My First shots/Sports Lens Advice

UnleashTheBeast

Hi all,

Beginner here, looking for feedback/advice. I took my first shots with my dads new camera and lens today, they can be viewed HERE. All feedback appreciated! (I will be adding more ASAP)

I'm big into football, League Of Ireland to be precise. I support my local club Galway United. I'm trying to get into doing some LOI photography but I'm afraid my dads lens won't be sufficient to take decent snaps.

As we are both beginners we wouldn't be able to spend too much on a new lens, max €600 but probably closer to €500.... Could anybody possibly recommend me some good lenses?

My dad's camera is a Canon EOS 550d.

I was looking at this one - http://www.simplyelectronics.net/mainproduct.php?pid=646&sd=specs

Here is my dads current lens - http://www.simplyelectronics.net/mainproduct.php?pid=1838&setcurrency=eur

The camera will be used 99% of the time for Football. I'm heading down to photograph an U20 Galway United game on Sunday, hopefully I'll get a few decent snaps. I'll post them up here afterwards anyway.

Could any experienced Sports photographers give me any advice for taking pictures during football games?


All advice appreciated

Regards

UTB.

Thecageyone

There's a few sports 'togs on here, I'm sure they'll offer some good advice.

I would suggest, if you really want faster glass, to sell your dad's current lens then put the cash towards that L glass you're eying up No point keeping a lesser lens - not that there is anything wrong with you current one. But clearly you require something faster for sports.

UnleashTheBeast

I'll be looking into that. Thx.

Added a few more pictures to my pix.ie account - http://pix.ie/vinnyoc

Balfey1972

Paul Walsh has some good advice on shooting sports photography.
Check out his site here

Also the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM is a great lens. Check out advice if anyone has purchased from that site before. I haven't come across it.

I have a canon 70-300 is F4 which I have used for about 2 years before upgrading to a 300mm Canon F4l prime.

The 70-200 lens would be good option for soccer.
As for help on photo's, the best advice I was given here is practice practice and a little more practice. Get some photos up for C&C and don't be afraid to ask for help and advice on specific areas.

D.

UnleashTheBeast

Balfey1972 wrote: »

Paul Walsh has some good advice on shooting sports photography.
Check out his site here

Fantastic advice on Paul's site.

Thanks for the link.

Balfey1972 wrote: »

As for help on photo's, the best advice I was given here is practice practice and a little more practice. Get some photos up for C&C and don't be afraid to ask for help and advice on specific areas.

Practice makes perfect, I'm really looking forward to taking those pictures on Sunday, I have never taken sports photos before so I'm a little apprehensive but I'm still excited to see what the results will be.

Gonna go at ground level and hopefully that will yield better results.

Thanks for the advice.

mrboswell

Paul's site has all the important info.

The reality is that in Ireland the weather is ok at the best of times and that means that bright days are only a short run during the summer.

What this means is that with a lens of even f4 may cause you to either set a high ISO, resulting in noisy pics, or a slow shutter speed - that means 1/500th and faster.

As Balfey says, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM is a great lens, but if you are shooting under flood lights a lens of f4 might still be a struggle. Particularly as we approach the winter.

My advice would be save your money and wait till you get a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM. Invest in lenses first and then start looking at the cameras.

Happy shooting and post the results!

UnleashTheBeast

mrboswell wrote: »

What this means is that with a lens of even f4 may cause you to either set a high ISO, resulting in noisy pics, or a slow shutter speed - that means 1/500th and faster.

You'll laugh at this... but I'll be honest I'm still unsure of a lot of camera terms. As I've previously stated, the camera I'm using is a Canon EOS 550D with THIS lens.

I'm not entirely sure of how to adjust the ISO. The camera itself has a couple of notches you can flick between, one of them is a sporty one. Is that alright? Is there any other changes I should make to the camera/lens before I take any photos of the football game on Sunday?

mrboswell wrote: »

My advice would be save your money and wait till you get a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM. Invest in lenses first and then start looking at the cameras.

Happy shooting and post the results!

I understand what you're saying, but to be honest, I'm even pushing it at €600. I'm not in a position where I can save up for something better, I don't even have the €600 at the moment, I'm awaiting a payment on a job. So I'm trying to get as good as I can for the €500/600 if you get me.

mrboswell wrote: »

Happy shooting and post the results!

Thanks, I certainly will.

Paulw

Shooting at LOI games in daytime and bright summer evenings, you can get away with f/4 with a decent ISO. But most LOI games are at night and under floodlights. In that situation you really need fast glass, f/2.8. 70-200mm is ok for games. You will be a bit limited for reach though. Learn your camera and settings before you start.

UnleashTheBeast

Firstly, thanks for the excellent guide on your website. I really picked up a lot of stuff.

Paulw wrote: »

Shooting at LOI games in daytime and bright summer evenings, you can get away with f/4 with a decent ISO.

That's what I'm planning to do this weekend - I'm heading out to an u20 game on Sunday at 2pm, so it SHOULD be fairly sunny.... :pac: what sort of ISO should I use, roughly? It's basically just a test run.

Paulw wrote: »

Shooting at LOI games in daytime and bright summer evenings, you can get away with f/4 with a decent ISO. But most LOI games are at night and under floodlights. In that situation you really need fast glass, f/2.8. 70-200mm is ok for games. You will be a bit limited for reach though.

I know my budget isn't huge, the lens is the big investment. I'm not looking to be a professional, I'm just looking to have passable images for fun and maybe for the club website.

Do you have any other suggestions for lenses? €600 is about as high as I can go.

Thanks for the advice.

Paulw

UnleashTheBeast wrote: »

what sort of ISO should I use, roughly?

Do you have any other suggestions for lenses? €600 is about as high as I can go.

ISO400-800, depending on available light. If it's bright and sunny, ISO 200. But, cloudy, start with ISO 400.

As for lenses - you could always consider 2nd hand lenses. Keep an eye on adverts.ie or even photographyireland sales section.

Sigma also do decent priced lenses.

mrboswell

UnleashTheBeast wrote: »

You'll laugh at this... but I'll be honest I'm still unsure of a lot of camera terms. As I've previously stated, the camera I'm using is a Canon EOS 550D with THIS lens.

I'm not entirely sure of how to adjust the ISO. The camera itself has a couple of notches you can flick between, one of them is a sporty one. Is that alright? Is there any other changes I should make to the camera/lens before I take any photos of the football game on Sunday?

I understand what you're saying, but to be honest, I'm even pushing it at €600. I'm not in a position where I can save up for something better, I don't even have the €600 at the moment, I'm awaiting a payment on a job. So I'm trying to get as good as I can for the €500/600 if you get me.

I know this sounds obvious and I don't mean it to sound condescending in any way but if you read the manual and you are familiar with the operations of the camera and how to adjust them it will make it a lot easier when you start trying to use them.

Other than that stick with Paulw's guide and you won't go too far wrong.

Personally I spent money on a couple of cheap lenses when I was starting out and I was sorry that I did but that was just my experience.

But I certainly appreciate the urge to upgrade!! (like most of us on here!!)

UnleashTheBeast

Went along to the game, took a few snaps...lovely day for it, I really struggled at times to capture the action, but it was my first time taking sports photos so it will come to me with time and practice hopefully.

Here are some uncropped images of the game, I didn't have a monopod, it's on the way in the mail.

please, C+C

Thank you














Rest of the set are HERE.

Paulw

Some decent picts, but you need to crop them tighter down to just the action. Remove extra players and spare space.

Balfey1972

Good first attempt.

As Paul said crop the action a bit tighter.
Use picassa for this if you don't use photoshop of lightroom.

Decent free program from Google that is easy to use for cropping and straightening photos.

D.

Thecageyone

Nice crisp and clear shots, you'll do well when you get that faster lens

Irfanview is what I use for quick crops and resizing for upload, also free.

UnleashTheBeast

Wow, thanks guys. I honestly wasn't expecting this much praise !

I've just cropped the images, I'll upload them as soon as Pix.ie comes back online (its offline for maintenance).

I'll post a link as soon as I upload them.

The Snipe

I took some of the Mervue & Limerick Game on Friday using a 400D & Sigma 18-200 3.6-5.6 and this is what I got:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=67450492&postcount=221

Just shoot at as high an aparture as possible, Although for most those photos I had to use an ISO Of about 1600, so they were grainy when at larger resolutions.

UnleashTheBeast

UnleashTheBeast wrote: »

I'll post a link as soon as I upload them.

Cropped images - http://pix.ie/vinnyoc/album/385039/goto/1859161

Thecageyone

Nicely done. One guy's arm is half cut off in one though, and the long one with the two guys jumping to head the ball is a bit of a tall image, probably look better evened out at the sides a small bit. Good stuff though.

Paulw

UnleashTheBeast wrote: »

Cropped images - http://pix.ie/vinnyoc/album/385039/goto/1859161

I think you've gone from "not cropped enough" to "over-cropped".

xadacka

Keep in mind that the EF 70-200 is actually somewhere closer to 112-320 because of your cameras crop factor (APS-C sensor)

And personally I like to keep the ISO as low as possible, Which means buying faster glass... The EF 70-200 f/2.8 is what I would personally buy if I was you.

swingking

Sigma make a 70-200 f2.8 lens for about the 600 euro price mark. It's not Canon L glass but from what i've heard it's a very good lens.

UnleashTheBeast

swingking wrote: »

Sigma make a 70-200 f2.8 lens for about the 600 euro price mark. It's not Canon L glass but from what i've heard it's a very good lens.

Is this the lens you're talking about? http://www.simplyelectronics.net/mainproduct.php?pid=1770&sd=specs

swingking

UnleashTheBeast wrote: »

Is this the lens you're talking about? http://www.simplyelectronics.net/mainproduct.php?pid=1770&sd=specs

Didn't realise they had a mark 2 version of that lens. Bit more expensive than I thought oops

UnleashTheBeast

swingking wrote: »

Didn't realise they had a mark 2 version of that lens. Bit more expensive than I thought oops

My current lens is a Canon EF-S 55-250mm


Would I notice much difference in zooming with lets say a

Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 II

or

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L


Considering they're both 70-200mm and the EF is 55-250mm?

I assume the image quality would improve significantly and the lighting would be far improved?

What would be the main improvements from going from an EF 55-250, to either of the aforementioned lenses that I'm thinking of getting?

TinyExplosions

UnleashTheBeast wrote: »

My current lens is a Canon EF-S 55-250mm


Would I notice much difference in zooming with lets say a

Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 II

or

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L


Considering they're both 70-200mm and the EF is 55-250mm?

I assume the image quality would improve significantly and the lighting would be far improved?

What would be the main improvements from going from an EF 55-250, to either of the aforementioned lenses that I'm thinking of getting?

The biggest difference is the aperture. At full zoom on your 55-250, you have a max aperture of 5.6, where's it's F:4 on the Canon, or F2.8 on the Sigma. This will make a big difference in allowing you faster shutter speeds etc etc, and is well worth the difference in my book (I'd get the Sigma)

UnleashTheBeast

Took a few snaps at an U20 game today, very hard to get much consistency because it kept raining and I didn't have the appropriate gear, something to get in the not too distant future.











Full set- http://pix.ie/vinnyoc/album/385321/goto/1864956