# Help! Shooting football under the lights



## Gumbo (Sep 22, 2007)

Once my son hit HS age, I quite coaching football and started shooting pics on the sideline. This year he's playing varsity and the second-half shots are killing me! I have a Canon 20D with a 2.8 80-200 lens. I've set the ISO to 1600, but I still can't get enough shutter speed under the lights and wind up with a lot of blurred shots. It's VERY frustrating to look through game pics and find some good shots that are ruined due to blur. The sample pic below isn't as bad as many of them. I should also add that I shoot freehand, no monopod, etc.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I need some better shots during the second half when the sun is down and the only light is from the stadium. Here's a second-half pic for sample. You can see that it's fuzzy, not crisp. And the aperature was wide open at 2.8. I'm not sure what the shutter speed is, I'd have to get the camer out to know. But obviously it's not fast enough.
[attachment=0qbcsvx0]pic1.jpg[/attachmentqbcsvx0]


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## Loke (Sep 7, 2007)

Get a monopod, crank the ISO as high as you can, open up the aperture as far as it will go and hope that your auto focus can keep up. Follow through when you are tracking your subject and pray. That is what I have to do taking pics of the marching band.


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## Greenhead 2 (Sep 13, 2007)

With that lens is going to be tough to get shots with out blur under those conditions. The simple answer is replace the lens with a 1.8 minimum or bigger, bigger would be better. The only problem is cost. These lenses ain't cheap, even used it'll be over a thousand bucks.

Things to do and try. Get close, shoot on the field as close to the action as you can. Reducing your focal length will increase shutter speed, bump up your ISO if possible, use a mono-pod, the less shake you have the less will show up in your pictures. A shutter speed of 1/30 or longer will have blur, pan with the action and try using single shot focus , shoot in both manual and aperture modes and see what works best, press the shutter halfway to lock it and take the shot. Go to a park at night and practice, the conditions of lighting will be similar. Take lots of pictures early so you won't be disappointed you didn't get as many late shots, take the night shots, they are better than no shot at all.


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## threshershark (Sep 7, 2007)

The EXIF data from the photo says this shot was taken at 1/100. To stop motion like this, you are barely squeaking by at 1/250 and really want 1/500 or faster.

Try manual mode, 1/250, f/2.8, and the highest ISO you can live with. If you get heavily underexposed images, then your gear is simply outmatched by the conditions. You could always rent a lens, like the Canon 200mm f/2, from www.lensrentals.com.

I'm not aware of any telephoto-length lenses with a bigger aperture than f/2 in mainstream circulation, and f/2.8 lenses are essentially the standard for low light sports photography. If you are right on the sidelines, you could try using a speedlight if they are allowed. Quantum makes some parabolic flash units designed for use out to about 100 feet. These are often used for situations where shutter speed is a problem.

http://www.qtm.com/?page=3210&qmode=c


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## Hellsangler69 (Sep 26, 2007)

I agree shots in the dark can be hard to hit on . I tried some at the track last night with a 55-200mm 1:4.5-5.6G . Most pics did not do well . Some day I hope to own a 2.8 :mrgreen: Thanks Thresh for your input


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## JoeyBishop (Aug 31, 2009)

ya i agree from you all..


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