Here are a few from cross town rivals Washburn HS vs. North HS in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago. The game was hard fought in the rain with Washburn pulling off the victory by kicking a field goal in the final 3 seconds. Excellent game.
It has been a while since I have posted. C & C please.
No EXIF. I don't see the tell-tale signs of flash... all the shadows seem to be from above, so either you did a really great job with your strobe or was the field lighting really good?
If you used flash, can you describe the setup and settings?
Thanks for the comments guys. Good point on the crops. I'll try to tighten up some of these.
I was shooting 2 bodies..no flash
1DmkIII w/ 400/2.8 at ISO 6400 SS 1/500th
1DmkIIn w/ 70-200/2.8 at 3200 SS 1/500th
Basically the light was pretty bad, particularly in the end zones. I underexposed to get the SS fast enough to stop the action. I used LR to clean up some of the noise and bring up the exposures.
Travis, crops mentioned. You have captured some great action. If I may add, I know you didn't use a flash and the lighting was terrible but more exposure was needed IMO. Most of the faces are hidden. #3 & 16 have alot of promise.
I'm going to be taking some photos tonight of a football game and plan on shooting @ ISO 3200 with the exposure compensation setted up by at least 1 using a Canon 1DMKII with 70-200mm 2.8 IS. I'm wondering it there will be an issue with me using a 100-400mm 4.5/5.6 lens underneath the lights since I haven't done so before. Also, please forgive me but what is LR?
By the way great shoots. With the exception of the cropping on a few I think they came out pretty good.
Yup, 4.5/5.6 won't work unless you're using flash. Football lighting is notoriously bad. I wouldn't even consider that 100-400.
LR = Light Room MUST have software.
Edit: Re: shots - I love the #16 & #17 captures. A tighter crop would make these really pop.
I hate using flash, but alot of my shots are looking like yours - no eyes, hard to see faces. Flash is about the only way you're going to improve that. (Without flash I'm often shooting at ISO 6400 + )
Gimme 1, 5, 7, and 12. Tighten the crop, but these have action, the runner's face, and pretty good WB. Night HS football is so nasty, given hotspots, etc. I don't think most HS fields have lights that will allow good faces consistently without a flash (and its drawbacks).
Travis, I won't mention the crops since several already have...woops, I just did. The majority of these are just way loose. Also, I rarely comment on horizons, but that field goal with the goal post is just a no-brainer. Hard to really tell what's going on in that photo anyway, so that's one I'm not sure I'd have kept.
You are certainly pushing the limits of what you can get without flash. I would suggest trying a shutter speed of 1/400 or even 1/320. Yea, I know we always hear 1/500 is the low end, but you can get decent action at 1/400 and even at 1/320. You just have to accept that your keeper rate isn't going to be as high.
IMO, it's obviously important to stop action, but if the faces under the helmets are nothing but dark blobs then you're really not accomplishing much. Like flash or not, that's really why people have to use it...to be able to actually the subjects in the image.
ponceii wrote:
I'm going to be taking some photos tonight of a football game and plan on shooting @ ISO 3200 with the exposure compensation setted up by at least 1 using a Canon 1DMKII with 70-200mm 2.8 IS. I'm wondering it there will be an issue with me using a 100-400mm 4.5/5.6 lens underneath the lights since I haven't done so before.
Are you planning to shoot action or the players/cheerleaders just standing on the sideline?
Not gonna capture action at night with a variable aperture lens unless you try to do some sort of panning or creative shots. f2.8 is often not enough, certainly not at many HS facilities.
The majority of these are just way loose. Also, I rarely comment on horizons, but that field goal with the goal post is just a no-brainer. Hard to really tell what's going on in that photo anyway, so that's one I'm not sure I'd have kept.