p.2 #1 · Best lens for shooting professional soccer?
HoldenMan: See the post from dmwierz 8 above yours for one suggestion. I believe the point Jim was making is that the challenge of shooting soccer changes dramatically when you go from a relatively loose field of view to one that puts you into the nostrils of an athlete. It's not that you can't follow the action with a very tight field of view, it's that doing so definitely takes some adjustment. It therefore would be a problem to show up with a 400mm lens to shoot a soccer match if you only ever had shot with a 70-200, and expect that you will easily make the transition.
p.2 #2 · Best lens for shooting professional soccer?
HoldenMan wrote:
Slightly off topic - how do you follow it, if not through the view finder?
Practice! No kidding... You can practice many ways, but the short story is find moving objects (at different speeds) and practice following and shooting them with a long glass. Cars on a road, kids on a swing, dogs in a dog park, etc...
One thing that really helps too is to keep BOTH eyes open and learn how to use both when shooting. That will also take a lot of practice.
p.2 #3 · Best lens for shooting professional soccer?
HoldenMan wrote:
Slightly off topic - how do you follow it, if not through the view finder?
one eye looks through it and another (edit: THE other ) looks around the edge so you get a wider view with a long lens it makes it hard to see what is going on
p.2 #4 · Best lens for shooting professional soccer?
Russ Isabella wrote:
HoldenMan: See the post from dmwierz 8 above yours for one suggestion. I believe the point Jim was making is that the challenge of shooting soccer changes dramatically when you go from a relatively loose field of view to one that puts you into the nostrils of an athlete. It's not that you can't follow the action with a very tight field of view, it's that doing so definitely takes some adjustment. It therefore would be a problem to show up with a 400mm lens to shoot a soccer match if you only ever had shot with a 70-200, and expect that you will easily make the transition....Show more →
Well to be fair, FOV is relative to the sport. A 70-200mm (especially on a 1.6x crop) at 200mm closely following the action in a basketball game is surely much different than a 70-200mm in soccer or football.
p.2 #5 · Best lens for shooting professional soccer?
My preference is to use the biggest glass possible for soccer but it is worth noting the comments others have made about finding the action through a long lens if you aren’t used to it. I mentored an excellent young photographer at an NFL game once and set him up with a 400 on a crop Canon body and he had a really difficult time tracking and finding the action and acquiring focus quickly enough with a 400. Consequently he didn’t end up with many useable images with the 400.
I have used long glass for a while and tend to forget how I progressed and developed the skills that are now subconscious. Sounds like you have a 400 on the way so any other advice is not productive at this point. . If you have some time to practice with the 400 first you should be fine. They usually have a practice session the day before the match if they are in town so consider attending that if your schedule allows.
In addition to shooting with both eyes open, I use the lens much like the barrel of a rifle; lining up the action with both eyes over the barrel of the lens so when I see something worth shooting I am close to the position I want to end up in and finding my subject and acquiring focus is not a problem.
International friendlies usually restrict you to behind the endline and between the touchline and 18.
p.2 #9 · Best lens for shooting professional soccer?
Following the action was easier than I thought it would be. I got to practice the day before by shooting the US Open of Surfing (shots here: http://www.lvrj.com/multimedia/US-Open-of-Surfing-quarterfinals-in-Huntington-Beach-California-165026326.html) but that didn't really count for obvious reasons. The hard part of the football/soccer game was juggling the 400 on a monopod, and then two other bodies with a 24-70 and 70-200 on each shoulder! It was a lot of fun though.
) looks around the edge so you get a wider view with a long lens it makes it hard to see what is going on