Night Football Shots

[Ironman11]

Well, our local high school football team just won their quarterfinal game of the playoffs. This means that the next game will be played in the very well-lit Georgia Dome, which will be a relief from the typical stadium lights I shoot under.

Anyways, heres a few of the pictures from the game. This one was shot with these settings on my *ist DS and Sigma 70-200 f2.8 lens:

Focal Length - 110mm (Not as tight as I should have shot, but thats where the resolution of the DS helps. I can crop alot and still have good quality)
Shutter Speed - 1/250
Aperture - f3.5
ISO 1600

Y'all feel free to give me some tips and feedback. This is just my first year of DSLR shooting, so I could use all the comments I can get.

Thanks,
Alex

[Ironman11]

Here's another shot from the same game. As before, all feedback is appriciated!

Focal Length - 125mm
Shutter Speed - 1/250
Aperture - f3.5
ISO 1600

[Ironman11]

And finally, one more that I forgot last night:

Focal Length - 88mm
Shutter Speed - 1/250
Aperture - f3.5
ISO 1600

Thanks again,
Alex

[thatsanicepicture2]

Ironman11

Well this is my first year shooting Dslr too. So were both learning.

Congratulations on the team going on in the finals. We weren't so lucky. You've got some nice shots here and I think a little USM in PP would really help them stand out. Anyone who has shoot HS sports knows how tough it is. Good job.

dale

[murphyc]

Nice pics, good job.
Couple of quick questions:
1. Since you have a 2.8 lens, why not set the aperature at 2.8 and perhaps bump up shutter speed to 1/320 or 1/400 (make sure those shutter speeds don't make things too dark).
2. Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is that a really light, almost orange, football?

[Ironman11]

Murphy -

Thanks for the comments! As for your questions:
1. I try to get a little more DOF with the f3.5, but I probably will be trying f2.8 with a faster shutter speed.
2. Yep, thats a pretty bright football. Some of the balls are are darker brown, but some are like that. They might not be quite that bright in person, but they're pretty close.

[[email protected]]

Ironman, maybe try to set your ISO to 3200 if your camera goes that high.

[Ironman11]

Terry -

The *ist DS does shoot 3200 ISO, but it's (understandably) pretty noisy. If I need faster shutter speed, I think I would rather go to f2.8 then ISO 3200.

Thanks for the comments,
Alex

[[email protected]]

F2.8 will probably be a narrow DOF, especially for football shots with a group of players.

Another option would be to shoot RAW format and boost the exposure by one stop.

Your resultant jpg will still look decent.

Here's a shot at ISO3200 (mind you, I took it with my Canon 20D), no noise reduction post processing:

[bradg]

It doesn't look like you used a flash. Is this right?
I shoot with a flash, and I get around ISO500, f/4 1/250(I'll have to check those, but it's kinda close).
Try to shoot tighter, even if you CAN crop, it's better to learn to shoot tight.


Brad