Help for a novice

[bamagal]

I just discovered these boards today while searching for an online tutorial on how to take night time sports photographs.

Please forgive me if I don't even know enought to ask an intelligent question! :blush2:

I have a digital camera (it isn't a Canon, can I post what it is?) and it takes great pictures with everything set to automatic. It has a sports function which works great for the daytime sports.....but now it is football season and the games are at night.

Are any of you willing to instruct me in the basics of night-time sports photography or give me a link to a good on-line tutorial?

Thanks

[Old Timer]

Night time football is tricky at best. For the next few weeks you will see post of Friday Night Lights and hear our complains about the conditions. Every field will be different your going to have to experiment and post a few and than let us make some suggestions. The first must is to get out of the modes on your camera and go to manual or shutter/aperture priority setting so you will know for sure you are stopping action. I will normally shot every thing in manual so I know what's going on. Only time this will change is when I'm shooting at twilight and the light is changing quickly or if there are heavy shadow areas on the field near sundown or in the afternoon.

I would suggest that you go back to the archives here on the sports forum and look at post form last football season. I think you will find answers to many of your questions.

[JETA]

Welcome to PR! It was just about a year ago I surfed onto this site too for the very same reasons. Night time football.

The only way I was able to get the shots was to get a fast lens.

Search this board. There is tons of good info. Also search for my topics. I got the best advice on many questions you are probably having.

Once again, welcome aboard!

[JSPhoto]

Welcome bamagal,
Yes, you can say what camera you have, I think we have most of them covered here We also have all kinds of shooters too, from beginners to pros and someone here can help you.
There are a number of threads about shooting sports in low llight, but as already mentioned you need to have a fast lens, f2.8 or faster and a fast AF. If you can;t get a fast enough AF then you have to do some real guessing on where the next play is going and what it is so you can pre-focus the shot Thats when knowing the sport really helps as does knowing the teams involved and how they play the game. Making friends with the coaches doesn't hurt, one coach will tell me the play so I know where it's going, and at times will run a play in my direction just so I can get some good stuff! Their only TD last week was right where I could get it but none of the other photogs could
It also helps to have a real good flash. My 580EX flash will reach all the way across the field if I need it to, but I normally just use it as fill flash to get rid of shadows.
A low noise, high ISO body also helps but you can use programs such as NeatImage to reduce the noise effects.\

JS

[bamagal]

Thank you so much - to all of you!

I will go back now and see if I can learn anything from JETA's posts from last year.

I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30....it has 8 megapixels, 12x optical zoom / 4x digital zoom, Leica DC lens, manual focus, program and manual exposure, RAW, TIFF, or JPEG file format, ISO 80-400, lithium ion battery, movie mode with sound.

Like I said, I am as novice as they come! I appreciate your patience.

[bamagal]

More camera information: the lens is f2.8-f3.7.....

is there something else I should tell you guys in order for you to be able to help me?

Thanks again

[JSPhoto]

Hmmm, you will really have issues shooting night sports, you really need a DSLR that can get up to ISO 1600 and a good fast lens of f2.8 at all focal lengths as field lighting is really bad, no matter how good it looks to your eyes the camera won't see it that way.
About the only way you could do it with your present camera is to use a large external flash, and then you'd still be limited, or shoot from up high, again you'd be limited on what you will get and you wouldn't get any closeup.

JS