KIDS ARLF

-Paul-

-Paul-

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Paul.
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I am shooting my lads playing in a local friendly on wednesday night. no doubt it will be or get dark, floodlights will be on. Would anyone be kind enough to point me in the right direction as to what settings ect to use? I know it will be a long road to get any good, But a starting point would be helpful! I'll be using a D300 and a Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 I also have a sigma 1.4x teleconverter. Many thanks for any advice.
 
Forget the TC Paul, wide open aperture if its sharp wide open, set the ISO to get a shutter speed of at least 1/640 sec and shoot from a low position. Watch the background and expose for 1/3 stop over to minimise the noise. Don't chase the game, and don't forget to post some images in the sports critique section on completion ...I hope the weather stay good for you.

If the light is uneven, aim to shoot the action in the brightest area.
 
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Go to the end he will be playing towards in each half and wait till the play comes towards you (fill the frame with the action) as Tugster said don't chase the game. Try not to have to crop as that will also have an impact on the noise levels.

To be honest you'll probably struggle to get 1/640 even with a f2.8 lens (forget the converter) unless the lights are very good, which I doubt. Action coming towards you will be fine on a lower shutter speed which will help you reduce the ISO setting, but you may still have to run the images through Noiseware or similar to help you get a bit better images.

Try to get 20 good images rather than 300 bad ones!!
 
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Unfortunatly the match was called off but is back on for tomorrow in daylight which should make things a whole lot easier. now i am thinking along these lines as to settings what do you think? continuous high release mode, spot metering, continuous focus mode and finally single point AF.
 
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Tugster said:
Forget the TC Paul, wide open aperture if its sharp wide open, set the ISO to get a shutter speed of at least 1/640 sec and shoot from a low position. Watch the background and expose for 1/3 stop over to minimise the noise. Don't chase the game, and don't forget to post some images in the sports critique section on completion ...I hope the weather stay good for you.

If the light is uneven, aim to shoot the action in the brightest area.
Click to expand...

If this is blindingly obvious to you please forgive me. But how does exposing 1/3 over help to minimise noise?
 
The more I learn from you guys the more I realise I have so much more to learn! Thanks once again Tug! Is it worth using ETTR if shooting jpegs?
 
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You will need to balance the need to expose to the right with the need to retain a decent enough shutter speed to capture the action, exposing to the right by 1/3 also reduces your shutter speed accordingly, theres always a trade off, you need to decide if you want to minimise noise (you will always get it under poor conditions anyway) but possibly end up with motion blur or have a nice sharp photo with minimal blur but it might be a tad noisier.
 
So I now know a little about ETTR Thanks to Tug. I also now know that there is a trade off with the various settings thanks to Gary. So maybe a good idea would be to get there early and play around with the settings? It's looking like practice, practice and more practice could be the order of the day! Then at least I would know the possibilties of my kit and thats one side of the triangle sorted! The stadium/ground lights I have no control over so thats the second side sorted! The third side (kit) I can do something about but it's going to have to wait!...... I just hope it's not a sodding square
 
When I first get to any game Paul I take a reading off the grass in front of me. I check the exposure and set that manually. I then take a few test shots and zoom in to check exposure and also take a quick peek of the histogram. I then adjust accordingly.

If its a night game and the lighting is even across the pitch, then all well and good., but if its dark in the corners, as it often is, then I either make a conscious decision to shoot in the lighter areas or select auto ISO and set the max limit.

Know your kit is so important. It always pays to do some testing before an important shoot. Even get to the venue an hour before the start and recce the best shooting spot to get the best position to maximise your chances.
 
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