Varsity Football: 7D- 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II

[Richard Lane]

Hey Guys,
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What's up? Missed all of you! I would like to share some pics, that I took 2 weeks ago. Kindly let me know what you think!


Shifting lighting conditions all day. At ISO 100, I would sometimes catch the shutter drop throughout the day. You should be able to click on the photo, and then click it again to it view on a black screen.


EOS-7D, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II, @100mm f/2.8, 1/6400sec, ISO 200, Un-cropped, All handheld








@100mm, f/2.8, 1/6400sec, ISO 200, un-cropped








@200mm, 1/2500sec, ISO 200, cropped
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@110mm, f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 100, cropped




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C&amp;C Always Welcome!


Thanks for looking!


Rich
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[bouwy]

Hi Rich


Excellent super clear action shots. Well done. [H] I also do a bit of sport shooting (mainly soccer) and yes you are right. Light conditions do play havoc at times. I use the same gear, but it's a 70-200 mk1 not the mk2 and I often used in the past ISO100. But on some advise of the forum gang I bump my ISO to 200 &gt; 250[I] (with similar light conditions as in your shots [H]) and I achieve excellent results. Super clear pic's.


Look forward to more action shots.


Wally []

[Baker]

I love #2! Great stiff arm! Oh and the photos are very well done as well []

[Kayaker72]

Hey Rich....


Great shots! As noted above, super clear and great capture of the action.


I like #1 the best. I'll take it over #2 because you can see the runners eyes, the runner still has good form, and you don't yet know what is going to happen....#2, it has a great stiff arm, but the runner looks off balance....my guess is that he goes down....I also like the last two......


I am wondering about the colors a bit....especially the football. I could be wrong but it looks a bitoff in the first three shots and better in 4 and 5. But who's kidding who, I'd love it if I had taken these![] They make me want to go take some sports pics myself.


Great pics and thanks for sharing


Brant

[Richard Lane]

Thanks Wally, Baker, and Brant, your comments are greatly appreciated!


Brant.., very observant regarding the different colors of the footballs. In High School Football, each team can use their own Football as long as they meet the requirements, and in this case you can see that the blue team and the green team are using different footballs, that's why they are different colors.


If you look at the colors of the grass and the blue and green uniforms, you can see that they are similar in the different shots, give or take a little for the Sun peaking through the clouds.


I like #2 the best myself, and I think that it is very telling in just how hard these guys play. I also like the eyes of both players in #1, especially the defenders in green. #1 reminds me of the Heisman Trophy pose a little bit.


Notice how the Auto Focus locked in between #4 and #5, as #5 is much sharper. The red sign on the house in #5 bothers me a little bit.


Although, these shots were taken with the 70-200mm f/2.8 I feel that this focal length doesn't obliterate the background like the 300mm or 400mm does, but this zoom is definitely very flexible if you can move freely up and down the field. The 70mm range works great along the line of scrimage, plus or minus 5 yards, and then the 100mm-135mm works great at around 10-15 yards off of the line and the 200mm range works nicely from about 20-25 yards off of the line of scrimage. Other factors will also depend on if the ball is placed at the nearer or farther hash mark.


When shooting with this focal range you tend to shoot across the field more (from sideline to sideline) which causes you to get the team on the sidelines in the shot, as well as spectators in the stands. This example is visible in the third shot. When using a longer lens like a 300mm or 400mm, you can shoot farther away ( approx. 30-40yards off of the line of scrimage) and aim the lens more downfield or upfield which gives cleaner backgrounds, as opposed to shooting across the field with shorter lenses. The other nice thing with the super-telephotos are that they really compress and obliterate the background more than their shorter counterparts do.


The 70-200mm is great for getting catches in the endzone as seen in #4 and #5, when you know that they can't run any further away from you, and then just crop. I find the 300mm is sometimes hard too follow the ball in the air. Sometimes, if its third down and long yardage you could guess that it's a pass play and follow one of the wide receivers with a super-telephoto. I usually shoot with both lenses and switch accordingly.


Rich

[Gred]

nice shots, personaly I would pick #1 over #2 the player in blue appears in more dynamic position mainly because his knees are in the frame it gives a sens of movement, plus you can see the eyes of the player in green you can almost feel the pain

[peety3]

Although, these shots were taken with the 70-200mm f/2.8 I feel that this focal length doesn't obliterate the background like the 300mm or 400mm does, but this zoom is definitely very flexible if you can move freely up and down the field. The 70mm range works great along the line of scrimage, plus or minus 5 yards, and then the 100mm-135mm works great at around 10-15 yards off of the line and the 200mm range works nicely from about 20-25 yards off of the line of scrimage. Other factors will also depend on if the ball is placed at the nearer or farther hash mark.


When shooting with this focal range you tend to shoot across the field more (from sideline to sideline) which causes you to get the team on the sidelines in the shot, as well as spectators in the stands. This example is visible in the third shot. When using a longer lens like a 300mm or 400mm, you can shoot farther away ( approx. 30-40yards off of the line of scrimage) and aim the lens more downfield or upfield which gives cleaner backgrounds, as opposed to shooting across the field with shorter lenses. The other nice thing with the super-telephotos are that they really compress and obliterate the background more than their shorter counterparts do.

Try lowering yourself, so that you're "shooting upwards". You'll get more sky in your backgrounds, giving you more area that's beyond DOF. As a side benefit, you'll make the background players look shorter, making your subject stand out a little more. Bryan has a review of a "WalkStool" that might do the trick well for you to stay comfortable.

[Kayaker72]

in this case you can see that the blue team and the green team are using different footballs, that's why they are different colors.

[] Sometimes the most obvious answer is the best.


Thanks Rich.

[Sheiky]

What's up? Missed all of you!

Missed you too, but I'm doing fine [Y]


I really like the first 2 shots, nice action going one there!The 4th picture looks a bit soft though, 7D's AF problem I guess?[:P][]

[Richard Lane]

Missed you too, but I'm doing fine [img]/emoticons/emotion-21.gif[/img]


I really like the first 2 shots, nice action going on there! The 4th picture looks a bit soft though, 7D's AF problem I guess?[img]/emoticons/emotion-4.gif[/img][img]/emoticons/emotion-5.gif[/img]

Thanks Bud!


That's right you caught me.., #4 is soft, I'll blame that one on user error. (LOL) I was actually shooting the quarterback at the line of scrimage and when I saw it was a pass play, I swung the camera around to focus on the receiver..., # 4 was soft and #5 locked in. I actually think it's motion blur from me swinging the camera around towards the receiver, because the bushes look like they have a slight panning effect, and it wasn't that windy out.


Well.., at least I nailed the touchdown catch in #5. []


Rich