Sport photography: Well, sort of!

[Alis]

Last week I went to my son's soccer class to take some pictures. It was a totally new experience.

Most of all, I was surprised with how little light was actually available for shooting in an arena with so many lights on the ceiling. I had to keep the aperture at maximum all the time and use a relatively high ISO and still could not get some of the action shots sharp enough as you can see. I think I was afraid of noise and did not really go up enough on ISO.

The other surprising issue was how short the range of my 70-200mm lens is. As a result, I had to crop a lot of these pictures and that is one of the reasons, some of them do not look that great, and I will not be able to print them large enough.

I am thinking of buying an extender but with the low light situation, I am not sure if I can actually use it and get better pictures in a place like this. Anyway,

C&C welcome as always:

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[wilgk]

Welcome to my world Ali! - you are amongst friends....I also find that gyms/venues used for children's sports, sometimes even have some of the lights off compared to when the adults are there..
For reach, this is when the crop frame body becomes an asset
Thierry, Myra and I have all been using 1.8 or 1.4mm primes for indoor sports, but having said that, yours all look very sharp to me...
and also the class looks like fun for your son

[Maritimer1]

Kay, I had to check out this post, too Yes, I stick mainly to the 85 1.8, but I was really curious to see what you got with the 70-200. Ali, they look pretty good to me! Is this a 4 or 2.8 lens? Did you use flash?

Myra
Who is starting to think the whole world is just one big hockey game!

[Donald]

Is this a 4 or 2.8 lens?

Myra

The EXIF shows - EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Ali,

Nice series, your standards are high and these are definitely good quality results regardless of the conditions.

Good focus, exposure, composition, they tick all the boxes for me.

Well done,

[Alis]

Welcome to my world Ali! - you are amongst friends....I also find that gyms/venues used for children's sports, sometimes even have some of the lights off compared to when the adults are there..
For reach, this is when the crop frame body becomes an asset
Thierry, Myra and I have all been using 1.8 or 1.4mm primes for indoor sports, but having said that, yours all look very sharp to me...
and also the class looks like fun for your son

Thanks, Kay. You are actually right, before they came I went in to check out the lighting and noticed some of them were off, I thought they need to be replaced, but now I am guessing they turn them on when there is a big game going on and certainly not for these little kids

I had my Canon 85mm 1.2L with me and but I did not even try it since they were moving so fast, I thought it would be a nightmare to try to focus on any of them, considering you need a perfect focus with such a shallow lens. The distance may help though. Anyway, I will have to try it next time.


Thanks again!

[Alis]

Ali, they look pretty good to me! Is this a 4 or 2.8 lens? Did you use flash?

Thanks, Myra!

As Donald said, it was f/2.8

And I used flash for some of them. The bright ones, actually did not spend enough time on PP to get some of the flash effect out, I think those are too bright.

[Alis]

Hi Ali,

Nice series, your standards are high and these are definitely good quality results regardless of the conditions.

Good focus, exposure, composition, they tick all the boxes for me.

Well done,

Thanks a lot, Dave!

I am happy with them too, I thought specially the ones that he running is not sharp enough, #5 and #6 to be specific.

Thanks again!

[Ashwin]

Hi Ali,

GREAT SERIES OF SPORTS PICTURES BY YOU

I have tried to improve them, if you like

Your comments please

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks a lot, Dave!

I am happy with them too, I thought specially the ones that he running is not sharp enough, #5 and #6 to be specific.

Thanks again!

Which is why I started with 'your standards are high' - I think you might be expecting too much and besides, a bit of movement blur shows action, rather than it being frozen in time.

Cheers,

[speedneeder]

I love #5!

[Alis]

Which is why I started with 'your standards are high' - I think you might be expecting too much and besides, a bit of movement blur shows action, rather than it being frozen in time.

Cheers,

I think you have a point

[Rob Douglas]

I second loving #5. Great job in that light getting the action frozen. There is only slight motion blur in a few areas but I too think you are being to hard on yourself. I shoot my daughter cheer leading competitions in very similar light conditions and use my 200mm f/1.8L USM and a mono pod. I have used my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM with great results too but had to pump the ISO to 800 for that. Even at ISO 800 with the 70-200 wide open I was getting great keepers for print at 8x10 with no problem. Try shooting 3 shot bursts and see if it helps up your keepers.

[Alis]

I love #5!

Thanks, Brian!

[Alis]

I second loving #5. Great job in that light getting the action frozen. There is only slight motion blur in a few areas but I too think you are being to hard on yourself. I shoot my daughter cheer leading competitions in very similar light conditions and use my 200mm f/1.8L USM and a mono pod. I have used my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM with great results too but had to pump the ISO to 800 for that. Even at ISO 800 with the 70-200 wide open I was getting great keepers for print at 8x10 with no problem. Try shooting 3 shot bursts and see if it helps up your keepers.

Thanks, Rob!

200mm f/1.8! That is a monster lens, one I am sure I will never own! How is the focusing? Fast enough?

[Rob Douglas]

Lightning fast. I can't wait to have it on the 1D MK IV.

[tb72]

Hi Ali,

I like your serie and more particularly the third of the second serie. Prior to te purchase of the 85 1.8 and 50 1.4, I was using 70-200 2.8 for sport photography. I met exactly the same problems than yours. Itried an extender and I should say that results are very poor. To work with a fixed focal requires mobility to adjust the distance with a little bit training it could be done easily.

An other aspect ton consider is your dslr some of them like the 7D allows high iso shots. That's also a vry important issue to consider