Focusing for soccer

[alin_daju]

<p>Hi everybody,<br>

I took a few shots of people playing footy (australian football), some shots came better than the others.<br>

Question: where would you focus when shooting a bunch of people in action, on their faces or on their bodies?<br>

I'm using a Canon 100-400 with a 1.4 Kenko which by the way allowes to focus properly only with the extreme R or L focusing points.<br>

Thanx.</p>

[shal_jacobovitz]

<p>As a rule I aleays shoot the face. It's the most important part of the pic. Is you camera a full frame or Dx? I shoot with a 400mm f2.8 and almost never need more, just wondering why the TC ( it usually complicates life)?</p>

[farski]

<p>you should maybe post some examples of what you ended up with. You don't say specifically that you're getting shots with focus you're not happy with, and I'm guessing that lens at 400mm is probably like an f/5.6, which would mean regardless of where you're focusing on the athlete, the wide-ish DOF is going to get pretty much the entire person in focus. What I'm trying to say is that if you're having focusing issues, it's probably not due to face-or-body, but the lens or camera just not being able to track fast enough; the AF on a cheaper camera at 5.6 plus a TC is going to start to struggle with action.</p>

<p>If you're <strong>not</strong> unhappy with the focus in your shots, and you're just wondering, it'd be great to focus on the face every time, but that's pretty unrealistic. Even with a wider lens, there's not going to be a huge difference either way, unless someone is really horizontal in relation to the camera (like laying out towards the camera, then you really want to make sure you're getting the face tack sharp)</p>

<p>After just re-reading you post, I'm thinking maybe you're asking where to focus when there are four or five people in a group, then it's really up to your best judgement about the situation. Either stop down and give everybody focus if you think that makes a better shot, or keep the shallow depth, and chose the most important subject. If you're taking a shot of a (american) football player running, and there are two guys hanging off him trying to bring him down, it's up to you to chose whether you want the running back the absolute focus of attention the other two are soft, that can be a great shot, or you can try and capture the whole situation and still make a nice shot.</p>

[alin_daju]

<p>Shal, I use a Canon 40D with a 100-400 5.6 L. I used the TC because the footy pitch was huge and I didn't want to crop later.<br>

Christopher, thanx for that advice mate, I just need more practice with these lens, I'm not used to hand holding a 3.5 kgs device for about a couple of hours.</p>

[suzanne_s1]

<p>Alin, my son plays competitive soccer and I shoot with an archaic Canon 10D and even older Canon 70-210mm 3.5-4.5 lens. When I'm aiming across the pitch, generally I concentrate the focus on the center of the action, and as the previous poster said, the DOF takes care of the rest. Otherwise I follow a particular player and try to keep his head to shoulders in focus, but they are usually moving so fast that I sometimes slip to their chest. Because of all the movement involved, I find it helpful to use a monopod also. Oftentimes I will sit on the ground near the different edges of the field to get different perspectives and prop my elbows on my knees to steady the camera.</p>