Blurred motion suggestions for a soccer game

[brucehughw]

Hi. I'm taking some photos at my daughter's (high school) soccer game, where I can get very close to the action. Having taken the same type of photos for years -- players competing for the ball, jumping for headers, joy after goal, and similar -- I'm thinking of trying some new things with blurred motion. One idea is to stand behind the goalie and when the other team is close to the goal use an extended shutter speed (0.5 sec?) to develop blurred motion from the players scrambling and moving in front of her while she, the goalie, is mostly stationary.

Another idea is blurred motion when the players kick or throw in the ball. The leg will be blurry and the ball will look like a streak. I can go on the field for warmups (just ask!) and position myself wherever I want.

Any suggestions for settings for these ideas? I bought some ND filters to cut down on the light.

Thanks! Bruce

[chauncey]

Your idea sounds interesting from an artistic point of view, but will take some experimentation
regarding camera settings. That slower SS might be used in a panning scenario.

[rpcrowe]

Bruce,

A tripod or at least a monopod along with image stabilization might be a worthwhile consideration.

That way, the entire frame you capture will be sharp with only the players motion blurred.

If the entire frame is motion blurred, I think that you will lose the impact of the players motion.

If I were going to try this, I think that I might try a couple of shots with a wide angle or fish eye lens shooting from a very low angle.

[Shadowman]

One idea would be to use a zoom lens and zoom in and out, that will get you some zany effects.

[rpcrowe]

As an after-thought, I did a Google search using "Soccer Photography Burred Motion" as the search parameters. I got lots of hits including this one, showing lots of blurred motion soccer shots but, also including blurred motion shots from other sports venues.
https://www.google.com/search?q=socc...q4r2MHf9ahM%3A

[brucehughw]

Hi, Richard.

Thanks very much. I did take some blurred photos at last Saturday's game. About the only good one was a throw in that showed a fixed body and moving arms/ball. I'll post in a day or two. I'm going to try again this weekend with a tripod. I'll look over the ones in the link for inspiration. Apropos blurred motion, this month's issue of Popular Photography has some blurred motion images (1 minute exposures!) of large settings w/some people moving and others not. I'm going to try that.

Bruce

[rpcrowe]

IMO, when you are looking to get blurred photos of action, you need to shoot a large number of exposures realizing in advance that many of them will not work...

This is what makes digital photography so wonderful. Most of us could not afford to shoot enough film to nail experiments like blurred motion...

[brucehughw]

With a 100 mm lens (DX camera, so 1.6 crop factor should be multiplied) and 1/90 second shutter, here is what I came up with.

I'll try again with a tripod or a monopod. Sport compositions are, of course, hard because you certainly can't arrange the players. I kind of like the line from the players on the right. Also, I tried to simplify the background, selecting a vantage point that would provide trees in the background, as opposed to cars, spectators, or houses (or all three!).

[billtils]

All good suggestions Bruce. Personally, my choice would be to follow William's advice and give panning a try. It's sort of the opposite to your current approach but worth a look. I'd also agree with Richard, and suggest that you try shooting bursts.

Here are some MX bike shots, not soccer unfortunately, but hope they give you some ideas of the effects that can be obtained.

[Arjung]

Bruce,
Blurs, Panning & Zoombursts are different and will get you different results:
1. Blurs - You need at least one stationary subject that is in focus and one moving subject that will cause the blur
2. Panning - Subject has to be moving
3. Zoombursts - Stationary subject, ideally only one. Multiple subjects very rarely work

All 3 require a ton of experimentation for you to figure out the optimal shutter speeds. Optimal shutter speeds will vary depending on the speed of the motion being captured...

[brucehughw]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll try panning, but it might only work when I've got players in front of me running in the same direction. Players are often running in tandem after a ball, but rarely are they right in front of me. Track is good for panning.

I think I'll give blurs one more try. There will always be players on the bench who are mostly stationary, and I'll try to catch some action in front of them. Goalies don't move as much as the players out in the field (until they get close), so there might be some opportunities there. Penalty kicks could work, too, when the defense lines up in a row and then scrambles after the kick. I'll put up the best photos and the corresponding settings, so that others will see what worked (or not) for me.

Bruce,
Blurs, Panning & Zoombursts are different and will get you different results:
1. Blurs - You need at least one stationary subject that is in focus and one moving subject that will cause the blur
2. Panning - Subject has to be moving
3. Zoombursts - Stationary subject, ideally only one. Multiple subjects very rarely work

All 3 require a ton of experimentation for you to figure out the optimal shutter speeds. Optimal shutter speeds will vary depending on the speed of the motion being captured...