Flash for night football

[Loupey]

And for indoor sports like basketball, there's a reason that people like SI and AP spend fairly large amounts to have strobes mounted in the arenas.

Multiple remote strobes would be the best scenario but not practical for the average shooter.

Anyway, I've been on a personal quest for over a year that "if I can see it, I can shoot it (without flash)". As the tools get better (high ISO performance), more techniques become available to get the shot other than using strobes (internal stabilization, high speed lenses, etc.). I recently spent some time traveling through Japan and came back with over 5K images - 0 with flash and about 30% were nightlife shots.

Sports requires average to excellent lighting for the safety of the players. I think newer cameras will continue to open up shooting opportunities which were only recently deemed impossible to shoot without strobes.

Equipment will improve. But physics will not change. The inverse-squared-law of light is a visual nightmare on a large scene. Use flash only for fill if you must use it.

But I have watched the night games from the endzones and it is dark indeed from that direction

[DHMN69]

Even though I'm still learning and relatively "new" to shooting anything involving sports.. I think one thing not mentioned is if you're going to use any type of flash from your camera setup and not something set up high above play.. be careful not to distract players with your flash if you're in a gym or hockey arena situation...it can be dangerous for one thing andyou definitely don't want to cause any trouble for yourself by flashing in the line of sight of a player.

I've seen football photographers taking flash pictures from the sideline with players coming at them..and seen it in baseball photographers taking flash pictures from the side the batter is facing, of the pitcher making his delivery, and in one instance have seen an umpire later speak to a photographer who changed his position.

I guess I'm just saying that while everyone wants their pictures to be top notch, don't (as mentioned in other threads but not on the subject unless I missed it) be noticed because you're "blinding" people with your flash.