Sports action shots - football

Jeff Geoghan · February 20, 2007

Hi all, I have been asked to shoot some action shots at a minor league football team's first game in a week and a half. I'm concerned bacause I'm using a Sony DSC-F828 which [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]has a focal length of 7.1 - 51 mm, which is equivalent to 28 - 200 mm.[/SIZE][/FONT] Is that enough distance? I think the speed is there, up to 1/2000. Can anyone help me with some input on lens choice, on-field positioning, etc.? It will be in an outdoor stadium setting.

Thanks!!!

S_Leeper · February 20, 2007

If you're close to the base line you should have plenty of reach for most of the infield.

Shutter lag will a POSSIBLE issue. To minimize, try to prefocus (usually by 1/2 pressing) then complete when action is at the appropriate point. i.e. first base, a pitch, or a strike.

Bright light might also cause problems... try a few with fill flash... but use caution as it might slow the shutter too much.

Good Luck & have fun.

Photog · February 21, 2007

I usually stand about 30 yards downfield of the QB, right on the sidelines. You'll need to adjust that distance at you "read" the team--if they run a lot, that works, if they are doing short passes, that works. As they get close to the goal line you may need to go further down to anticipate a pass...shorter if it's a 5 yard run to the goal. In other words you will constantly need to anticipate the play.

You may also give shooting from the end zone a shot. Unless they tend to run straight up the middle, I usually stand a bit off center and hedge my bets on which side they'll run or pass.

As the play develops, the team and coaches usually step forward, blocking your shot. Move as needed.

Get the roster as you walk in. Have a notebook handy. After every major play where you feel you got a good shot, jot down the essential, like "#22 62 yard run 3:15 1Q" and the exposure number so that you have caption info if needed.

Stay wide until you get your rhythm. You can zoom in closer once you get more confidence and experience.

Don't forget to get a few reaction shots from the sidelines and stands.

Stay on one side of the field if you need to maintain continuity of shots (i.e., don't cross your axis).

Your lens will probably be fine.

Carry only what you need. Excess stuff gets heavy fast and you don't want stuff on the ground.

Objects in viewfinder are much, MUCH closer than they appear.

If you're about to get clobbered, get the camera off your eye.

mercphoto · February 21, 2007

The rule of thumb is 100mm per 10 yards. Most football photographers shoot with 300 or 400mm lenses because of this. You are going to be on the short side of things. Also just because the camera can fire the shutter at 1/2000 is no guarantee you'll have enough light to do so. It depends on the maximum aperture you'll have at full-zoom and how much light you have during play.

Jeff Geoghan · February 21, 2007

Photog wrote:

I usually stand about 30 yards downfield of the QB, right on the sidelines. You'll need to adjust that distance at you "read" the team--if they run a lot, that works, if they are doing short passes, that works. As they get close to the goal line you may need to go further down to anticipate a pass...shorter if it's a 5 yard run to the goal. In other words you will constantly need to anticipate the play.

You may also give shooting from the end zone a shot. Unless they tend to run straight up the middle, I usually stand a bit off center and hedge my bets on which side they'll run or pass.

As the play develops, the team and coaches usually step forward, blocking your shot. Move as needed.

Get the roster as you walk in. Have a notebook handy. After every major play where you feel you got a good shot, jot down the essential, like "#22 62 yard run 3:15 1Q" and the exposure number so that you have caption info if needed.

Stay wide until you get your rhythm. You can zoom in closer once you get more confidence and experience.

Don't forget to get a few reaction shots from the sidelines and stands.

Stay on one side of the field if you need to maintain continuity of shots (i.e., don't cross your axis).

Your lens will probably be fine.

Carry only what you need. Excess stuff gets heavy fast and you don't want stuff on the ground.

Objects in viewfinder are much, MUCH closer than they appear. If you're about to get clobbered, get the camera off your eye.

Great tips, very appreciated! Should I bring a tripod for any use during the game?

Jeff Geoghan · February 21, 2007

mercphoto wrote:

The rule of thumb is 100mm per 10 yards. Most football photographers shoot with 300 or 400mm lenses because of this. You are going to be on the short side of things. Also just because the camera can fire the shutter at 1/2000 is no guarantee you'll have enough light to do so. It depends on the maximum aperture you'll have at full-zoom and how much light you have during play.

I've considered stopping by a local camera store to see if they rent equipment, to get that 300mm.

The primary use of the shots will be for web and print ads, so my thought was that I can crop in if I'm a bit far away. With my 8mp setting I can crop away much of the exposure and still have plenty of size left.

wxwax · February 21, 2007

Photog wrote:

In other words you will constantly need to anticipate the play.

Super stuff, Photog! I quoted an important part of your message. It's true for all sports.

Photog · February 21, 2007

One more thing I forgot to add--Start armchair shooting the assignment now.

If you can get to a practice, do so. Matter of fact, I'd make this a priority.

Let's say you're 30 yards ahead of the line of scrimmage. That distant shot of the snap ain't gonna be pretty at that distance. Resist the urge to fire off shots. What you're set up for is the receiver or the run towards you in that last 10-20 yards, thus making the most of what lens you have versus having to depend on a long lens.

If you think your gear is going to hose you, go rent something else.

But if you are going to shoot around the limitations of your lens you'll need to think this through a bit. At 200mm you'll be looking to get plays developing at the near hash marks or closer. The rest will be wide shots, essentially. Also keep in mind your hand-held capability and what f stop you're gonna be at on the long end.

A few dimensions to keep in mind (this is NCAA so take it with a grain of salt wrt your local field.) The numbers are about 6-9' from the sidelines. The hash marks are 60' out from the sidelines. End zone is about 30' deep. ~80' to smack dab middle of the field from the sidelines. Where your "sweet spot" is to get the plays within you and your camera's capabilities is something to think about with regards to where the players are on the field.

Photog · February 21, 2007

wxwax wrote:

Super stuff, Photog! I quoted an important part of your message. It's true for all sports.

"You have to go to war with the lens you got." - Rummy?

Jeff - as for tripods, don't bring one. They're generally not permitted on sidelines due to safety reasons. You can get by with a monopod.

And that brings up another thing--if you haven't done it already, try learning to shoot with both eyes open. It will help preserve a smidge of your peripheral vision on one side for safety. This isn't superduper important right now since your plate is already full with this shoot, but something to try.

(Wish I had known that as a n00b shooter. Buttonhook play -- player ran past, turned, caught the ball, turned back towards me on my left side after the run came from my right. $12K worth of camera damage, cracked rib, concussion, and my name being announced from the PA as I regained consciousness.

)

pathfinder · February 21, 2007

Great answers, Photog

Fred Maurer · February 21, 2007

Jeff, great advice above. I have shot sports with an 828 and the focus/shutter lag was my biggest dilemma. You'll really need to anticipate the action. I think you'll also be wishing for a bit more length with the lens. Watch out, this is how the "upgrade" bug bites...

Jeff Geoghan · February 22, 2007

Fred Maurer wrote:

Jeff, great advice above. I have shot sports with an 828 and the focus/shutter lag was my biggest dilemma. You'll really need to anticipate the action. I think you'll also be wishing for a bit more length with the lens. Watch out, this is how the "upgrade" bug bites...

Oh, it's already bitten. I'm reading reviews of the Canon XTi as we speak...

Hi neighbor, by the way! I'm just down the 222...

Jeff Geoghan · February 24, 2007

Jeff Geoghan wrote:

Oh, it's already bitten. I'm reading reviews of the Canon XTi as we speak...

Hi neighbor, by the way! I'm just down the 222...

Well, I looked into renting equipment and that's out...I'll be using the 828 for sure.

Jeff Geoghan · March 5, 2007

Well, the football game shoot yesterday went pretty well! I took the advice from this thread to heart and worked very conscious of my field position. There were TV camera guys filming as well, so we travelled up and down together (that is, until halftime when they gave up due to the wind chill - must have been below zero with ease).

I had a bit of a hard time due to the overcast lighting and had to keep my SS and AP down low. However, my 200 lense seems pretty fast at full zoom, and only a few shots came out overly blurry. One issue was that the home team had bright white (new) jerseys and the visitors brownish, so the pics often came out with too much contrast which tended to blow out the white. I used a PL filter which seemed to help with reflection.

Overall, a great learning experience! I can't wait to dig into the Post work. I'll put up some examples soon. Thanks to all who helped!

Photog · March 6, 2007

Glad everything went well. I'm sure you got some good shots.

TV shooters are shooting manual focus and often manual iris (what you still guys call aperture). There's all kinds of challenges out there with sports shooting---exposure, follow focus, and so on. I've always felt that shooting sports regularly made me a better news shooter.

Cheers...hope you had fun.

Jeff Geoghan · March 7, 2007

Photog wrote:

Glad everything went well. I'm sure you got some good shots.

TV shooters are shooting manual focus and often manual iris (what you still guys call aperture). There's all kinds of challenges out there with sports shooting---exposure, follow focus, and so on. I've always felt that shooting sports regularly made me a better news shooter.

Cheers...hope you had fun.

Check out the gallery here. Let me know what you think!

wxwax · March 7, 2007

Jeff Geoghan wrote:

One issue was that the home team had bright white (new) jerseys and the visitors brownish, so the pics often came out with too much contrast which tended to blow out the white.

You'll see that a lot, even in Sports Illustrated. I assume it's because of a digital camera sensor's limited dynamic range.

Thanks for the follow-up!

wxwax · March 7, 2007

Very nice.

mercphoto · March 7, 2007

Jeff Geoghan wrote:

One issue was that the home team had bright white (new) jerseys and the visitors brownish, so the pics often came out with too much contrast which tended to blow out the white.

Several youth football photographers I know actually shoot with a bit of positive exposure compensation even, and yes it will blow out the highlights. This is a balancing act and its often very good to let happen. Not every shooting situation "plays by the rules" and football is one of them. Blowing out the highlights is no where near as bad as plugging the shadows. And the worst place for shadows is the faces, all because of the helmets. So a bit of +EC and the faces look better. And no, if you're shooting 2,000+ photos in a day of little league football you are not shooting RAW nor are you post-processing the shadow/highlights.

My other comments are your shots are way too loose. You either need a longer lens (300mm or 400mm), or you need to crop your photos after you download them. The brief time I shot football the guy I worked for had me crop nearly every image taken, and that was with a 300mm lens.

Photog · March 8, 2007

Jeff Geoghan wrote:

Check out the gallery here. Let me know what you think!

You got some good shots in there!

The ones that tend to work are the ones where the viewer can see the play developing in that one shot--where the ball is and where they hope to go with it. I think once you crop a few you'll have some nice ones. Nice job and you absolutely made the most of the lens you had.

The big questions, of course, are what shots did YOU like, and why?

Jeff Geoghan · March 8, 2007

Thanks Sid for the kind words!

mercphoto wrote:

Several youth football photographers I know actually shoot with a bit of positive exposure compensation even, and yes it will blow out the highlights. This is a balancing act and its often very good to let happen. Not every shooting situation "plays by the rules" and football is one of them. Blowing out the highlights is no where near as bad as plugging the shadows. And the worst place for shadows is the faces, all because of the helmets. So a bit of +EC and the faces look better. And no, if you're shooting 2,000+ photos in a day of little league football you are not shooting RAW nor are you post-processing the shadow/highlights.

My other comments are your shots are way too loose. You either need a longer lens (300mm or 400mm), or you need to crop your photos after you download them. The brief time I shot football the guy I worked for had me crop nearly every image taken, and that was with a 300mm lens.

Yeah, I noticed that the lens restricted me to the "bigger picture" shots.
I did crop a few to get the busyness of the background down, but of course then 8x10's become a problem. That was one thing I learned - that the background needs to be considered BEFORE positioning for the shot (unless I want to replace every one in PS - which would be fake).

To Photog's point - I actually LIKE the bigger shots that show the play developing. I was forced to use 4 or lower on the aperture due to the poor lighting, and was surprised that the DOF was as extensive as came out. This one I really like - feels like an NFL scene with the drama of everyone watching to ball in mid-air:
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The big problem is the blasted background again! Imagine this shot with a nice blue sky...

Photog, I'd be interested in knowing which ones you thought would benefit from additional cropping. This is all new to me but man, did I learn alot in only a few days! I'm considering contacting some local junior teams about working their events too.

I can't thank you all enough for your thoughts - Dgrin truly rocks!

mercphoto · March 8, 2007

Jeff Geoghan wrote:

I did crop a few to get the busyness of the background down, but of course then 8x10's become a problem.

No it won't. You would be VERY surprised. Actually try it and see. People get too hung up on megapixels and dpi.

That was one thing I learned - that the background needs to be considered BEFORE positioning for the shot

And this is different than any other type of photography how?

Jeff Geoghan · March 8, 2007

mercphoto wrote:

No it won't. You would be VERY surprised. Actually try it and see. People get too hung up on megapixels and dpi.

And this is different than any other type of photography how?

Oh, I meant that that aspect ratio would get cropped way out of shape to manage an 8x10 (like in the above shot - try making that into an 8x10).

You're absolutely right about background composition - I wish our home stadium was more pretty!

mercphoto · March 8, 2007

Jeff Geoghan wrote:

Oh, I meant that that aspect ratio would get cropped way out of shape to manage an 8x10 (like in the above shot - try making that into an 8x10).

You're absolutely right about background composition - I wish our home stadium was more pretty!

The above shot could be cropped to an 8x10 either vertically or horizontally. It really wouldn't be that hard. As per backgrounds using very long, fast glass helps a lot (300mm at f/2.8 is a very shallow depth of field, and 400mm is more so). If you're really serious about trying to sell photos like this you will need to pony up the bucks for the proper gear. Otherwise your photos will look just like mom and dad can get on their own. Photos like that won't sell.

Photog · March 8, 2007

Jeff Geoghan wrote:

Photog, I'd be interested in knowing which ones you thought would benefit from additional cropping.

I'll take a swing at a few of them. I saw a couple that would look great with not too much work.

This is all new to me but man, did I learn alot in only a few days! I'm considering contacting some local junior teams about working their events too.

I can't thank you all enough for your thoughts - Dgrin truly rocks!

It's pretty addictive. Especially if you get EXACTLY the shot you envisioned.

Starting off with high school footbll teams versus college sometimes makes it easier. Depending on the level of play at your local high school level, particularly early in the season or at summer practice, you've got a bit more time to follow the plays as they develop since the plays develop a bit more slowly. But by all means dive in--little league, soccer, college football, a local pick-up game of hoops. Anything that gives you a chance to hone your skills between now and your next freelance gig.

Don't be afraid to shoot manual exposure and focus from time to time, especially if you find your camera has some lag.

Practice practice practice--there are some basic skills in terms of anticipating plays and camera handling technique that are important whether you've got tons of pro gear or the camera you currently have...some things don't change, and those are the things you'll get to practice now. Don't wait on better gear. There will always be someone out there with better gear than you; you have to go out there with a better eye, instinct, speed, and a bigger bag of tricks. Always.

Sports action shots - football

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