topic Re: Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

EOS Rebel T3i - Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography

Pibc1104 — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 12:41:45 GMT

I’m currently the team photographer for my schools football team. We have both day and night games and I noticed that it’s a lot harder to get good pictures at night. I generally shoot with a ES-F 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS on a canon rebel T3I. I generally also use auto focus.

Re: Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography

Waddizzle — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 20:33:11 GMT

Can you post sample images of your work that include the shooting info and EXIF data. Are you familiar with the “Exposure Triangle” and “Depth of Field”?

Shooting at night is completely different scenario compared to shooting in daylight. I’ll discuss shooting in daylight for now. Once you understand daylight shooting, the additional challenges of shooting at night should be easier to understand.

The “secret” to success action photography is to use a FAST enough shutter speed to freeze the motion of your subjects. For football, you want to be at least 1/800 or higher, preferably 1/1600 or higher.

However, a faster shutter means less time for light to reach the image sensor, which means you will need raise your ISO. Raising your ISO will usually mean increasing levels of noise in the captured images.

One way to avoid raising ISO too high is use wide aperture lenses. The aperture range in your kit lens is adequate for most daytime shooting. Bear in mind that the higher the focal length, then the sampler the aperture. The smaller the aperture is, the smaller the amount of light reaching the image sensor, which means having to raise the ISO.

Another impediment is the focusing speed of the 55-250mm lens. It is not very fast, but it is certainly fast enough for the continuous shooting frame rate of the T3i. This could be where you are having an issue. The camera does not wait for a focus lock in AI Servo AF mode before it fires the shutter.

One Shot AF mode does wait for a focus lock before the camera fires the shutter. But, this will often mean a small lag between when you want to take the shot and when the shutter actually fires. The usual result of this scenario is you miss the moment because it has come and gone before the shutter fired.

So, you have to make trade-offs when it comes to performance. You have to rob Peter to pay Paul, as the saying goes. Post some images with shooting and EXIF data, and let’s work from there.

Re: Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography

Waddizzle — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 20:37:03 GMT

Oh, yeah. What type of school are you working for? High school? College?

What is your current and?or favorite shooting locations for football?

Re: Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography

Pibc1104 — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 20:37:33 GMT

So this was one of the photos that wasn’t like great but not horrible, I generally keep my settings to fluorescent light and intense because of the lights on the field, then I just use auto so I’m not sure about the other stuff?

Re: Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography

Pibc1104 — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 20:38:39 GMT

Re: Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography

Pibc1104 — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 20:43:19 GMT

Highschool, I’m kinda limited with areas for it but I get to be on the sideline. Generally I’ll line up at the line of scrimmage and just watch through the camera for the moments.

Re: Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography

Waddizzle — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 23:08:14 GMT

@Pibc1104 wrote:
So this was one of the photos that wasn’t like great but not horrible, I generally keep my settings to fluorescent light and intense because of the lights on the field, then I just use auto so I’m not sure about the other stuff?

Successfully capturing photos at night almost requires that you understand “the other stuff” that I mentioned. “Exposure Triangle” and ?Depth of Field”. Check out this series of videos released by Canon USA a few years ago.

EOS 101 Series

There are 13 videos in the series. Each is about 5 minutes long. You will want to watch this on a screen larger than a smart phone and with your camera on tripod in front of you.

Re: Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography

Waddizzle — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 23:12:11 GMT

Great. You are on the field, not shooting from the stands or a press box.

The line of scrimmage works for shots of the line of scrimmage. The best location on the field really depends on where on the field the teams are located, and what type of play is most likely to called next.

Re: Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography

jrhoffman75 — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 23:20:51 GMT

Your shutter speed was 1/15 sec. Even in broad daylight you wouldn't get a sharp image at that shutter speed just due to camera shake from your body motion. Rule of thumb is minimum shutter speed to avoid motion blur is 1/focal length. Your lens was at 146mm focal length. You would need a minimum shutter speed of 1/150-1/200 sec. At that is not accounting for subject motion.

Amateur night sports is very demanding of equipment because lighting is generally not the best.

It is going to be very difficult with your equipment.

Re: Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography

Tintype_18 — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 13:59:35 GMT

This has been enlightening. Watching baseball on TV, I noticed that a lot of photographers use a monopod. I do notice also that they are using very large lenses. I'm guessing the monopod is to help steady the camera and eliminate camera shake.

Re: Does anyone have any tips on how I can get better with sports photography

Waddizzle — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 14:36:58 GMT

I cannot speak for any given photographer, but I use monopods for two main reasons. Mobility and Stability. The fact that a monopod allows me rest my hands and arms is a bonus. Hand holding is not so great for longer shooting sessions, like a 3 hour ball game.

A monopod is far more mobile than a tripod. It is quick to set up, and quick to move out of the way of violent play moving in your direction.

Your photographs are sharper when you use some type of support. The biggest benefactor of IS in a lens is the AF system in the camera body. Having a stable image makes it easier for the camera’s AF system to recognize subjects and track them. While it is true that IS helps to reduce camera shake when shooting handheld, using a camera support system is even better.

Finally, some of the large primes are pretty heavy. They are too heavy to use handheld for extended periods of time. Not only do you give your hands and arms a rest with a camera support system, you can keep the lens aimed and focused at the subject area between shots.

If you decide to invest in a monopod, I strongly recommend that you find one that is at least as tall as you are. I say this for two reasons. One, monopod and tripod legs are more stable and stronger when you do not fully extend them.

Two, when you have a tilt head mounted on a monopod you can point the camera upward without having to squat at the same time. When you aim the camera upward, the rear panel gets angled toward you. The best position for your body is “under” the camera body, not behind it.

For most sports, aiming the camera upward is a pretty rare shooting scenario. But, it is a common one for photographing wildlife and BIF. Personally, I have found using a gimbal with anything less than a LONG lens to be awkward.

Even with my Sigma 150-600mm, the camera body can swing over the center of the tripod when I angle it upward. The camera body moves slightly down and away from me when I angle upward with a gimbal. A LONG lens keeps the camera body away from the tripod.

I have found a monopod with a quality tilt head to be easier than my gimbal. If you have ever used a ball head, then you should understand the benefit of having friction control. Tilt heads do not have a separate friction control. I use a Kirk MPA-2 tilt head. While it does not have separate friction, the single knob that it has can rotate at least 720 degrees, which allows you dial in precise amounts of friction on the tilt mechanism.