Sports Shooting with an f/5.6 Kit Lens

PopeBuckfastXVI

Hi All,

I've been asked to shoot an Ozzie rules game in a few weeks, it's a daytime game, so I've that going for me, but all I have is a 55-200 f/5.6 Nikon kit lens (I normally shoot landscapes). Will this do me, or should I look to borrow an f/2.8 from somewhere?

The photo's are for use on the team website, and won't be blown up, so cropping in pp shouldn't be an issue. Aside from upping the ISO to try to keep the shutter speed high, anyone got any advice for me, the sort of things to watch out for, where to stand (near the ends or in the middle), try to get up high, or stay low etc. Should I set up my tripod with all the legs together as a makeshift monopod?

Any advice gratefully received, and of course I'll post the results, no matter how bad they are!!

maddogcollins

Hi Pope,

PaulW has a sticky in the FAQ section on this ( http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055228084 )
Some great tips and gives examples of rugby on page 1 (which is similar to Aussie rules at times)

Hope that link helps a bit.

Paulw

Same with any sports event really.

Shoot from a low position (sitting/kneeling). It makes the players look bigger/more powerful.

Shoot with the fastest shutter speed you can, without having to go too high on your ISO. You really need a 1/600 or faster.

Your lens range might be an issue. Aussie Rules would not be too dissimilar from GAA, so it's a very large pitch. 200mm lens will only allow you to capture action in the nearest 3rd of the pitch to you.

You can get away with the aperture (f/5.6) if you have good enough light.

As for anything else - I've loads of tips on my website, which may be of use.

Best of luck.

Ballyman

Could you get a longer lens anywhere for this as an aussie rules pitch is enormous not to mention oval.

I'd try and sit near a goals if possible as the ball should tend to drop in on top of the full forward fairly regularly so you should be able to get some decent action shots there.

Is this game on in Ireland or are you in Oz?

Borderfox

It might be the aussie rules/GAA they have the teams on tour over here

PopeBuckfastXVI

Thanks all,

It's in Galway - The Midwest Magpies http://www.midwestmagpies.com/

I was hoping 200 wouldn't be such an issue if I could crop down a bit, maybe I could get my hands on a 70-300, but I've heard they're soft as a fresh baked bun.

Ballyman

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

I could get my hands on a 70-300, but I've heard they're soft as a fresh baked bun.

They can be but you won't notice it at low res web shots. You should be able to pick up a sigma 70-300 for <€150 if you look around.

Nforce

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

Thanks all,

It's in Galway - The Midwest Magpies http://www.midwestmagpies.com/

I was hoping 200 wouldn't be such an issue if I could crop down a bit, maybe I could get my hands on a 70-300, but I've heard they're soft as a fresh baked bun.

The 70-300 VR is very sharp

PopeBuckfastXVI

Nforce wrote: »

The 70-300 VR is very sharp

It's quite outside my budget of zero though!! I suppose a bad workman blames his tools so I'll do my best with my 200... will definitely need to get some practice in with sneaky street shots beforehand though!

Hearvee

I've a couple of older sets from when I had a Canon 70-300 f4.5-5.6, which I was perfectly happy with at the time (in daylight).
Set1
Set2

Soon realised it wasn't up to evening games or floodlights (shooting with a 350D didn't help though).


Also I'd suggest getting on to the club you're shooting and find out what size pitch they're playing on. I played a few games in Germany/Spain and we only ever had access to soccer/rugby pitches so we played 15-a-side on rectangular pitches. So you *might* get away with 200mm.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Hi All,

Got on OK... as predicted best shots were from the nearest 3rd of the field to me. The weather held up so that definitely helped. Noticed my AF picking up the background in a lot of shots though, don't know was this down to me or the camera, led to about a 3rd of them being unusable though, which was disappointing... ah well, I'll watch out for it the next time!

Results:



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Paulw

Firstly, some of those images look slightly over-exposed.
Second, you should crop down tighter on to the action.

I think the very last image is best, but watch for your horizon, which doesn't look level.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Yeah I guess they are a bit over, now that I look again.

Was definitely way off on the horizon in some of them too. I'm a bit worried about cropping further, cause they are already quite cropped, and I don't know if they'll survive any further cropping, might get too close to 100%.

Paulw

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

Yeah I guess they are a bit over, now that I look again.

Was definitely way off on the horizon in some of them too. I'm a bit worried about cropping further, cause they are already quite cropped, and I don't know if they'll survive any further cropping, might get too close to 100%.

What's wrong with 100% crops?? :rolleyes:

It's better to get the shot (even 100% crop) than to have nothing.

It's a large enough playing area. Sometimes you are better off only shooting with is in your range, and ignore shooting when you may need a 100% crop.

PopeBuckfastXVI

100% crops show up my terrible terrible imperfections

Maybe I'll revisit a few. I know what you mean, I couldn't resist shooting loads and loads of action outside my range, all pretty much unusable.

Of course it didn't help that I sat with my back to the wind which meant that every quarter the play was down the far end from me... shows my inexperience really. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed it though, looking forward to trying again and hopefully improving.

AnimalRights

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

100% crops show up my terrible terrible imperfections

Been there so often lol
But since I've learned back button focus (and a few other all round improvements) I find my shots are far better now, I can crop 100% these days which is so so good.