1st Lacrosse (Night)

Went to Chico State's lacrosse practice last night and found it VERY challenging. Lighting was poor so i had to rely on flash. It was my first time shooting lacrosse and i was amazed at how fast it was, and this was just a scrimmage. Anyways this is what i came away with.

C&C Please!

Crank the ISO to 3200 (H on the 40D) and get the fastest shutter you can w/o flash. the 1/200 you are using in #4 presents unusable blurrrrrr. What flash do you have?
Look back at the October-November football season pictures or do a search for "strobed football" for plenty of discussion on using strobes, brackets, red eye, shadows, exposures... AI servo is a must to keep up with the action.

ChunkyDA wrote in post #7223541
Crank the ISO to 3200 (H on the 40D) and get the fastest shutter you can w/o flash. the 1/200 you are using in #4 presents unusable blurrrrrr. What flash do you have?
Look back at the October-November football season pictures or do a search for "strobed football" for plenty of discussion on using strobes, brackets, red eye, shadows, exposures... AI servo is a must to keep up with the action.

Ya i probably should have tried bumping up to 3200, i keep forgetting that my new 40D can handle it. Im used to the D Rebel where even 800 ISO looks like crap!
I was using a 580exii i just picked up. Still trying to learn that whole thing, it's a whole new aspect to photography for me, so i'll be sure to check out that strobed football you were talking about. Ya i was using AI servo!

Thank you Chunky, i appreciate it

You shouldn't have to crank the ISO up to 3200 - let your flash stop the action. I shoot night, high school football (translation, crappy stadium lighting) at 800 ISO, 3.2/f and around 1/250 on the shutter speed. I have a 580EX flash and I use a Quantum turbo pack with it. I shoot on either AI servo or sometimes on one shot and my pictures come out. It helps with the motion blur if you put the camera on a monopod and it helps with the red eye if you mount the flash on the monopod below the camera.

IODebbie wrote in post #7227129
You shouldn't have to crank the ISO up to 3200 - let your flash stop the action. I shoot night, high school football (translation, crappy stadium lighting) at 800 ISO, 3.2/f and around 1/250 on the shutter speed. I have a 580EX flash and I use a Quantum turbo pack with it. I shoot on either AI servo or sometimes on one shot and my pictures come out. It helps with the motion blur if you put the camera on a monopod and it helps with the red eye if you mount the flash on the monopod below the camera.

Thank you debbie, and what settings do you use for the flash? Also i feel like quite a few times my flash wouldnt fire, is this just sync speed problems?

Most likely it is recycle time issues - are you trying to shoot multiple shots quickly? That's why I use the external battery pack - it recycles the flash quickly.