EOS R6 Mark II Suggestions for Taking Pictures At Youth Soccer Games

[Cantrell]

All,

Looking for suggestions/recommendations on taking pictures at youth soccer games. This past weekend my granddaughter had a game and took some pictures. I have an EOS R6M2 with a RF100-400mm lens F5.6-8 with a 1.4X extender. It was overcast. Mode was Manual, shutter speed 1000-1250, Auto ISO, AF Servo, AF area was 1 point AF, Metering mode was Evaluative, but the Subject to Detect was Animals. Got some good shots, but felt like some the pictures could have been sharper. The Aperture was at F stop 8 for most of the pictures. The highest ISO was 8000. Any recommendations that I could have done differently. My other option for a lens was the RF24-240. Thanks in advance.

[stevet1]

Cantrell,

I think your settings were pretty good for the most part.

I personally might have gone with a larger aperture like f/5.6  or so for better subject isolation, and to let in more light since it was an overcast day. That would also let you lower your ISO, but that's just me.

Just curious. Why would you have subject to detect be animals, and not people?

Steve Thomas

[Cantrell]

Steve1,

I forgot to change from animals to humans. I changed several settings just before the game. I have a RF28-70mm F2.8 lens, but that would not have given me much reach. I have been considering buying a RF 70-200MM F2.8 lens. Thank you for your reply.

Reese

[stevet1]

Reese,

My apologies. I didn't read your post clearly enough. You were using a lens that restricted your ability to widen up your aperture.

That's a tough row to hoe. 

Are you able to use a tripod in your circumstances? That might help a little.

Your extender is going to get you the reach, but it's going to cut your light even further. Maybe you could cut your shutter speed a little, down to around 800 or 850 or so. Wait for moments when the action is not quite so fast and furious.

Steve Thomas

[wq9nsc]

Shutter speed of 1/1,000 is fast enough to freeze motion in youth soccer so no need to go higher when the combination of illumination and available aperture are pushing ISO higher.  Although 8,000 isn't a problem with current cameras, the images below were shot with 1DX III bodies with 70-200 and 400 f2.8 glass with ISO from 8,000 to 16,000 and I regularly go up to 25,600 during football season.

Location is critical and most youth soccer facilities allow fans to get pretty close to the action which makes photography easier than higher level where fans are further removed from the pitch.  With a 100-400, you shouldn't need to use the 1.4X extender as 400 plus a bit of cropping will cover the field pretty well from a reasonably central location and an extender will degrade image quality so use only when absolutely necessary.  For daylight high school games, I have a 200-400 with integrated switchable 1.4X extender on one body and with it I can cover offensive action coming at the goal from a position at the end of the field and with the 1.4X switched in it provides good coverage of goalie saves at the other end.  In this case the daylight keeps ISO very low even with the extender in and the Canon EF 200-400 f4 extender lens is a very sharp lens so the degradation from switching in its integrated 1.4X extender is acceptable but still not desirable.  

For sports, I typical use single point with four point expansion which gives the camera a little more to work with on some uniforms to lock focus immediately.  Soccer is a fast moving and changing sport and I have found Case IV works well for both soccer and football but experiment to see what AF servo characteristics work best for you.

Don't get in the bad habit of trying to lean too heavily on drive speed but instead stay fully engaged with the action.  The better you are at predicting the action, the better quality images you will capture.  Most of my captures in sports are singles with a few 3 to 5 image bursts; in most cases if you finger is on the shutter release for more than a split second you are primarily capturing "garbage".

Soccer is a fast sport but I coached youth soccer for 11 years so it has always been my second favorite to football to shoot.  Maybe I should have tried coaching volleyball years ago and then maybe I wouldn't despise shooting that sport 😆

Rodger

[Tintype_18]

Have a different Canon camera but my approach is to take a few photos at different settings before the event. I can pretty much get an idea of what is needed for action shots. Have two photos- baseball coming off the bat, runner with both feet off the ground. And...have fun!

[Cantrell]

Steve,

Thank you for your comments.

Reese

[Cantrell]

Rodger,

Are standing while you are taking these shots.Thank you for sharing these wonderful pictures. I appreciate your suggestions on equipment to use and where to be position. Do you use the Canon EF200-400 F4 extender lens with your R6M2? Thank you.

Reese

[Cantrell]

Tintype_18,

Thank you for your suggestion on getting to the game early and shoot from different locations before the game starts.

Reese

[TomRamsey]

The RF70-200 2.8 would probably be a perfect lens for soccer.  I have not shot soccer with the R6M2 yet, but I have shot a lot of soccer.  I recommend shooting shutter priority, looking through old photos I had done with a 70-200 2.8 lens were fine at 1/320, 1/500 and up may get more shots with the ball not blurred.  Your setting should work, but go with people over animals, that could make a little difference.  Positioning will allow you to get the best shots.  Behind the goal line and even through the net are some of the best positions.  If you want the fronts of defenders some of the sidelines make for good positions, of from behind the goal line with longer telephotos.  I would not use bursts except possibly corner kick and free kick where this an opportunity to score, otherwise you may have thousands of pics to go through with very minor differences on many.  If you've decided to focus on one player that is of course a lot easier.  I've done both, taken pictures of my sons' games where I would get several of them and also try to get many of the teammates also, parents love to get pictures of their kids.  Also I've went to relative's games and just taken pictures of them.  My oldest son coaches HS and I will take some there when we can get there (700 miles away) but they do have a couple of regular team photographers, so I don't need to, just for fun.

I don't think you really want to use an extender, you need as much light as you can get (unless it is a bright sunny day).  And remember that not all shots need to be a close up of the action, nice shots with everybody in the six yard box show all the action that you won't see in real time.  

Of course, the biggest problem with HS games can be the lighting, I've been to a few places where the lighting was really bad and it makes things real hard, especially if you can't get down on the field, of course this is the same problem doing indoor sports.  

One you experience from the past weekend you would have done better without the extender and using much lower shutter speeds.  I like to shoot manual for still subjects, but not sports.  As I mentioned earlier, I like shutter priority as long as the lens is good wide open, if you have a lens that has to be stopped down to be sharp you have to deal with that.  Of course high ISO is going to be noisier, and the smaller the subjects are in the frame, that noise will make it look less sharp.  Those faster shutter speeds you were using forced your ISO higher and the picture will appear less sharp.

You may need to experiment with which metering mode works best for the conditions, there are a lot of variables from light to uniform colors, which can make a difference at night.  It's a continual learning experience but you'll get it.