Night football game shots

[wardrobedoor]

My job at a university has been expanded from layout/design to photography, so I am still learning a good bit about the technical side of photography.

We have a Nikon D100 with with a Nikon 24-88mm, 3.5-4.5 lens and a Sigma 70-300 mm, 4-5.6 (I hope that's the right way to say it).

Here's my question: do I need to buy anything to get really high quality action shots and if I need to buy anything should I get a flash or a different lens?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[another view]

Hi and welcome - I moved your thread to the Sports forum. They should be able to help you out.

[wardrobedoor]

Thanks for the move!

[JSPhoto]

If it's daylight your OK with what you have, but for night games and so on you will need an f2.8 lens and probably a flash too depending on your lighting. Do a search here for threads on night football and you will get plenty of help. Any other other questiuons just ask, we'll try and give you a good answer.

JS

[JETA]

Welcome to PR!

I happened across this board because I was searching the web on the very same topic.

Here's my first post here.

what do I need to take night football shots?

[JSPhoto]

Wow JETA, that seems like that post was years ago now.....sheesh, now you want to upgrade bodies again :thumbsup: You have come a long way!

JS

[JETA]

Wow JETA, that seems like that post was years ago now.....sheesh, now you want to upgrade bodies again :thumbsup: You have come a long way!

JS

Thanks JS. If it wasn't for guys like you I'd still be scratching my head.

Part of me was laughing when I read through that thread today and part of me was cringing.

It's be so much fun learning as much as I have here, but I know I haven't even scratched the surface yet.

I'm probably a dingaling to want to upgrade, but the thought of having the Mark III for my son's senior year and our game at Seahawk Stadium..... Droooooooooooooool.......... :thumbsup:

[JSPhoto]

Well I think it work nicely for night games, just bump that ISO to 3200 and you probably need no flash at most events. I wish I had one for Sat. morning, Monday and next Friday night. I have two graduations to shoot and two memorial day services and the silent shutter would be great for those events.

Something I found out tonight, the Indianapolis Star will no longer be upgrading camera bodies, they are going to all video cameras! Odd, for a paper with 200,000 subscribers to dump still cameras for video clips for a 5000 viewer a day website! Something wrong with the thinking there as viseo clips do not make the best quality still shots for print yet.

JS

[JETA]

I'm telling you the silent shutter to me is worth it's weight in gold.

The clatter my 1D makes draws people to me with a million questions. To be quiet and anonymous would be a beautiful thing! :thumbsup:

[JSPhoto]

lol, I love the looks I get when I rip off a bunch of shots, they are just in awe, or like the woman last night, she just turned and walked away with her point & shoot
The funny thing is I notice the noise more at the race track than anywhere else

JS

[dhyravy]

No doubt if you're going to shoot night football you will need at least a fast (i.e.f2.8) lens and if you don't have the luxury of shooting at ISO 3200 possibly a monopod. I have a couple of ideas for lighting football this year and will post results when I have them. My son-in-law is the HS coach, so I have opportunity to try things.

[JSPhoto]

Monopods should be barred from high school sports events, and especially football. Having 3200 ISO has nothing to do with using a monopod or not, it's technique, panning smoothly and not jamming the shutter button so it causes the body to move, smooth movement and smooth shutter finger will do the same as a monopod, you just have to learn to hold the camera properly.
I hate getting hit by monopods, but worse is the fact that a kid can get seriously injured by one. I have seen kids break them, but fortunately they were not hurt bad. I'm a firm believer if you can't handhold your camera then you do not belong on the sidelines, and that includes those shooting with 400mm lenses

JS

[JETA]

Monopods should be barred from high school sports events, and especially football. Having 3200 ISO has nothing to do with using a monopod or not, it's technique, panning smoothly and not jamming the shutter button so it causes the body to move, smooth movement and smooth shutter finger will do the same as a monopod, you just have to learn to hold the camera properly.
I hate getting hit by monopods, but worse is the fact that a kid can get seriously injured by one. I have seen kids break them, but fortunately they were not hurt bad. I'm a firm believer if you can't handhold your camera then you do not belong on the sidelines, and that includes those shooting with 400mm lenses

JS

Even a 400mm? Wow!

This is some of the first advice I got from JS. Losing the monopod was the beginning of getting better shots. It forced me to get fluid with my movement and learn how to pan. B4 each season I read up on panning. There's a great thread here about it.

Last season I actually got hit a couple of times. I just cannot imagine how bad it would have been for me if I had a monopod in the mix. There's no way I could not have got tangled up in the thing. When I have to move I've gotta do it fast. Keeping both eyes open has helped too.

I also have to admit I love laughing at the big paper dudes who sometimes shoot our games. They always have a monopod. Whimps.

[JSPhoto]

I shot an entire day at Indy with a 400, did it all free hand, no monopod, they are too restricting. The 400 isn't that bad after an hour or so...

JS