darrendrevik

<p>The 24-105 is next on my lens wish list. Good all-around lens and I plan to keep it on my body as my "walking around lens." That said, I find I frame pictures better when I'm walking around with a prime lens like a 50mm or 85mm, because I have to do the "zooming" with my feet!</p>

<p>I also love the 10-22mm on my 20D. I'm planning to add a 5D mark 2 to my body linup, and weep that I can't use it on that body. You have a good range of focal lengths, I might suggest getting a few prime lenses like the 50mm 1.4 or an 85mm. If you had to add another zoom, I can recommend the 70-200mm 2.8 L IS. Very nice lens for tight portraits or sports.</p>

<p>Thanks all. I also have a 20D and am looking for a second body. Like the idea of stepping up to the 5D and keeping my 20D for sports/telephoto and making it my backup.</p>

While it depends somewhat on your pricing, you'll find 4x6 will be your most popular size purchased.

Wow, you took me back. Haven't shot crew in 20 years.

 

I agree with the first suggestions: An overhead bridge with a 28mm to 50mm gives you a great perspective shot. Follow boats with a 200 to 400mm can give you tight face shots. If you're going to shoot across the bows with a telephoto to compress 4 or 5 shells to give a feeling of competition, I would lay down on the dock or shore, shoot horizontally and position yourself in the first 500 meters of the race course -- photo finishes are almost unheard of in crew.

 

Single shells are great for wide-angle perspective shots -- lone rower set against expansive background, that type of thing. You might also investigate a remote camera rig mounted on a shell, if a crew is game. Would need an ultra-wide angle.

 

Get your set pieces, then get creative. Enjoy!

Terry, I just think I figured out part of your problem having read some of your other posts. It sounds like you're shooting this with your flash. Try shooting without a flash, again setting your aperature priority to f2.8 and your ISO to 800, 1600 or 3200 (I don't remember how high a Rebel goes).

 

What's happening is when you've got your flash on your shoe, it's automatically lowering your shutter speed down to your flash synch speed -- which is either 1/125 or 1/250 of a second -- both are too slow to freeze action.

 

Take off the flash, kick up your settings, use natural light and see what happens. You should be pleasantly surprised.

Because both your subjects and backgrounds are blurred, I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest camera movement. If you're not using a monopod, I strongly suggest getting one to help. Also, shoot shutter priority at f2.8 and let the light determine how fast a shutter speed you get. Keep your ISO as high as you can set it on your camera.

I agree with the last comment with one exception and one addition.

 

I think a monopod is a MUST when shooting in low light football situations. Anything that eliminates camera shake is a plus -- even if you can pump your shutter speed to 1/320 or 1/500.

 

My one other addition is to pump your ASA/ISO as high as your camera will allow. Go to 3200 if you can (On the Canon series, you have do to it via the special functions menu). Sacrifice a little noise and a little grain to get the shutter speed you need to catch the action.

<p>Normally at the snap I look for what are called "keys." Your son can explain what they are. The most common one is to watch the offensive linemen at the snap. If they fire forward, it's usually a running play, and you can quickly zoom in as the quarterback hands off the ball to a runner and then follow the play.</p>

<p>If the linemen stand up or back slightly at the snap, it's usually a passing play (they can't be downfield when the ball is thrown), so I'll choose either to zero in on the quarterback and wait for him to throw or roll out, or glance downfield and find the receiver that the QB is eying and see if the ball goes his way. </p>

<p>The situation also can allow you to anticipate and get a better shot. Think run on a 3rd and 1, and think pass on a 3rd and 20.</P>

<p>If you're shooting the defensive team, best to line up about 10-12 yards behind the line of scrimmage and shoot the linemen shooting the gaps, or the linebackers defending the play. You can also get good shots of QB sacks and runners thrown for losses from this vantage point.</p>

<p>Don't forget the human interest stuff. Point your camera at the sidelines and the stands occasionally. The best shot I ever took of my brother's football career was him on the sideline caked in turf watching stoically as his team was going down to defeat.</p><div></div>

If I could tell new sports photogs one thing, it's that a majority of the time "tighter is better" when it comes to cropping. Despite the 11 men on the field, a football play usually boils down to two players -- runner and tackler, receiver and defender, coach and player -- so even if you got a good shot that captures the whole play, try and go tight.

 

My cropping process is to keep cropping little by little until that point I realize I went a little too far. Then hit the "undo" button and start toning and sharpening.

 

For example, (and I hope Zack doesn't think me presumptuous) I like the relationship between the runner and the sideline observer who is perplexed or worried about the runner. I might have cropped it thus (although it's good to try for a vertical or horizontal crop and avoid square photos if at all possible).<div></div>

<a href="http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/Darren/SHS2006">I second Dave's answer.</a>

<p>All shot with a 20D, 70-200 f2.8L IS, ISO3200 set wide open on apererature priority under some of the crappiest lighting in north Georgia.</p>

Don't beat yourself up on that shot. You're never going to be able to freeze the ball at night, and the motion blur adds an element of action to the frame. Love the coach watching it.

 

Pat yourself on the back. You done good.

When it was my son's team, I only charged parents printing costs.

 

If it's for someone else, I'd suggest you make sure you're charging a rate that includes your valuable time and skills. My experience was that parents will order the same number of action prints of their children, whether you charge $2 each or $10 each.<div></div>

I agree with the previous response. Most of my stuff is done on auto. I take a test shot, and only when it looks really green or orange to I set a custom white balance.

 

Push your ASA as high as you can. Accept the noise in return for the fastest shutter speed you can muster. You'll be shocked how little light those stadium floods put out. Go buy a monopod if you don't have one.

 

Also, if you position yourself about 15 yards beyond the line of scrimmage (while shooting the offense) or 10 yards behind the line (when shooting defense) you'll have the action coming at you, which will help with blurring.

 

Good luck. My son just finished his football playing days, so this will be my first fall not roaming the sidelines. Enjoy every minute of it.<div></div>

I also shoot interiors (work for a homebuilder and have to get photos of the decorated model homes).

 

I shoot them almost exclusively with a Canon 10-22 EF-S. I try and stay away from the 10mm end of the scale due to distortion, but more often than not I end up there. That said, the distortion at 10mm focal length on digital is less than my old FD 18mm lens.`<div></div>

As football season gets ready to kick off, thought I'd throw out this thought:

Don't ignore a potential group of customers for your photos this fall!

 

Who else besides the quarterback's mom might want to buy a copy of the photo

below? How about the referee? Most officials associations have websites with

email addresses, and they all have pockets for your card when you chat them up

before they start working the game. (I don't recommend chatting up your website

during play or even during timeouts, however.)

 

I'm both a sports photographer and an official, and I can tell you a good action

shot of an umpire, linesman or referee in action would be very appreciated.<div></div>

Mark Nagel has it right.

On my 580EX I both put the diffuser panel down and pull out my deflector shield, while setting the flash to just shy of 90-degrees vertical. Then most of the time I let the automatic settings do the rest.

 

If you don't have a built-in bounce card, make the bounce card as suggested. With the camera's auto TTL settings, you can bounce the light to kingdom come and the camera will still expose correctly.<div></div>

I shoot with the 70-200 f2.8L IS, and find the image stabilization does help even with a monopod. When on the No. 2 setting (stablizing on just the horizontal axis) I get somewhat sharper images, especially in low lighting situations. Regardless, definately go for the 2.8 aperature for the reasons mentioned above.<div></div>

<p>One final thought, the f-stop really shouldnt be a determinant for you. Give the wide angle, you've got plenty of depth of field to work with. </p>

 

<p>I've used my 10-22 for just over a year now -- highly recommend. I do a lot of interior photos for a new home builder, and I can adjust the focal length to get everything in. There's obviously distortion on the edges at 10mm, but I heckuva lot less than I used to have with my FD super-wide-angle lenses.</p>

<img src="http://www.drevik.net/efs10-22.jpg">

I also would look at how you have your autofocus set. If you set your focus points to all and let the camera try and interpret where to focus, often it will select a large (or colorful) item in the background rather than the action.

 

Set your autofocus selection point just to the center dot, er square. Then make sure you keep the ballcarrier in the center of your viewfinder.

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes.

If you have a monopod, the answer is still Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes.

 

Have never regretted spending the extra money. That lens is my workhorse, and I can tell the difference when IS is on or off even when just shooting snaps.

I've used my 2x extender sparingly since buying it about 18 months ago, and

honestly the results are pretty poor. When I pop it between my 20D and my 70-200

2.8, images from my razor-sharp lens get extremely soft and blurry. I can fix it

a little in photoshop by sharpening, but should I have to? I keep thinking I'm

going to need 400m length down the road, so I'm loathe to eBay it, but should I

keep a lens extender that doesn't give me the results I need?

I have to be honest: I sacrifice graininess and a little noise to get the fastest shutter speed possible. I'll push by Canon 20D to 3200 ASA, choose aperature priority at 2.8 and and with a 70-200 2.8L I can usually get 1/500th, which fits the bill and freezes most action, although I sometimes need 1/640 or more to stop something really fast.

 

I'm part of the school that hates the artificialness of strobes, and have never mastered setting my 580 to just throw out fill flash. It always blurs the shot. In fact, I think the graininess adds an edge of grittiness to sports photos.

 

One other help: Try and position yourself to get the action coming directly toward you, rather than panning left to right. Definately helps, plus you're getting the athlete's faces -- which is what you want.

 

Good luck!

Back in the '80s when I was a newspaper photographer, I came up with this recipe to push Tri-X to 3200 (you haven't seen dark til you've shot football games in the mountains of East Tennessee). You may want to test and tinker with it a little before you go out and shoot an actual game: <br>

- 1 ounce Accufine <br>

- 1 ounce sodium sulfide crystals <br>

- 16 oz distilled water <br>

 

Develop with gentle agitation for 8 1/2 mins at 68 degrees. Don't overdevelop or it's burn out your pictures fast! You only have about a 10 second margin of error.

<p>A lot of the answers you've gotten mirror my tips. Since I shoot HS football with the exact same equipment (a 20D and a Canon 70-200 2.8L IS) I'll let you know my Top 10 List.</p>

<p>If you want to see what I get out of it, you can check out http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/darren/shs2006</p>

<li> Monopod. A must. Reduces camera shake

<li>Lens Image stabilization. Turn it on to setting 2. Reducing horizontal shake (setting 1 on the lens) is ok, but using both axis gets better results.

<li>My stadium's light absolutely stinks, so I use the custom function and set ASA to 3200 ("H"). I use apature priority, set it at 2.8, and let the camera dictate the fastest shutter speed.

<li>Stand about 15 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. You'll still get full frame, but the action will be moving more toward you than left to right, so you'll get less blur. If you're trying to shoot defensive players, stand 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, to get faces and the occasional sack behind the line.

<li>When the light gets REALLY bad (meaning I have a shutter speed of 1/250 or less) I actually stop down 1/3 or even 2/3 of a stop. It keeps my shutter speed up, and I can always pull the brightness up in Photoshop. If you shoot at the highest ("L") setting, you'll have more data to pull out.

<li>If you have a second camera with a flash, use it too. When the frame of your zoom fills at 70mm, stop shooting, grab your second camera and get the shots as they come to you on the sideline (if they fill THAT viewfinder, stop shooting and get the heck out of the way!)

<li>Make sure you use your dodge and burn tools in photoshop. You'll want to dodge the faces inside the helmets, especially for African-American players. Most photographers -- even newspaper photographers -- don't do this, and the mom's of our team's black players just love me because they can actually see the faces of their sons in the shots.

<li>Burn lots of frames. I have a 4GB card and shoot about 600 frames to get 120-150 good shots. (If you look at my shutterfly site, about half the pics are so-so, but since I'm shooting for parents and not for publications or myself, I leave up a lot of stuff that is marginal or I would normally delete). Bottom line: You paid for 5fps -- use it.

<li>Adjust your metering according to the camera's owner's manual. Set it to center-weighted metering (where no eyeball icon appears on the top menu. This will help your camera get the right light, rather than letting a bright background light source or a super-dark night mess up the metering.

<li>Keep tinkering. Every stadium's lighting is a little different. I sometimes have to go off auto white balance to keep the players from turning organge or green.