HS Football Under the Lights minus two...

Zanotti

Well, I found a way to make shooting poorly lit HS football even more challanging and the post processing almost impossible:

Rain!

Did I mention that the 30D isnt waterproof? Oh well, I had to give up partway into the second quarter. Fortunetly, I had planned for the possibility and had a big plastic trash bag in my back pocket. Funny, we spend hundreds of dollars on high tech equipment, but sometimes a good old trash bag saves the day!

I got one nice series before I had to quit:

Tackle:





I am going to have to figure out how to do a tryptic on those. I did try the * focus button C.Fn4-3 and liked it, but it does take some training to use.

Thanks for all the help, I do feel I am improving.

Z

wxwax

Do you have any cool wide shots which show the rain? Lots of potential there for a different kind of image.

Nice shots! Next step, break out your cropping tool.

Zanotti

Thanks!

Now that you bring it up, I have a few questions about cropping.

Remember, I am shooting for the blue team, and they are HS kids excited about seeing their picture, and as such I tend not to crop out any part of a blue player if he is in action. As you can see in the tackle shots, I kept the blue guys whole if they were making the play.

In the rain shot, its just to see the rain, not to crop on the player.

Anyway, in general when one crops in PS, do you crop 5X7 or 8X10 or just freehand to get the most action? I am thinking some parents are ordering or downloading and printing these, so I would like it somewhat foolproof.

I find the SM print service outstanding regarding quality, but very non intuitive for ordering and especially for cropping. Even doing my own I have had problems figuring out things like 8X10 vs 8X12, 4X7, 5X7.

Is there a standard for printing crop size?

Z

Zanotti

Oh yeah, we won too! And they carried the Offensive coordinator off the field in victory!

RandySmugMug

Zanotti wrote:

Thanks!

Now that you bring it up, I have a few questions about cropping.

Remember, I am shooting for the blue team, and they are HS kids excited about seeing their picture, and as such I tend not to crop out any part of a blue player if he is in action. As you can see in the tackle shots, I kept the blue guys whole as they were making the play.

In the rain shot, its just to see the rain, not to crop on the player.

Anyway, in general when one crops in PS, do you crop 5X7 or 8X10 or just freehand to get the most action? I am thinking some parents are ordering or downloading and printing these, so I would like it somewhat foolproof.

I find the SM print service outstanding regarding quality, but very non intuitive for ordering and especially for cropping. Even doing my own I have had problems figuring out things like 8X10 vs 8X12, 4X7, 5X7.

Is there a standard for printing crop size?

Z

crop for composition and then recrop for the specific order (have smugmug send you the order to proof).
Make sure you upload 300dpi pics so your file size is enough to allow sm to offer big prints

rwells

Hey Z,

Pics look good, matter of fact they look much better...


What changes have you emplemented?


On the crop: I crop loose for 8x10, then they can crop down more for 5x7. I just upload one version, so it has to be able to go either way.

Zanotti

Randy:

I am trying to figure out the changes myself. As I look at the last two games in exposure plot, the biggest thing that jumps out is that this week the average shutter speed was 1/500 - jumping to 1/800 - action stopping speeds. We were at our home field and the action was in a good pool of light, and the opposition had very bright white uniforms.

Last week we were away and the action was in one of the dark regions of the field. Exposure plot shows average shutter speed was 1/320 - dropping to 1/250 - not enough to freeze motion.

I shoot in Av mode, pegged at my version of wide open (f4). This lets shutter speed vary, sometimes getting slower than is acceptable. Shooting at ISO 3200 - its as high as my camera goes.

I hope to get a 70-200 f2.8 lens soon. I am waiting for Canon rebates to start, probably in a few weeks.

Next week's game is at 4pm - early enough to have good light in the first half. I have a lot of things to continue to try. I did use the back focus button CFn4-3. It works well, but is a bit tough to get used to. I'll try it again for the second half next week as well.

Z

kuzzy

Zanotti wrote:

Thanks!

Now that you bring it up, I have a few questions about cropping.

Remember, I am shooting for the blue team, and they are HS kids excited about seeing their picture, and as such I tend not to crop out any part of a blue player if he is in action. As you can see in the tackle shots, I kept the blue guys whole if they were making the play.

In the rain shot, its just to see the rain, not to crop on the player.

Anyway, in general when one crops in PS, do you crop 5X7 or 8X10 or just freehand to get the most action? I am thinking some parents are ordering or downloading and printing these, so I would like it somewhat foolproof.

I find the SM print service outstanding regarding quality, but very non intuitive for ordering and especially for cropping. Even doing my own I have had problems figuring out things like 8X10 vs 8X12, 4X7, 5X7.

Is there a standard for printing crop size?

Z

I generally crop 5x7 and leave a little room since the vast majority of prints being ordered are either 4x6 or 5x7. You can usually get a decent 4x6 out of the 5x7.

I post the pictures for the same reason as you. The kids love it so I try not to crop out too many of the players from any picture even if the composition would be better tighter or with less people in the shot. If a kid is involved at all I try not to cut them out.

Good shots. I shot a thanksgiving day game under similar conditions, no lights on a very dark day in the cold rain. Not good for quality shots but the kids did not mind. They liked the pictures of themselves soaked and full of mud.

photoj

I envy your shots...
I have followed a few of the threads you have posted and read them with interest. Mainly due to the fact that this year I have found myself shooting my step-sons midgit league football games. He has played flag before but that was when i was still shoting film and just him. Over the last year I have started shooting digital and the entire team. This season I started shooting the action shots for his league but since they play during the day I don't have the problems of lights you have. At least not yet.

Rain I can relate to...earlier this year I shot a soccer match of his in a down-pour. After that I looked into covers for the camera and lens, I found some that fit the needs but have yet to order them. In the mean time I have shoved a few hotel room showercaps in my camera bag just in case.

The pictures look great!