Night Field Hockey

Icebear

My first time shooting under the lights. I shot wide open, and feel like everythings a bit soft. I don't know how much of that is lens, how much is focus, and how much a bit of motion blur due to slower SS, but overall I think I'm reasonably pleased. These were all with the D300 at ISO 3200. I used the D300 for the teleconverter effect. D700 got a rest. Thanks for looking, and any hints for improvement are appreciated!

1. Penalty corner that resulted in a goal.


2. OK, no ball, but I like the energy


3. Only goal I've ever caught en flagrante


4.

Freezframe

Just a couple of Q's
I ain't no pro when it comes to shooting under the lights but, just have a few question I would like to ask so I may better understand a little more.

• What lens ?

• What speed was your lens?

I have done a little shooting in similar situations with my 300-2.8 and my 70-200-2.8.(filter-less)In all cases I didn't have to use ISO over 1600 and was still able to get a shutter speed no less than 250 or maybe more. I'm not familiar with the D700 but I do believe that it is CMOS -correct?
I also notice a little color noise that could have been corrected in LR3 which would have cleaned things up a bit.(Note -Picture of G- tender in net-Black jersey has color noise.) This correction alone would have cleaned things up for sharper transitions in color and detail.

Let me know what you think:

Brady

Icebear

These were shot with a D300 and a 70-200 f2.8. As for the ISO, I can only surmise that the lights you were shooting under were brighter, 'cause I needed ISO 3200 to get s/s around 1/250. As for the color noise, I guess your eyes are better than mine. I use settings of Color - 25 and Detail - 50 for this camera and ISO, and IMO cranking in more does nothing good.

RedFish71`

i have a D300 and i love, BUT if i had the option to use a D700 in this situation i would have in a heartbeat!!! the shutter speed doesnt look bad. in number one the point of focus was not on the player hitting the ball. it was behind her, making it look funky. the others look sharp to my eyes. i do see the color noise in the bg. topaz denoise will take care of that without giving up any detail.

understand that i have never shot a game under the lights. (heck, i havent shot many sporting events period.) so it's hard for me to make any other suggestions. but from what i can see, you did fantastic for your first time out!!!!!!!

Icebear

RedFish71` wrote: »

BUT if i had the option to use a D700 in this situation i would have in a heartbeat!!! the shutter speed doesnt look bad. in number one the point of focus was not on the player hitting the ball. it was behind her, making it look funky.

Thanks for your time and comments. My choice was to use the D700 or get the 1.5x teleconverter effect of the D300. It was an easy choice for me. I won't change my tactics for future night games. There's a big difference between a 200 and 300mm effective focal length when shooting field sports, and I wanted to use the fast glass, given the lighting. The D700 was on my hip with a short prime for face shots.

In the first posted image, the focus on the defense (and official) was absolutely intentional. I have plenty like this (which WAS shot with the D700 and longer but slower glass):