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shooting football game w/ canon xti


courtney_goble

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I'm trying to shoot my brother's football games with my Canon XTi and have had horrible outcomes so far. I always

have great pictures using the Sports Mode during the daylight hours but this is the first time I've tried to use

it during a night game. So I'm sure that's part of my problem. I'm sure there are other basic things I'm doing

wrong too.

 

Any advice?

 

I do plan on purchasing a flash in the near future so any suggestions on that would be appreciated also! I

basically shoot my brother's sporting events and now our little 4 month old baby. So, sports and portrait are my

main usages.

 

Thanks!

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I assuming you are using the "kit lens' since you did not state any different. You are going to NEED a faster lens for sports and night or dim lighting in gymnasiums. A FLASH for sports is a waste of money IMHO--would you want a flash going off in your face while trying to play?

 

look at getting yourself a faster lens(f2.8 fixed)

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Courtney,

 

you would have to provide a little more information in order to get useful advice. I expect your problem is simply that your

lens isn't fast enough. When you say horrible, I take it you mean everything is blurred? Would you be able to provide the

metadata of some of your shots? By this I mean the information of how the camera was set when the shot was taken

(Aperture, shutter speed, ISO). What lens are you using and how close to the players are you?

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Courtney,

 

I'm assuming you mean your images are underexposed or blurred, but it would help to know what you mean by horrible.

 

The modes do the thinking for you based on presets or biases for aperture and shutter speed, and maybe ISO. I'm not familiar with the setup of the Canons but what you need to do is ratchet the ISO up and have the aperture set to the lowest f# to get the highest shutter speed possible. I'm also assuming that your talking about a football game, but if you are indoors, you *might* be able to bounce some extra light off the ceiling with a flash, if the flash is strong and the ceiling is high, but that's probably a long shot at best.

 

Guessing once again, it sounds as if you might be just venturing into situations that move beyond the basic presets and modes in the camera. Spend some time reading the Learning pages here to learn more about the interplay of ISO, lens speed, and shutter speed, and complementing light with flash. That will open up a world of new opportunities.

 

As to the flash, I can't help with Canon models, but get something that allows you to bounce of ceilings and walls - you get the most pleasing lighting that way for portraits, though with colored walls you will have to fool with the white balance.

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Just got back in town from trying that. I only had one shot at it. Used a Canon 70-300 4.0-5.6. You really need to shoot 250 sec or higher to catch the action. You have to use a flash at night to get that or buy a faster lenses. I not even sure a faster lenses will get you there if the lighting is poor. If you are unwilling to get a faster lenses you are going to have to use a flash. As someone mentioned above. You better position yourself where the flash doesn't go off in the players eyes. The further away you are the better, but that requires a big zoom. You could try and shoot the players at around 45 degrees to the field of play. That worked for me. You do miss some of the action, but it's better than nothing. It's really hard.
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1) You will need a fast lens. The longest lens that is fast enough and under $500 is the Canon 100mm f/2.

 

2) You will have to abandon Sport mode, because it limits the camera to using a maximum of 400 ISO. You will need to use M or Av mode. That will allow you to set the camera for 1600 ISO, which will enable you to use shutter speeds that are 4 times faster. You should also set the aperture to f/2 so that the lens gathers the maximum amount of light it can. If you are using M mode (which avoids some metering problems you may get with Av mode), you will also need to set the shutter speed - point the camera at a lit portion of the pitch and set the shutter speed so the pointer under the -2..-1..0..1..2 indicator lies under 0 as a trial exposure - you can always adjust slightly if the images seem to bright or not quite bright enough. To replicate the continuous focussing of Sport mode, set the focus mode to AI Servo. Refer to your instruction manual for how to make these various settings, if necessary.

 

3) You may want to invest in some image processing software for noise reduction - Noiseware, Noise Ninja and Neat Image are popular choices. This will make your images less blotchy.

 

4) You may want to start saving your pennies for a camera like the Canon 50D, which offers even higher ISO settings. At the H2 setting of 12800 ISO, you would be able to shoot at the same shutter speed as at f/2 - but with an f/5.6 lens (although I think I'd prefer at least f/4 and just 6400 ISO). Just look at the price for a 200mm f/2 L IS lens to see why this is a really big cost saver.

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Courtney:

 

Ditto the above. Sports mode is a waste of time. I spent an afternoon experimenting with it and was incredibly disappointed. As others have said, a higher ISO setting, AI servo, and Av mode. A faster lens, (no, not a EF 70-200 f/4-5.6) would also work wonders.

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If you are able to buy a good lens you should do it. The lens should have telephoto, (minimum of 200mm forzoom) Well, professional sports photographers use biggerlenses, even 800mm but thisones are really expensive. Also get a monopod so you can move around. Try to predict what's gonna happen next so you are able to be in the perfect place at the perfect time. Oh yeah I also forget, the depth of the field should be small, 4.5 or smaller could help you so in your pictures, a clear public doesn't distract who's watching the picture from the central action that is the players.

 

Hope this helped you. Bye!

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