High School Football

Well, I got my field pass to go shoot for my school's football team. It's going to be different going from being with all my buddies in the stands to being on the field by myself (besides the 3-4 other photographers out there). Anyways, I will be shooting with the XTi and the 70-200 2.8 IS. Am I going to struggle because of the low IQ at high ISO from the XTi? Our field is very well lit, but the games don't even start until 7:30pm and don't end until ~9:45pm.

First game I'll be shooting at is going to be Friday night. So, I'm looking for some quick advice since right after school I'm working until 6:30pm and then heading to the game so I will not have much time to prepare (warm ups).

There are two main ways to go with high school night football games. Flash or no flash.

With no flash about all you can do is shoot wide open (f/2.8 in your case) and then crank the ISO until you get reasonable shutter speed for the action. From my experience 1/320 is about as slow as you want to shoot and even that is a little slow for the faster action. Somewhere around 1/500 is a better target to go for if you can get there.

If you use flash if possible get it off camera and either up above or down below the camera. Many of us mount it on our monopods under camera down low. If you do not get it far enough away from the camera you will fight red-eye. With flash your shutter speed will be limited by the max sync which is usually around 1/200, not sure what it is on the XTi. So 1/200 is too slow to freeze the action but that's OK because your flash is going to freeze the action since it's duration is so short. That is unless your camera settings are such that the ambient light is still a large portion of the exposure. Then you will get motion blur from the ambient light. So the trick is to try and underexpose the ambient enough that it minimizes the motion blur. A fine line to walk.

I am assuming you may not be using flash judging from your gear list. So here is what you do... Once it's dark and the lighting is not going to change anymore set the camera in manual mode and dial in a starting point of 1/400, f/2.8, ISO 3200. Then take a shot and look at the exposure. If it is over exposed then dial the ISO down to 1600 or less even if it's way over. If the XTi does not have ISO3200 then you may need to start at 1600. If you are underexposing and your ISO is at it's max the only choice you may have left is to slow the shutter to 1/320, or even 1/250 or less. At the slower shutter speeds you will get motion blur. To minimize it try timing your shooting for the action shots with slower motion in them, like at impact of a tackle instead of a full speed run. Or when the QB stops in the pocket instead of when he's scrambling, etc.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Just remember that low IQ from high ISO will be better than bad motion blur with low ISO everytime.

I do own a 430EXII but do not plan on using it for the games. Not only do I not really like the look of flashed football (yes, I'm one of "those" people), but I don't think it's allowed for high school football (I may be wrong). I will definitly have it with me so Friday night I will bring some tape or a couple rubberbands so that if I find the other photographer's are using flash (they usually don't) I will pull it out and mount it to my pod.

Remember, I own the XTi so I cannot get ISO 3600. 1600 is the highest ISO I can go and even then, it's noisy. I could PP the noise out but that usually messes with the sharpness of the image which I really don't want to happen as they aren't going to be superbly sharp to begin with because of the conditions.

Like I said, our field is very well lit so I may not even have this problem. But, if I do, I am wondering if I may struggle because of the low IQ at high ISO with the XTi? I won't have much, to any, time at the beginning of the game to set up/get situated so I don't want to take a full game of pictures to get home and have every single one be a throw away image.

I think it will be tough. I hope your field is really well lit, but keep in mind the fields I go to look well lit until I try to get my shutter speed down to 1/1000. Our games start at 7:00 and this past week end I was able to shoot with an ISO of 800 for a small part of the first qtr, then at 1600 by the end of the first qtr. I was at 6400 before half time. I'm in hopes you can get more out of it with your lighting.

I would suggest keep taking them as long as your shutter is above 400 or so. And at that end, work on some candids along the side lines, take shots of your line men and quarter back. They will not be moving too fast to freeze the action with the slower shutter speed.

It takes me less then a minute to setup. Just switch to Av mode, dial the aperture to 2.8, take a snap shot to set my white balance and then see what my shutter speed is during the warm ups and adjust my ISO. Just keep try and remember to check your shutter speed between downs to see if you need to adjust your ISO. Once the sun starts going down, it drops pretty fast.

Unless you're at a professional field or D1 college, I doubt you can shoot ambient at ISO1600 past the first quarter.

I agree with Ben on this one. Trying to shoot peewee football at a high school's field under the lights (when we had the late games) is the reason I don't shoot with an XTi any longer.

Well, I don't have the money right now for a different body as I'm still trying to recover from the 70-200 2.8 IS purchase. I guess I could trade and add a little bit of money, but then I'd be back to only owning 1 body where saving up for a little while (doing this right now) and purchasing a second one may be the better bet. I guess we'll just have to wait it out and see how it goes on Friday...

Even with a newer body, most HS football photographers end up using flash. With a proper flash setup, you should have no problems using the XTI.

I wouldn't mind using flash. But, I have not once seen any of the photographer's using flash at the games. I'm not too sure if it's allowed. So, like I said, I'll bring my 430EXII and some tape/rubberbands and I'll ask ahead of time if they would mind me using flash. If not, I'm set. If they do, then 2.8, 1/250+, ISO1600 it may be. I'll just capture some slower movements of the players.

FYI - At my home field I would be at 1/40s if shooting ISO1600 and f/2.8 and exposing properly.

That field is especially bad, but it may be more challenging that you think.

My field is pretty dang good.

I can shoot 1/640 ISO 1600 @ f/2.8

BenJohnson wrote in post #10995962
FYI - At my home field I would be at 1/40s if shooting ISO1600 and f/2.8 and exposing properly.

That field is especially bad, but it may be more challenging that you think.

I really hope it isn't too much of a problem that I won't be able to work with. I have been waiting for this moment for a very long time and would hate for it to be spoiled because of my equipment, after I just went and spent $1,475 on a new lens.

I guess all we can do is wait until Friday night and hope for the best. I'll blast away at the start of the game and get as many pictures as possible while the sky is still somewhat lit.

Viva-photography wrote in post #10996114
My field is pretty dang good.

I can shoot 1/640 ISO 1600 @ f/2.8

The field is "new." We just got it all redone this summer with turf, new lighting, new track, etc. I have not seen other fields, but I'd like to say that our field is very well lit.

Cole_Schmitt wrote in post #10994230
I do own a 430EXII but do not plan on using it for the games. Not only do I not really like the look of flashed football (yes, I'm one of "those" people), but I don't think it's allowed for high school football (I may be wrong).

Direct flash is not allowed in basketball or volleyball (requires ceiling pounted/bounced strobes), but is typically OK for HSFB (and required for MaxPreps). If you're concerned, asked the coach, officials, and/or AD. But if they don't know the real policy, they'll probably say no.

Using your 430EXII is your best option. Get a $20 off-camera shoe cord and a $1.99 pipe clamp from Home Depot for your monopod. Set your Rebel to M, max xsync (1/200" IIRC), flash to ETTL, adjust ISO and aperture to keep flash power a couple of stops above ambient.

You'll be around ISO 800... ISO 400 if your stadium is really well lit. Aperture between f/2.8 and f/4.

Flashed football is really a great equalizer for these old Rebels to compete with the newer high-ISO bodies. Any old camera does fine at ISO 400 - ISO 800. And the flash even gives you enough light to where you don't have to shoot wide-open aperture, so f/4 or f/5.6 is fine.

I've been inspired by Dan-O's flashed football, so I've been trying to blend a little closer to ambient (2 stops), even if it gives a little motion blur on fingers. I used to aim for 3 stops to completely mitigate ghosting, but that really gives you a dark cave effect for a background.

Here are some from last week. This is a brand new field with good lights, but there's no way I could've shot ISO 1600...

1.

Those are exactly what I would like my images to come out like if I used flash. I don't really like the look of flashed football, but those look very nice. Thank you!