Best settings for Night-time Football games

I could use some advice on shooting night football games. I'll be using my

Canon 30D, a 70-200 f2.8L USM, and a Metz 54MZ-3 with the dedicated SCA

adapter. My question is about settings both on the camera and the flash.

Has anyone used this set-up for night sports and if so what was the optimal

settings you used.

I appreciate any input as I just changed systems and have not had much time to

prepare for an upcomming shoot (ie Friday night High school football)

Thanks in advance.

How dark is your field? I'd forget the flash and just shoot and 1600. You should be able to get f/2.8-4 at around 1/250 or so. You'll have to put up with the inverse square law and at basic football field distances, I'm not sure the flash will be much benefit. I have found that the expsoure you usually get looks something akin to vignetting with the light falloff. Or especially when you flash a player's eyes and they miss catching the winning touchdown pass.

Also, with flash, you tend to get nicely exposed grass nearby and underexposed sports action further off. Use available light and set ISO accordingly.

Sounds right. I have noticed the light fall-off you mentioned on distant shots. Maybe I'll equip a second camera with a wider zoom for close up action. The flash may be useful at closer range. What do you think?

Robert, leave the flash at home....no use at the game.

 

Your lens might be too slow as well....but try this:

 

Put the camera in Tv mode and set the shutter speed to 1/x seconds, where x is the mm setting of your zoom. It seems you don't have IS...too bad....You going to bring a tripod?

 

Ok, so then let the camera choose the aperture setting...not sure where you'll be sitting, but you'll probably have sufficient depth-of-field from where you're at versus where the action on the field is.

 

Using Tv mode, the camera will guarentee the shutter speed is at least 1/x seconds to deal with camera shake....tri ISO 400 first, then 800 if required, then 1600 at a last resort.

 

This should do the trick...again, keep the flash home..it will be little use.

 

If you want to do this more often, consider getting a fast long prime...something faster then F2.8...but first see if your current F2.8 is up for the job...I suspect it will be.

 

Do report back and let us know how it goes.

Use M mode. Take a few test shots to get it right with the histogram, and then the light won't change that much, if at all, during the game (or is there something about your football games I don't know about?). I'd also consider focusing manually as it may be too dim for the AF to work well (but if AF works then use it).

And yes, I agree with leaving the flash at home!

Pavel, Great advise. I think 2.8 will do the job in most cases at 800. Some fields i've shot at are dimmer and would require 1600. I typically use a monopod and it seems to be sufficient. So to recap, Shutter priority 1/focal length, push the ISO as necessary, use camera support, and if that doesn't work sell my car and get one of those giant white prime lenses.

Thanks again, I appreciate your advice.

Thanks guys for the awesome advice. I'll let you know how it goes.

Apparently a lot of folks are handing out advice without ever having done this.

 

I've just returned from my son's high school soccer game (in the rain!). This is my 3rd consecutive year shooting in probably the most difficult conditions in sports photography.

 

I use a 70-200mm F4 L and a 200mm F2.8 L on either a 20D or 30D. I started out with a Drebel (300D) and a 75-300mm F4.5-5.6 IS USM (and when i got REALLY dark, my 100mm F2.8 Macro).

 

I like the 70-200, but the 200 is a whole stop faster (and has a better boken). Typically I start out early in the season with the sun still out and I can meter in Av (wide open) @ ISO 200. As it gets darker I will boost the ISO up to 800 (1600 if it's real bad) and meter manually. Grass is about 18% gray (close enough) off a patch of grass where the lights fall.

 

Typically I can pull off 1/250 and F 2.8 to 4. Use a monopod, it helps. High school fields are amongst the poorest light sports venues. If they don't have a TV contract with a network, not much incentive for more than the minimum lighting (school budgets). Actually the schools with no lights are the best, since they must play in the daylight.

 

I've been toying with the idea of using my 580EX in games as we begin to get darker and darker starting times, possibly with a flash concentrator.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Ed

Personally, for dirty gritty sports like that I don't mind using 1600, despite it drawbacks. You might want to try it out to see how you like it. Using 3200 ("H") won't help too much over 1600. Shutter priority would be a good setting if you don't want to use manual. Get up to '500 or faster if you can. At 1600, you can simulate a push in digital editing and have a nicer looking image than if you shot at 3200. Also, I would suggest switching out of evaluative metering mode and trying the center-weighted mode instead. That's just my preference, though because I'm used to it from my F-1.

 

Keith

Robert, Ed K's and Keith Lubow's advice is spot on and mirror my Friday Night HS football shooting experience. Monopod is very helpfull. The only difference is I'm shooting with the 70-200 f2.8 IS. Go, Fight, Win.

Rick

The advice not to use the flash is a sound one but like everything in photography is not a fix all solution.<br><br>

 

If you've been on most high schools stadiums the lighting is very bad and even with f2.8 lenses and ISO 1600 you can't get decent shots.<br><br>

 

So in my opinion if you can get away without flash by all means do it but for those times when you can't here are the settings I use:<br><br>

 

Camera<br>

Manual Mode<br>

ISO 800<br>

f/2.8<br>

1/250 shutter (or what ever your camera can handle)<br><br>

 

Flash<br>

Manual Mode<br>

1/16 power.<br><br>

 

An try to get plays that are closer to you.<br>

Home this helps<br><br>

 

Andres<br>

Andres, Thanks for the info. I'll try these settings next time out. The field I shoot at is dim and the press photogs were using flash. I did notice that they were concentrating on plays that were close and I did also notice the effect of light fall-off. This tells me to shoot tight to avoid vignetting. Setting the flash at 1/16 should give some continious shots also. Thanks again!

Andres, do you really think a flash such as a 580ex is going to be powerful enough to do the trick for HS football? I seriously doubt that....I would be greatly surprised actually.

 

Have I shot HS football? Yes.

Robert, I shoot high school football on Friday nights. 1600 at 1/200th f2.8 works OK but still needs blighting in post processing.

 

The flash is OK for close-ups but isn't much good for bursts of game action which I stay in most of the time. I see some people using the flash by cutting it down to 1/3power to get a three shot burst. They say it works. Most of the time I just don't need it. (see examples)

Good shooting,Bill<div></div>

One more, Bill<div></div>

Pavel >> "consider getting a fast long prime...something faster then F2.8."

 

What lens are you thinking of? 200 f1.8L that's no longer in production? That's not even long enough.

 

There isn't any telephoto lenses long enough for football and is faster than f2.8.

Weiyang, very true....it seems the only work around is bumping up the ISO of course.