Footbal Photography

jockwav

jockwav

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I have been doing motorsport for a few years/bikes & cars,but i fancy a go at footbal now.
I have been talking to our local amateur club & thay have no objections about me taking photos in their ground.
I can get to the edge of the field no problem & i reckon i can reach the players with around 70mm-100mm lens wise.
I have a canon 70mm-200mm L lens,so really just some advice on shutter speeds,also just got a canon 100mm usm lens.
So any & all advice is very welcome,they are hoping to have a match this saturday coming.:):thumbs:
 
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I presume thats a 70-200? you will need that and to be honest you will still be a little short ..is the 5d full frame? if so then very short..

main rules of thumb are..
1. shoot low.. take a stool maybe.
2. fronts of players not backs
3. ball in picture
4. widest aperture and fastest shutter

keep the lens as open as possible like f2.8 if you ahve it .. just get yourself a decent shutter speed.. there isnt a set one.. you can get somehting with just about any speed but you should hope for around 1000 (thats rough.. go higher or lower depending on light) if good light during day... 320 if night time floodlights..

seriously.. just get as decent a speed as ou can.. dont be afraid to up the iso.. a rough looking picture can be fixed.. a blurred one cant.
 
Cheers Tony,yes the 5D FF,yes the 70mm-200m L F4 lens,just amended my mistake there.
I was in there today talking to the groundsman & the sideline seems pretty close to the goal so i reckon the 70mm-200mm should be ok.
I will keep in mind everything you have said & give it a go,can,t be that much harder than motorsport i hope.:):thumbs:
 
I'd say the aspect that makes football more difficult than motor sport is that it's harder to predict where the action is going to be, which is a little easier on a track. The only way I can get good heading shots, for example, is by predicting when the ball will hit by the expressions on the players faces - if you hit the shutter when you see the ball being headed then you've missed it!

I think you'll be surprised at how little light there is. I'm finding the light is hanging on a little longer now but I'm still down to f2.8 pretty early on with a high ISO. The quality of the floodlights will make a big difference to - where I regularly shoot I'm getting 1/250 at 3200 ISO and f2.8 by the end of the game, but it is quite low non league.

I don't have too many problems with the reach of the 70-200 but I am on a 1.6 crop - I just have to crop quite a bit for the long shots.

Look forward to seeing how you get on.

Dave
 
I've used the 70-200 f/4 and been pretty pleased with it at footie, the light has been my biggest issue. I have regularly been shooting at iso 6400 or 12,800 to get 1/320.

Can't add much more than Tony has said, but just don't forget to use your knowledge of the teams playing. If you know that one team is better than the other, pick the end they're attacking and sit behind the goal (like Tony said, on a fishing stool or something similar). I sit about 10 feet in from the corner flag.

If the left winger is better than the right, sit on his side as he'll get most of the ball.

If the players usually celebrate goals in front of one particular stand, you could choose that as well.

At corners, follow the big men with the lens...it usually ends up near(ish!) them.

Hope it goes well!

Andy
 
Thanks Dave & Andy,the light in this area has been really good over the last little while,just hoping it will be bright on saturday.
It,s not absolute certain that they will play as they are having trouble with their pitch water logging,keeping my fingers crossed.:):thumbs:
 
I struggle to do it, but I do hear people say shoot with both eyes open. i.e. You get a sight from the side of the camera so you predict action better.
 
Yep all great advice,thanks guys.:):thumbs:
 
I think i will try continuous AI Servo & kick off with 1/500 shutter speed for a couple of test shots & adjust from there if it is a bright day.:)
All input welcomed.:thumbs:
 
please dont get fixated on shutter speeds.. as I said there is no defined speed as there are too many other variables..

set the aperture you want.. set the iso your happy wiht then see what shutter speed you achive... if its 1000 2000 3000 then great.. if its 100 200 300 then not good.. you then adjust your iso or if you can open your aperture then adjust that to get the speed to something that will capture action..

a general rule seems to be around 500 as the LOW point.. you can capture wiht lower if required... personaly i would try to steer away from 500 as much as possible..the faster the better.. although i doubt it makes much difference when you get into multple thousands :)

its like a recipe.. you ahve to take into consideration what fstop and iso your happy with and what you dont mind changing.. it would be easy if there was exact setting we could give you but there isnt.. we dont know the most important variable of them all.. how much light you have.. so experiment and try to keep the shutter up as much as you can..

time is your answer... try a few things and you will get it in time :)


PS.. Thanks helen nice of you to say :) (while i was typing so just seen)
 
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Cheers guys,thanks Tony,i definately will keep the shutter up to what i need,i do understand what your saying about iso & shutter as i have done that a lot in some motorsport stuff.:):thumbs:
I just hope they put the game on after all this.:lol:
 
Cheers Nigel,definately will follow it very closely.:):thumbs:
 
After all that the game is postponed.:lol::eek:
 
Possibly if i can find any local,some really great shots you got there Gary.:):thumbs:
 
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