Huntingtown HS Football

Hi everyone, new to the forums and am trying to capture football this year. I have been shooting sports/action for several years now and have started taking our high school football team this year. It's difficult lighting with night games, (only 14 lights per stands x 4 stands) but I was hoping my new 50D with Canon 70-200IS would work well. I realize now I really need a 300 or 400mm lens to get closer to the action, and I'm reading the forums for tips/techniques.

The first game I shot from outside the track fence, and last Friday I was allowed to walk the sidelines after the athletic director saw my shots. I'm not a pro, just a parent shooting for fun and giving the shots in for the yearbook. (Maybe someday I will get paid...)

Here's the shots. I'm looking for comments how to get better, so bring them. Speaking of that, the second photo I was only 10' from them next to the chain gang and had to drop the camera down and move back since the rest of the team was coming up fast from my left. Got real tight for a second!

C&C most welcome.

I cropped them using the Canon Digital Photo Pro, and I don't think the histrogram made it.
1 = Mode AE, 1/500, f/2.8, ISO 400, Focal Length 200mm, WB Auto
2 = Mode AE, 1/500, f/2.8, ISO 2000, Focal Length 200mm, WB Auto

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If you could just post process to bring a little light into the shadow over the right eye in the second it would be pretty super. 1/500 could be a bit slow to stop some actions.

tmcman wrote in post #10991380
If you could just post process to bring a little light into the shadow over the right eye in the second it would be pretty super. 1/500 could be a bit slow to stop some actions.

Thanks for the critique, I didn't even think of that. I only cropped these before posting. Yes, you're right about the shutter speed. I like shooting a bit higher, but the lighting on the field is not the greatest. Wish we had some day games but it's always Friday night lights.

Bump up that ISO to 800, don't be afraid of higher ISOs. These are underexposed. Get them right in the camera. In pp you should be doing minor tweaks if needed.

bobbyz wrote in post #10995786
Bump up that ISO to 800, don't be afraid of higher ISOs. These are underexposed. Get them right in the camera. In pp you should be doing minor tweaks if needed.

Thanks. I'm not afraid of the higher ISO, just tried to keep it lower during daylight to see if they came out any better. The previous week I started at 1600 daylight and progressed up to 3200 at night. You're right though, I could get faster shutter and look at my light meter a little more. Still getting used to shooting in AV mode.

Unfortunately I don't have any pp software other than the standard Canon one that comes with the camera. I know I need to sharpen them up a bit more and I should be able to do it a little with that program. These are basically straight out of the camera - only cropped.

Thanks for the tips. I'm learning a lot on this website. Was shooting with the Rebel XT for five years before upgrading to the 50D a couple months ago and now I want everything to look like a pro. I'm never satisfied with my work, but the parents and coaches love them.

As said, use a faster ISO to get a faster shutter speed... 1/1000" would probably remove some of the softness blur that we're seeing. Were these heavy crops?

Good job getting eyes and ball. And good waiting for the action to get close so you can shoot tight.

Funny, I'd never heard of Huntingtown before, but they were at the same marching band competition on Saturday that one of my sons was in.

So here's your Huntingtown Marching Band probably 18 hours after your game above...

I have tried taking sports pictures during the late PM hours (when it is fairly dark) and it hasn't been that successful for me. I think i used 1/320 (or something like that) and had the ISO at 3200 with the aperture at the biggest the lens could go (5.6 when fully zoomed in at 300) and the pictures came out terribly.
Do you guys have any tips? (i'll try to find come pictures)

Thanks clarence, that's cool, you saw our band the next day. Thanks for the photos!

The first shot was a heavy crop, the second not so much since they were less than 20' away. I have not done any post prod work on them either.

I guess I really need to upload my photos online so I can post 8 instead of 2 in a thread. I have a lot more, and some are better that these two I think. I'm just glad I'm getting the comments so I know where to look for improvement.

I just reviewed night shots from two weeks ago. I started using AV mode for the first time and had ISO 2000-3200 and shutter speeds around 500. Those were shot from the stands since I wasn't allowed sideline, also because my daughter is on the dance team and I'm taking shots of them and cheerleaders. Reviewing last Friday shots I can't believe it but on the sideline using ISO 3200 the best speed I could get was 500 in AV mode. To me some of them look overexposed, so maybe I should have changed to MAN and pushed the shutter to 800-1000.

What can I say, still inexperienced, but learning...

You should shoot RAW. It'll give you a much greater ability to edit and it's really not hard.

RobertMang wrote in post #10998093
You should shoot RAW. It'll give you a much greater ability to edit and it's really not hard.

Thanks, I've been reading about RAW and how to edit them but have not pulled the trigger (sort of speak). Need some lessons before I can prove to myself it's not that hard