Shooting a nighttime football game

[peety3]

Lens-wise, my plan (and suggestion) is fairly straight-forward: start with the 300/2.8 and the 500/4 (the "odd" hundreds), and then come back to the 200/2, 400/2.8, 600/4, and 800/5.6 (the "even" hundreds). The 300 and 500 are less expensive, lighter, and can be handheld (within reason).


If you're waiting on the buffer that much, you may want to choose a lower resolution, push the button less, or drop back to single-shot drive. You'll develop your timing skills over time, and find that you can probably get away with single-shot in time (if not realize that you as a single shooter can't shoot everything!).

[bob williams]

Thanks Peety, I have been seriously considering the 500. As far as waiting for the buffer, I hadn't considered usinga lower resolution---definitely food for thought----thanks again,





Bob

[dmckinny]

Bob,


I've been shooting my daughter playing soccer for about 18 months now. I have read a lot about sports shooting, and I am much better than when I started. You wouldn't believe how rusty you can get with just a little lay off. What I have learned is that knowing your equipment, knowing the sport, and developing a sense of timing are probably the most important elements. I have come to believe that timing your first shot for the height of action gets more keepers than "spray and pray". That doesn't mean you should only shoot single frame, just that you should develop your timing. Even 10 frames per second will not capture everything, but is sure does help ;-)





I'm shooting with a 30D and a 70-200 f/4 L (non-IS). It's the poor man's sport setup, but it works pretty well. If you want to read up some more there is a really good beginners article over at open photography forum


http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=668


I learned a lot from this article alone. There are many others as well, you can do your own searches, but I recommend this one to start with.

[bob williams]

Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely check it out. I am going to try a day game on Sunday and I am sure that will present it's own set of challenges as well, specifically the harsh lighting---I suppose I can hope for a cloudy day, but in NM, those are far and few between.


Thanks again for the feedback