Beginner, Need help with Sport Pics.

Hello, I really need some Pro help. I just recently bought a Rebel XT, obviously a beginner/amateur camera. I have three lens, the stock Canon 18-55mm, Canon 75-300mm IS USM , Tamron 70-300mm AF 1:2 Macro Lens. Last week i went to my younger brother's footbal game(high school), and i took some pics and got poor quality pictures. I used the Tamron lens @ 135mm f/5.0 1/100, almost all night long. I get a resonable amount of noise and blur. What advice can you guys give me to help correct this problem and take pro like pictures? Thanks...............

............please....​.anybody?

The noise I take it was from high ISO? 1/100 wouldn't be fast enough shutter speed to stop action. You will get lots of motion blur at that shutter speed. I'm not a sports photographer so I couldn't really help you much. I would think maybe faster primes with maximum aperatures of 1.8?

First off I don't think you have any lenses which will work with night football. You will need to be at a minimum of f4 with a shutter speed of 1/200 with a good strobe.
Your best bet with what you have is to shoot the first quarter with the 75-300 and set your ISO high as you can so your getting at least 1/250 shutter speed. You can fix the noise.

I am not at all surprised that at f5, 1/100 your images weren't great. A shutter speed of 1/100 isn't fast enough to stop young kids let alone hs age players

Well thanks alot for the input you guys. At the shutter speed of 1/100 i was getting ok pics, nothing amazing. The week prior to my bros game i tested the camera at another game, i shot at 1/125 ISO @ 800 got better pics as far as blur goes. But at 1/125 I wasnt getting too much brightness, so thats why i changed the speed to 1/100 in my brothers game. I probably should have raised the ISO to 1600 instead.

I was using the 2OD Last Friday, with the grip, and 1/250 wasn't even fast enough. 1/320 will get you there, but the sync is 1/250... I didn't tell my boss that I didn't use the flash as much as I probaly should have, but Blury shots or Good shots but a little dark ?, I figured the "little" darker shots makes the common sense. If I knew had how to get to 3200 ISO and had A 70-200mm 2.8 or 4.0 i wouldn't need a flash...at all, except if the subject isn't moving.. I just had the camera that night, makes me want to switch from NIKON for sure, every time I get better with the thing. The very next day I had to shoot JV and 7th grade Footbal for my Boss, as soon as started shooting, I was a little ditzy about the D70 "Wait where's that button".....A little spoilation makes a lot of spoilliation

... Best of luck to you

how come the 300D will only allow you to use 1/200 with the built in flash, but 1/4000 without flash. :\ doesn't make sence to me.

That is the flash sync speed. Basically what that means [to me, i may be scientifically/technic​ally wrong] is thats at least how long the shutter speed needs to be for the flash to fire completely. It has to do with the speed at which the shutter open and closes. NIkon d70 is 1/500 xsync i think

TO answer the thread topic above, nightime sports is hard!! Low light, fast shutter speeds, long focal lengths. I'm the yearbook photo editor for my HS, and even when we hire local pros, they have a tough time with nightime football games.

Flash is an ok option. I usually don't do it unless my team is up by a fair amount, so i dont ignite any violence.

I think its about experience too, but honestly, to take consistantly pro-like quality pics, you need pro like equipment. Consider the 70-200f4L, but then again, for nightime that is still way to dark.

It also helps to stand right on the out of bounds line for football, if you can. That way your lens reach is shorter and more manageable. Unfortunately , neither the IS on your lens nor a monopod will redubce the blur of the moving subjects.

Boy is that an understatement. High Schools are not known for great lighting in their stadiums, to say the least, and if you shoot the same field you will find dark spots. Just looking from field level, it may be kind of hard to see but, if you can get up in the press box/announcers booth, you will see it clearly.

Another problem you have to deal with, if the play is on the far side of the field, you want want the lens opened up all the way. Ok, so you are at 2.8 or 4.0, whatever your lens will go to, and then the play comes running your way. Now your flash will overexpose that tackle 10 yards away from you,blowing out the visiting teams white uniform.

The best advice I can give is, pick your shots. Your not going to get everything on everyplay, unless your shooting ambient light and then you will still miss stuff, so anticipate when the long pass may happen. Never, ever be anywhere near the line of scrimmage from a side view. You will miss the long pass downfield for a TD, or the interception that turns the game around. This year I have about 3 interceptions right dead across from me and a couple receptions and this reception last week.

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Well thats really good info guys, thanks. But i still got one question, my camera only goes to ISO 1600, how do i work with that? I only try to use natural light at night football games because i dont like the flash look. But the higher the ISO, the brighter the pic, right?

Higher ISO means the chip (acting as film) is more sensitive to light. So yes, higher ISO means more light in your picture.

Look if you want to get good shots from your brothers football game you need to do one of the following......

1. Use a flash

2. Buy a lense which will open up to 2.8 or 1.8.

Use a flash, it is much cheaper and if you get a 1.8 or 2.8 lens I am afraid you will be dissapointed with the results because of a DoF issue. Plus the fact that shooting wide open like that is harder than shooting with a flash and getting a good crisp clean image.