutter much over 1/320. If you need a faster shutter to avoid camera shake, kick up the ISO to 3200 and use Noise Ninja or Neat Image in post. A monopod is helpful, too, but I never use flash for my sports pics.