Football under floodlights

neilsmaf

neilsmaf

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Neil
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I need some major help with my night time photos at Northern League football grounds. This may take me a while to go through the problem and desired result so please bare with me.

I am one of the club photographers for Gateshead FC & for my home town team Chester-le-Street Town FC. I’ve been doing the sports photography for about 3 years and I have taken advice where ever I can. Saturday afternoon games are not much problem as far as results go but night time can suffer depending on floodlights at the grounds.

Gateshead have the large floodlights at the International Stadium and I have worked a way out to reduce any grain from my photos. However, Northern League grounds naturally have poorer floodlights due to funding. It makes it more difficult for me to get the quality photos that I want.

Camera and settings; I use a Nikon D7000 with a Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 lensShutter speed ideally 800-1000/s with these fixtures I tend to use 500/s. Aperture, always set to f2.8.Metering, after advice from some press photographers I use spot metering.AF Area Mode, set to 39-point dynamic.

Below is a link to my latest photos from last nights Chester-le-Street Town FC vs South Shields, these are the best ones that I have been able to rescue.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.751572284948627.1073741839.350073815098478&type=3

If anyone has any advice on how I can improve them (especially if you have been to these grounds) to reduce or eliminate the grain I would appreciate as I am running out of ideas.
 
Welcome to the forum

It will be better if you publish the photo(s) in the thread if you would like some advice. Very, very few of the forum members will want to/can be bothered to follow a link outside, and I suspect particularly to a Facebook page.

Get your images on here (using the guide in the forum instructions) and then we can give you some sound advice :)
 
thanks for your reply Nigel, I've posted a few of the photos below:







 
No exif in place so we cant see your settings.. However the problem is a simple one that every photogrpaher gets and the answer is equally as simple.. however you wont like it

You only have three things to set..

Aperture you have at f2.8 and your not going to do much better.. so that's set you only have two

Your at a low level non league ground.. your going to have to max out your ISO to the point where you wont go higher.. then what shutter speed is left is what you have.. if you hahve lots of shutter speed then you can lower the iso..

however.. If you max the aperture.. go as low shutter as you can and as high iso as you can and you still struggle then you have hit the fourth variable.. you have maxed your equipment capabilities.. It really is that simple.. Taking pictures at ground like that requires better equipment... once you ahve done your settings thats it.. a better camera gets you better ISO ... if your answer is no budget.. then thats it.. your maxed out and there is no answer..

You can shoot in raw and use noise reduction.. I dont know if you have but theres a danger of making your players look plastic... its not an ideal answer.. its what I had to do before I upgraded my camera and although it worked.. its not a good answer..
 
I try to keep the ISO at 4000 but sometimes I have to resort to 6500, the lighting isn't very even and there are definatley dark patches across the pitch.

I have tried talking to the chairman at the club to get new floodlights the next time they get some grant money
 
KIPAX said:
No exif in place so we cant see your settings.. However the problem is a simple one that every photogrpaher gets and the answer is equally as simple.. however you wont like it

You only have three things to set..

Aperture you have at f2.8 and your not going to do much better.. so that's set you only have two

Your at a low level non league ground.. your going to have to max out your ISO to the point where you wont go higher.. then what shutter speed is left is what you have.. if you hahve lots of shutter speed then you can lower the iso..

however.. If you max the aperture.. go as low shutter as you can and as high iso as you can and you still struggle then you have hit the fourth variable.. you have maxed your equipment capabilities.. It really is that simple.. Taking pictures at ground like that requires better equipment... once you ahve done your settings thats it.. a better camera gets you better ISO ... if your answer is no budget.. then thats it.. your maxed out and there is no answer..

You can shoot in raw and use noise reduction.. I dont know if you have but theres a danger of making your players look plastic... its not an ideal answer.. its what I had to do before I upgraded my camera and although it worked.. its not a good answer..
Click to expand...

I have tried parts of the above regarding maxing out the ISO I even at one time resorted to using a shutter speed of 250/s but run the risk of deforming the players hands etc when in movement.

I do always shoot on RAW as I enjoy the freedom I get from it.

I've also got a budget for better gear but I cant spend it yet as I am on the dole and need to wait till back in full time employment before I can go shopping.

I was at a different non league ground last night and they had better floodlights and it just proved what difference they make even though some of my photos had grain on them over all they were a lot better.
 
It really is your cameras limitations then I am afraid.. If there was an answer I would get rid of my expensive equipment and buy cheaper cameras :)
 
Agree with Kipax. I've been there! The only advice I can give other than upgrading your equipment is to accept that you're going to have to shoot with a very low shutter speed and pick your shots very carefully, such as with a player running towards you where the movement is less noticeable.
 
Thanks very much for your advice everyone, it was really so that I had a piece of mind that I wasn't missing something simply to resolve the issue.

Roll on to when I can upgrade.
 
With your kit, stick to snapping what action is in the brightest parts of the pitch. Keep the shutter speed as high as you can, use iso 3200 or 6400. Avoid the expansion ISO it will most likely be dire. I use Imagenomic Noiseware to reduce noise, but not on blurred pics.
 
Photodiva said:
With your kit, stick to snapping what action is in the brightest parts of the pitch. Keep the shutter speed as high as you can, use iso 3200 or 6400. Avoid the expansion ISO it will most likely be dire. I use Imagenomic Noiseware to reduce noise, but not on blurred pics.
Click to expand...

Wow I've just downloaded and used the trial of that software and I cant believe the results. It doesn't lose that much detail compared to photoshops built in filter.

Now I just need to afford it
 
Hi Neil,
when I shot grassroots footy all I had was a Nikon D100 & the Sigma lens so another useful noise reduction software I used was Noiseninja it works as a "Filter" option in photoshop as well. Kind regards Graham.
 
Bluesman graham said:
Hi Neil,
when I shot grassroots footy all I had was a Nikon D100 & the Sigma lens so another useful noise reduction software I used was Noiseninja it works as a "Filter" option in photoshop as well. Kind regards Graham.
Click to expand...

cheers fir that Graham, I'll take a look at it
 
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