High School football! Needing some real critique... Please? :)

FPS is way over rated. I shoot at 1 frame per second during night football and do fine.

TaylorT wrote in post #8824207
Thank you soooo much for the feedback everyone! It's been super helpful.

TaylorT: Im just now starting to get into shooting sports for my son's football team as well. Amazing job at this! What settings were you using on your camera, if you dont mind me asking?

Looking @ image #2 above this is what seperated the GWC and sport togs. In this play force yourself to track the tacklers not the ball carrier.

IMHO no one realy cares if the runner's back is in focus - in this play if you focus on the tackler than you have a keeper.

Good Rule - if you can't see their eyes - no one cares, don't waste your shutter count unless it's a really significant play.

You don't need faces in football. Its nice if your trying to sell to mom and dads. But a good football picture does not need a face. I would recommend you go over to SI.COM, go to the picture area, and study the shots that catch your attention. Look for the elements that make it a great shot to you. Many good shots have a face in them, but many just do not. Emotion drives some shots, contact and pure athletic skill the others.

Another rule that need to be broken from time to time is shooting tight. Do it too much and all you have is cookie cutter shots. Often you get more information from a well done wide shot - a player exploiting a whole, or going over the line. Shot tight, you loose impact.

So while rules are a good guide, develop your own style by looking at shots that move you in one way or another. Studying others work will teach you a ton.

Cheers and keep clicking away....

Ooooops I TOTALLY forgot I had my extender on in most of these photos! But here's an example of one of my photo's data scottdog...
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 280 mm
ISO Speed: 400

But yeah I wasn't shooting anything under 1/1000. If I could shoot at 1/2000 I would bump the ISO down to 200.

If I didn't have my extender on it would look more like...

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 190 mm
ISO Speed: 100