Nightime Football Light Settings

David Evertsen

It is that time of year and I am really looking forward to having some fun. Normally I shoot Dance Competitions but for practice in the Fall I shoot HS Football. I have a Rebel XT and really would prefer not to shoot RAW due to my Rebel XT's limitations about FPS. I do have a Canon 70-200 2.8L for shooting but was looking for some ideas or guidance. I live in Central Florida and shoot in the late evening/nighttime. I usally run 1600 2.8 and end up about 160-250 late in the evening. I am asking for some guidance on what the lighting setting should be set to on my camera . Any ideas as to what to shoot or how to see what looks best would be appreciated. I normally set AUTO for light but was just looking to get better.

David Evertsen
www.phaboulousphotos.com

David Evertsen

MrPhabulous wrote:

It is that time of year and I am really looking forward to having some fun. Normally I shoot Dance Competitions but for practice in the Fall I shoot HS Football. I have a Rebel XT and really would prefer not to shoot RAW due to my Rebel XT's limitations about FPS. I do have a Canon 70-200 2.8L for shooting but was looking for some ideas or guidance. I live in Central Florida and shoot in the late evening/nighttime. I usally run 1600 2.8 and end up about 160-250 late in the evening. I am asking for some guidance on what the lighting setting should be set to on my camera . Any ideas as to what to shoot or how to see what looks best would be appreciated. I normally set AUTO for light but was just looking to get better.

David Evertsen
www.phaboulousphotos.com

Okay I give up .. Did I word this incorrectly or was it just a stupid question?? I was just looking for peoples experience about shooting football under the lights and what lighting settings worked best for them.

David

gordongekko

First post, here, and I hope this will help. I am not much on shooting football under the lights, but I have shot a fair amount of softball. In my opinion, shooting wide open in Av works best, and by all means shoot in raw. Raw will give you more latitude to adjust your exposure, and stadium lights are constantly pulsing (for lack of a better term) and you light source will not be consistent with them. Your frame rate isn't such that a well timed burst will get a good sequence anyway. I think your best bet is to rely on your natural timing to get the shot right. Oh, and if you haven't already invest in some noise reduction software...you'll need it.

Also, you may consider adding a flash to help your shutter speeds out. 1/250 is on the slower side for sports but a flash will help stop the action. Since flash isn't usually allowed I tend to use a 200 f1.8 at ISO 3200 to try and get higher shutter speeds, but without access to such equipment I'd try my 70-200 f 2.8 and a flash if they allow it. If not just do the best I can. If you can get 1/250 you should be able to pull off some good shots though.

This is a tough question to answer really, as stadium lights differ so greatly the only way for you to know is to shoot at your location. Start with Av set to f2.8 and see what kind of speeds you're getting. Then try a flash to help "freeze" the action if you have one available.

gchappel

Central florida football for me starts tonight- I live in Winter Haven.
At least on our fields you almost have to shoot raw- the white balance changes as the lights "pulse"- color variations from shot to shot will drive you crazy. (But I am a B&W guy a lot of the time.) During the early part of the season I can usually get 1/250 @2.8 iso 1600 or better during the game. Later in the season the ambient gets darker, and I have been as low as 1/60 @f2 iso1600. Now that I have a D3 I hope to be able to go higher in iso. I usually meter and shoot manual- makes groups of shots easier to batch, otherwise each shot changes as the camera responds. Think about throwing in a blink of flash- manual at 1/16th to 1/4 power. It isn't enough to bother the players- they do not even notice it- but it can give a little light into the helmets, and a little catchlight in the eye.
Have fun, can't wait for tonights game.
gary

David Evertsen

gchappel wrote:

Central florida football for me starts tonight- I live in Winter Haven.
At least on our fields you almost have to shoot raw- the white balance changes as the lights "pulse"- color variations from shot to shot will drive you crazy. (But I am a B&W guy a lot of the time.) During the early part of the season I can usually get 1/250 @2.8 iso 1600 or better during the game. Later in the season the ambient gets darker, and I have been as low as 1/60 @f2 iso1600. Now that I have a D3 I hope to be able to go higher in iso. I usually meter and shoot manual- makes groups of shots easier to batch, otherwise each shot changes as the camera responds. Think about throwing in a blink of flash- manual at 1/16th to 1/4 power. It isn't enough to bother the players- they do not even notice it- but it can give a little light into the helmets, and a little catchlight in the eye.
Have fun, can't wait for tonights game.
gary

Thanks both of you for your insight. I am just trying to get some Ideas. I definitely shoot manual and can't go below 2.8. Would be nice though. Thanks again to both of you..

pathfinder

Randy posted a great idea for using flash at night for football here

With the slower lenses the original poster has, this is probably the easiest, and cheapest way to really improve his night shots at the games.

rockcanyonphotos

I don't use the 70-200 that much any more but I did start with it and have similar lighting conditions to what you describe. Adding the flash is something I have done for years EX-580, better beamer + battery pack. I hate doing it but with a 300mm I used have to keep my shutterspeed in the 1/320 - 1/500 range to have a shot at stopping action. However, the post processing problems associated with using a flash are ugly (particularly "ghost eyes").

In your shoes, I would go full manual at f2.8/ISO1600 and a shutterspeed of 1/250 and shoot RAW as previously suggested (no flash). Then I would try to stay as close to the line of scrimmage as possible so that most of your shots fill the frame with your subject (this will improve your number of in-focus images). By staying with RAW you have a much better chance of recovering some of the images that will come out underexposed. Then invest in a good Noise Reduction plug-in for photoshop.

Thankfully for me the 1DM3 is out and I am quite happy with the noise performance of its ISO6400, which now allows me to slightly overexpose at 1/500, f2.8.

regards, Kevin

jonh68

Before I upgraded my lenses, I shot football last year with a 85 1.8. You can only get action from the hashmarks to the sidelines and you pretty much have to stay around the line of scrimmage, but it is a reasonable alternative if you can't use flash and ISO 1600 is the best you can manage.

KED

rockcanyonphotos wrote:

I don't use the 70-200 that much any more but I did start with it and have similar lighting conditions to what you describe. Adding the flash is something I have done for years EX-580, better beamer + battery pack. I hate doing it but with a 300mm I used have to keep my shutterspeed in the 1/320 - 1/500 range to have a shot at stopping action. However, the post processing problems associated with using a flash are ugly (particularly "ghost eyes").

In your shoes, I would go full manual at f2.8/ISO1600 and a shutterspeed of 1/250 and shoot RAW as previously suggested (no flash). Then I would try to stay as close to the line of scrimmage as possible so that most of your shots fill the frame with your subject (this will improve your number of in-focus images). By staying with RAW you have a much better chance of recovering some of the images that will come out underexposed. Then invest in a good Noise Reduction plug-in for photoshop.

Thankfully for me the 1DM3 is out and I am quite happy with the noise performance of its ISO6400, which now allows me to slightly overexpose at 1/500, f2.8.

regards, Kevin

I agree with most of what Kevin has to say here, but what I have done differently (one season only, much more to learn this year) is to shoot at a minimum of 1/400. Even if I'm underexposing, I can fix that and the noise in PP, and at the HS level I have found too many shots wrecked by motion blur even at 400. Mind you though, I am a neophyte when it comes to football.