p.1 #1 · Season in review from a college football rookie photographer
I am a little weary of posting my images because most of you guys who have been posting you bowl game pics are seasoned veterans. I took over Louisiana Tech's Scout.com site (BleedTechBlue.com) in March of last year and was approved for credentials for this Football season. I shoot with a Canon 5D and a 80-200 f/2.8 "Magic Drainpipe". I purchased a 28mm f/ 2.8 halfway through the season, and enjoyed thinking outside the box for shots with it during a football game. I have posted a bunch of my favorites from the year, critiques welcome and appreciated. I know the 5D is not the most ideal camera for sports, but, its what I have and I work with what I have.
p.1 #3 · Season in review from a college football rookie photographer
Get lower. A lot lower. Also, watch your horizons, and straighten as necessary. Also, leave your EXIF intact if possible.
1 and 2 are fine.
3 should have been shot lower. Tough light as well.
4 doesn't work for me. Not sure what SS you're at, but it looks like motion blur, rather than DOF.
5 does nothing. Delete.
6 has no face. Shot too high. Delete.
7 slow shutter speed again? 1/400th? No face either. Delete.
8 don't like the angle, and the horizon is horrible.
9 doesn't really do anything for me. No emotion, nothing.
10 does nothing for me.
11 no face. Really hurts the shot. Unless it was the play of the game, delete.
12 I like this shot. However, leaving 3 quarters of the shot on the right doesn't do much for the image. Crop vertically on the QB would probably work better.
13 no need for leaving the defender in the photo. Crop vertically on the receiver/back.
14 would have cropped vertically as well. Also, because of how much you're standing up, you've lost his feet. Cropping mid-thighs up to above his helmet would work best because of the mistake.
15 Looks good for the most part, however, the white balance is a bit off by the looks of it.
16 crop doesn't make sense, and despite it being a hit, there doesn't seem to be much action to the photo.
17 these shots look best if you can get within 3 yards of the LOS on either side. From this angle, its lost.
18 head down, no eyes, no catch ... delete
19 looks good
p.1 #4 · Season in review from a college football rookie photographer
Jonathan,
Most of your shots suffer from softness and motion blurs. Don't be afraid to crank up that ISO to get a faster shutter speed. A few with crooked horizons which is a pet peeve of mine. You also have a lot of good action shots but without faces
p.1 #6 · Season in review from a college football rookie photographer
ISOs all depend on what you're shooting with. However, bare minimum shutter speeds at night should be 1/500th. In the daytime, you shouldn't be below 1/800th, no matter the body you're using. With most cameras, ISO800 will be fine, especially if its for a paper. After that, it all depends what you're shooting with. I have no problem pushing the D3 to ISO5000, however, its also a pro body.
As for your horizons, a program like Lightroom makes things very easy with straightening. I almost always have my horizons straight now, but thats after countless games and practice. It takes time. Until then, adjusting in post-processing works fine.
Here's a quick sample of a tighter crop on one photo, while adjusting the horizons. I assume you don't mind me posting this.
http://i42./35d5hcg.jpg
I sharpened the photo up a fair bit as well, hoping to limit the motion blur in the photo. While noise can be corrected in post-processing, blur can't.
p.1 #7 · Season in review from a college football rookie photographer
ok, the 5D is a pro body. I can take it to 1600ISO, next season or during night baseball games this year, I will experiment with 1600ISO. I shot some night games at 800ISO but didn't like the noise. What tools do you use (actions, or something else) to rid the image of so much noise?
Shoot as tight as you can. With your 200mm lens, you shouldn't even have to zoom. Just shoot. Even when I'm in the endzone, I rarely zoom my 70-200 wider than 135mm.
p.1 #10 · Season in review from a college football rookie photographer
>What ISOs do you guys normally shoot at?
whatever you need to stop motion/tracking blur, be it ISO100 or ISO1600 pushed 2 stops.
worry most about (unintended) motion blur and don't worry about noise until you get to post-processing stage
>Being 6'3" hurts my angles, guess I gotta get on the ground as much as I don't >want to.
yeah, kneel (or if that is uncomfortable get one of those low foldable mini-chairs for kids camping (but don't think that is wise for football, fine for soccer and other stuff though))
>I had never thought about the horizons, thanks for the heads up. How should I >avoid problems with this?
yeah, i never thought about it at first (not that first is that long ago for me, first is late 2005! i'm new to this too) either
1. try a bit to be more concious of it while shooting
2. when you crop, use the crop AND rotate tool and fix them up (i still do this quite a bit, fix it up a bit in PP)
3. don't get tooo worried about it, since crooked horizons regualr show up in SI and major newspapers and while generally preferable are not quite the end of the world as they are made to be on all the forums imo (not saying it's great but not quite a deadly sin and sometimes no problem at all imo)
>Going to start shooting basketball, what should I be weary of?
don't be afraid of very high iso, be afraid of mushy blurs from low shutter speeds
hope you have good lighting and not high school type lighting
p.1 #11 · Season in review from a college football rookie photographer
jfordlatech wrote:
ok, the 5D is a pro body. I can take it to 1600ISO, next season or during night baseball games this year, I will experiment with 1600ISO. I shot some night games at 800ISO but didn't like the noise. What tools do you use (actions, or something else) to rid the image of so much noise?
I don't mind at all you posting that image.
thanks for your help kiz5!
don't worry about noise
i shoot 20D at ISO3200 when I had too, talk about noise
p.1 #13 · Season in review from a college football rookie photographer
You've got some great expression and action in these shots here and you've managed to do quite well with what you have. I hope you don't mind some suggestions! If you find kneeling or squatting down uncomfortable, take a seat near one of the corners where you can get pretty much the whole field, and move around as you need to. Make sure you crank up your shutter speeds- they seem to suffer from motion blur.
I know that gear isn't always the thing- but for football 200mm, especially on a FF, is simply not long enough- and that makes for some serious heavy cropping. In the future you might want to consider a longer lens- at the every least, you want to be able to get to 400mm on 35mm equivalent, even better, at least 500mm if you don't want to have to crop heavily. Football simply isn't a cheap sport to shoot at least lens wise- and if you want to do it well, you need the right equipment.
As for basketball, since it's indoors, make sure you know how to set exposure manually and just look for some great moments to capture. Not technically different- you'll just have to learn to be patient and wait for the right moments. The 80-200 should be fine on the 5D for basketball- in fact if I could have only one focal range, that would be it. You might find yourself needing a crop body or a bit of extra reach for the other end of the court, but otherwise you're okay. Well- just stay seated and have fun with it (and hope that the ref doesn't get in your way too much).
p.1 #14 · Season in review from a college football rookie photographer
I have noticed the 200mm is not nearly long enough, I typically can only shoot from the 30 yd line to the endzone. I have put my 28 1.8 on and gotten some pretty good shots with it (i.e. the team running out). I don't want to get rid of the 5D because of how great it does with the wide angle stuff, but a 1D is a must if I continue to shoot football.
What do you think of the 100mm-400mm f4-5.6, obviously, only for day games?
