Wide-Angle and Football (what do you use)

rockcanyonphotos

The occassional opportunity like the one below is the reason I keep a wide angle strapped around my neck at high school football games. I alternate between the 16-35mm and the 24-70mm.

I would love to hear what others use on their back-up camera and examples of shots you have come up with. IMO when they work out, the wide-angle shots tend to steal the show.

regards, Kevin

sportsshooter06

rockcanyonphotos wrote:

The occassional opportunity like the one below is the reason I keep a wide angle strapped around my neck at high school football games. I alternate between the 16-35mm and the 24-70mm.

I would love to hear what others use on their back-up camera and examples of shots you have come up with. IMO when they work out, the wide-angle shots tend to steal the show.

regards, Kevin

balls and faces work better, than backs and butts

rockcanyonphotos

sportsshooter06 wrote:

balls and faces work better, than backs and butts

happier?

ian408

sportsshooter06 wrote:

balls and faces work better, than backs and butts

If you aren't able to contribute to the OP's question, why bother?

Graham Cracker

What lens do you use?

sportsshooter06 wrote:

balls and faces work better, than backs and butts

I actually like the shot, I use a 70-200 IS and often miss these when they are close. Still trying to get the balance between shutter speed and light. I can get the motion with no blur but it is noisy, or get ride of the noise and have motion blur. Any tips? Thanks

jonh68

Your last picture is a focus problem, not a shutter problem. For night games, you need to be in manual mode and set the ss to 1/250, A 2.8, and ISO 1600 if you try to shoot without flash. Look at your histogram and adjust ss from there, but 1/250 is really the minimum in freezing action.

johng

Not sure in either of your posted shots how either benefited from a wide angle. You've got a lot of uninteresting dead space in both. Quite honestly, in HS football outside of celebration shots I haven't seen much use for wide angle. The backgrounds are usually very boring and don't lend themselves to wide angle.

Also - I would add - a very critical part of sports photography is faces as the other poster eluded to. Having a front view is only part of it - you still cant make out faces. They are what make good sports shots. So expose for the faces - use flash if you can. IF not at least expose for faces and not uniform highlights. Your second shot is sharp but it's deminished because the face is in complete shadow.

As for multiple lenses for HS football. 400mm or 300mm 2.8 as primary and 70-200 2.8 as secondary.

Graham Cracker

jonh68 wrote:

Your last picture is a focus problem, not a shutter problem. For night games, you need to be in manual mode and set the ss to 1/250, A 2.8, and ISO 1600 if you try to shoot without flash. Look at your histogram and adjust ss from there, but 1/250 is really the minimum in freezing action.

I knew this was a focus problem, but it was the only one I had on my work computer that I could demonstrate the noise. Thanks for the tips, I'll try them tonight. Patrick

Graham Cracker

johng wrote:

Not sure in either of your posted shots how either benefited from a wide angle. You've got a lot of uninteresting dead space in both. Quite honestly, in HS football outside of celebration shots I haven't seen much use for wide angle. The backgrounds are usually very boring and don't lend themselves to wide angle.

Also - I would add - a very critical part of sports photography is faces as the other poster eluded to. Having a front view is only part of it - you still cant make out faces. They are what make good sports shots. So expose for the faces - use flash if you can. IF not at least expose for faces and not uniform highlights. Your second shot is sharp but it's deminished because the face is in complete shadow.

As for multiple lenses for HS football. 400mm or 300mm 2.8 as primary and 70-200 2.8 as secondary.

Agree, I usually end up cropping them but to be able to capture the true action I have found the motion can be so fast I am better served to have more "dead space" to start with. I am only selling these as a hobby to raise money for sports program. All customers are parents and family who are re-living the moments and don't really appreciate the true photographic genius or lack there off but rather did you capture their kid making a good tackle, catch or run. Their memories fill in the gaps of what is missing. Less pressure on me as I am doing it as a hobby and learning. thanks for the feedback. Below is a a face shot I think you are referring to.

johng

Graham - my comments were not directed at you but the OP. Not sure why you're hijacking this thread with photos. If you want comments & critique please start a new thread and we'll be glad to comment. But let's let the OP have his thread back

Zanotti

ian408 wrote:

If you aren't able to contribute to the OP's question, why bother?

Actually, its pretty good advice.

I started out shooting the ball and soon realized the simple truth in this saying.

Powerful advice, not the slight you may have interperated.

Z

rockcanyonphotos

ok, let's kill this thread... While I don't mind the critiques of the photos I posted, I was really looking for other ideas on the use of wide-angle lens at HS football games. Since it appears no one else seems to like doing this, I don't really think it is worth pursuing this topic any further.

regards, kevin

Graham Cracker

johng wrote:

Graham - my comments were not directed at you but the OP. Not sure why you're hijacking this thread with photos. If you want comments & critique please start a new thread and we'll be glad to comment. But let's let the OP have his thread back

I am sorry. Kinda new to this. I apologize.

rockcanyonphotos

Graham Cracker wrote:

I am sorry. Kinda new to this. I apologize.

nobody's fault... I am not pointing fingers.... I just thought more people used wide-angle lens at football games.