topic Re: Night Football games in bad light in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Night Football games in bad light

furrmutt — Sat, 12 Oct 2013 23:49:51 GMT

Canon 7d - 70-200mm f/2.8 non is, monopod av mode 4000 iso, night football bad light, want better shots any help would be appreciated! I get some good shots but want better. Some are over exposed and some blurry. I'll take blame on blurry shots! Would like to stop the action better. Thank you.

Re: Night Football games in bad light

cicopo — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 00:58:23 GMT

What other settings are you using? Full manual or Shutter Priority (Tv) & what are the shutter speeds from the overexposed shots and the better blury ones?

Is the AF set to AI Servo? Using Center point or expanded? There are a lot of variables & we need to know which way you shoot.

Re: Night Football games in bad light

furrmutt — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 03:10:53 GMT

Center point expanded, Al Servo the shutter speeds vary from 1/60 - 1/500 in AV mode. The slower shutter speeds are the ones over exposed. I have shot in TV mode they tend to be darker but stop the action. I don't use it as much because sometimes they're just too dark. In TV mode I set it at 1/500.

Re: Night Football games in bad light

cicopo — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 13:45:09 GMT

Do you know how to use Exposure Compensation? It's most likely the final ingredient to better photos. You find a shutter speed & ISO that allow fast enough shutter speeds to freeze the action (working with the available light) & use Exposure compensation to fine tune the exposure value the camera has chosen as the aperture needed for your ISO & SS setting. I'm guessing that different areas of the field have different qualities of light which is why EC becomes a necessity.

Re: Night Football games in bad light

furrmutt — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 15:03:25 GMT

Sounds like a good idea! I will give it a try! Thank you for your help. and yes the lighting is very uneven across the field. When I go to fields that have proper lighting I get better shots no problem. But on our field we bring in portable lights run by generators just so the kids can play a night game!

Re: Night Football games in bad light

ebiggs1 — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 17:11:51 GMT

The answer is most probably "post processing". Using software such as Photoshop, you can make some pretty dramatic changes in marginal pictures.

I shoot lots of football games but I am shooting the half time show. Try to get your exposure as close as you can. Even bracket shots if you are able to. I would suggest using AV not TV, however. Typically you are not after DOF so the widest aperture your lens has will be fine.

When you are through, post process them in Photoshop or your favorite post editor, maybe PS Elements. There are even some freeware editors you can try if you don't already have one.

Believe me, post is the answer.

This photo is not the football team but it was very dark.

Re: Night Football games in bad light

cicopo — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 12:40:00 GMT

There you go. 2 totally different approaches & since I wouldn't try using Av mode for action I suggest you try it both ways to see which works better in your situation.

Re: Night Football games in bad light

furrmutt — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 03:22:49 GMT

Thank you for the advice! Here is a sample of what I captured. Canon 7D - EF 70-200mm f/2.8L non is on monopod at 145mm, shutter priority, shutter speed 1/500, iso 4000 exposure compensation +1.0

Re: Night Football games in bad light

ebiggs1 — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 13:41:02 GMT

Next time you go, try AV and set you lens to f2.8. With your current set-up what was the aperture?

Even try M. With that lens I still think forcing it to stay open is best.

I am guessing you want the young man with the ball as the most important subject?

Re: Night Football games in bad light

furrmutt — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 14:24:35 GMT

Aperture was f2.8. I have tried AV mode, I get sharper pictures inTv mode. I still have to fine tune what I'm doing but that is the allure - always trying to improve!

Re: Night Football games in bad light

ebiggs1 — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 14:31:25 GMT

The advantage of AV set to f2.8, albeit maybe a small advantage, is the camera will select to fastest shutter speed possible.

It may not be fast enough to get a truly sharp picture but it will get the exposure correct. This may be all that is possible with out more light.

You could also try M. Shoot in RAW and use Photoshop ACR to bring up the best possible photo. You may be surprised at how well this approach will work.

Re: Night Football games in bad light

cicopo — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 14:34:45 GMT

Although we don't get a very large sample to view it looks good to me and you're right, it's going to take some experimental work & fine tuning to nail down what works best in each situation.

Re: Night Football games in bad light

furrmutt — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 15:24:13 GMT

Thanks for the advice! I'll keep trying!

Re: Night Football games in bad light

Dun1 — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 06:55:55 GMT

The majority of football shots are taken of course with a lens that has as large an aperture as you can afford. Most every sports photographer I know will have a 70-200 2.8 lens in his bag.

If you use a monopod to hold your lens and camera turn off IS, (in your case your lesn has no IS) since it will cause the lens to hunt for the shot.

Set your camera to AV setting, AI Servo, Spot Focus,

You will need to set your ISO high enough to be able to capture the main subject at 1/500th to freeze action anything less will cause your images to blur.

I you have to set your 7D past 5,000 ISO you will be able to capture the shot, however the image might have some noise.

Where you are able to stand to shoot amkes a tremdous difference, shooting from the sidelines is the preferred area. The shorter the distance from your lens to the subject the more background blur you will achieve. You will be you are trying to get the main subject in sharp focus, and stop the action and blur the background to the main subject is sharp focus and the background is blurred.

Re: Night Football games in bad light

Dun1 — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 06:59:50 GMT

In addition you might also consider shooting in RAW most amateur venues have lighting that is terrible and if you shootin in JPEG format you will not be able to adjust the white balance in post processing as easily