Sunday league football shoot

goodwin1234

goodwin1234

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Name
Kieron
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Hi all,

I was asked to shoot a football match at the weekend, however it didn't really go to plan. Almost every shot out of 200 were out of focus and none of them were really usable.

The lighting wasn't great which didn't help matters and i was also limited to my 18-70mm kit lens, but i still feel i should have got more decent shots. I was using automatic focus (AF-C), ISO 1600 and varied the shutter speeds a bit. The fastest I was able to get away with was about 1/400th.

What did i do wrong? Was the shutter speed just too slow? Am i right in thinking when using continuous auto focus, i can just click away to my hearts content and hope that a few shots are in focus or have a missed something? lol

Any help would be much appreciated, i can't show you any sample shots as i was so disappointed with them when i saw them on the PC they went straight in the bin. I'm going back next week and really want to get better results this time :)

EDIT:

I found one that escaped the bin! As you can see, not the sharpest of pictures :)
DSC01021.jpg
 
Last edited:
For sports such as football you're looking at 1/1000th second or quicker to freeze action. Also, to isolate the background you'll need a longer lens/bigger aperture.

Another thing to do is crop the shots. You really don't want anything else in the frame.

Here's your shot cropped, sharpened, and with the ball moved to cheat things a bit.

2mcj1qg.jpg
 
You could do with a zoom lens to seperatethe background slightly.

Did you turn the IS off? As the IS could slow down the autofocus.

I always aim for >1/640 shutter.

Did you use a selected focus point ?
 
Thanks for taking the time to reply :)

Yep, i'll definitely be investing in a zoom lens asap :) The cropped version looks miles better already!

IS was switched off, yes. So i should definitely aim for a faster shutter speed next time? Should i up the ISO to compensate for this?

As for using a selected focus point...I'm not sure how to:shrug:
 
The AF in sony cameras isn't affected by IS that I can tell. It works on the sensor not within the lens. It needs to be on for anything like this.

What mode are you in? PAS or M? The scene modes or full auto choose focus points and and can focus on anything.

For shutter speed you need at least 1/focal length with IS and 1/focal length x crop factor if no IS. So at 200mm you'd need at least 1/200 with IS. For fast action I'd probably go a bit higher.


To change the focus point you need to be in the right mode from the function menu. I just stick with centre usually and recompose. For sports etc you'd only want cross sensor. Any of the others will be a bit hit and miss. You have to be in a PASM mode though not any of the others. Find your camera manual and read it :) I take mine with me just in case I forget where stuff is.
 
Kieron, any particular reason you were shooting at f11? If you open the lens up to f5.6 (maximum aperture for that lens), you'll be able to reduce the iso considerably and still maintain a shutter speed of at least 1/500 which should be fast enough tbh.

I think iso800 on the A300 is going to be a major contributor to the softness.
 
Thank you all for the replies:thumbs:

I was shooting in 'M' mode, and honestly i have no idea why i was shooting at f11:bonk:

I tried a few different combinations of ISO, shutter speed and aperture and this one seemed to give me the sharpest shot:shrug:

Could somebody talk me through how i should be focusing please using the AF-C setting, or should i be using something different all together?

Thank you for your patience :)
 
In simple terms:

Select your focus point (usually the central one);
Half press the shutter release (or back focus button ) to focus on the player as you would any other shot.
With the shutter release still half pressed (or finger on back focus button) keep your subject over your selected focus point.

The camera will then adjust focus to keep your subject sharp as the subject moves closer (or further away) from your camera.

Other points:

Set aperture as wide as poss to get the max amount of light to keep shutter speed high. I like to aim for around 1/1000 but can still get decent shots down at 1/500. If you have a fairly low shutter speed it is easier to get decent images of players running towards you as opposed to running across the frame.
 
I don't know the Sony cameras, but of you can separate focusing from pressing the shutter I've found that helps with sports photos. On Canon systems you can set one of the thumb buttons on the back of the camera to be the autofocus button. It might be worth looking in your camera manual.

Also, are you tracking players whilst focusing, to give the camera adequate time to lock onto the subject before pressing the button?
 
also... with regard composition... it looks like you were taking these whilst stood up. Get yourself a fishing stool or similar and get down low. You could also use a monopod set to the right height so you don't need to think about lifting the camera to take shots... just follow the action with a panning motion.
 
Looks like a new variant of a "flying tackle".
 
Thanks for the advice guys, all taken on board. I'm going again at the weekend, and i'll be taking the manual with me this time and i'll have this web page open on my phone :D
 
Best setting shutter priority set on 1/500th auto ISO continuous focus and high continuous drive. I have a Nikon d3s and a Nikon 28-300 and I have used it with the vr on and off both work as well. The problem with kit lenses is the ad motors aren't really fast enough and may struggle to keep up. Best lens to get should have a hsm or ultrasonic motor or similar for best results. Good luck next time. Also shoot jpeg and auto wb should be ok.
 
Steelmagnet said:
For sports such as football you're looking at 1/1000th second or quicker to freeze action. Also, to isolate the background you'll need a longer lens/bigger aperture.

Another thing to do is crop the shots. You really don't want anything else in the frame.

Here's your shot cropped, sharpened, and with the ball moved to cheat things a bit.

2mcj1qg.jpg
Click to expand...

Hmmmm

While I agree with you about cropping a bit tighter, I don't agree with your edit

The action was there so all that was needed to do was crop a little tighter around both players

Also, the crop you have done is a little too tight on the left. If it was just that player, I would have left some space for the player to "run into". Makes it a bit more dynamic
 
Steelmagnet said:
For sports such as football you're looking at 1/1000th second or quicker to freeze action. Also, to isolate the background you'll need a longer lens/bigger aperture.


Not Strictly true, while the rules are right (hi shutter, wide Ap, zoom lens) you don't need to be shooting on 1000th. i've shot plenty of night games on 640 sometimes if its terrible light 500. It's not fantastic, but u can get away with it.

Regarding any advice for football photography, follow the action, pre empt, capture, practice, That's the key thing... practice.
Click to expand...
 
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