Local Footy Matches

[Joeyjoe]

I was invited by the local photography company to come and help shoot the local league matches tonight, first, the Reserve team, followed by the A-grade team.
I've been loaned a Sigma 150-600sport lens, tripod and gimbal to play with for a couple of weeks until I pick up my 600 lens next month.
Being my first sports shooting event, it was a quick learning curve on managing fast action in low light at distances.
Doing some comparison shots on the 600 mm lens compared to my 300mm lens was night and day when I did some test shots at 300mm at one of the stadium lights.

For the 2 games, I took about 850 photos, and skimming through them, I've picked about 53 or so ones that will be worth developing.
As we know, night shooting is difficult, let alone on moving subjects at speed, trying to keep the shutter speed at an 800 min, ISO maxxed out on auto and mostly at 600mm zoom. But keeping that in mind, I think all the shots I chose to develop turned out nicely.

Here is a selection of the shots that I've developed.

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day mate

A really beaut collection of fast action shots - well done
Night shooting under lights is never easy and an (almost) maxxed-out ISO becomes pretty necessary to even get a goodie, and you have managed a heap of 'em

Give yourself an extra pat-on-the-back tonight
Phil

[loose cannon]

Yeah, good work under difficult conditions

[Isac]

Great effort Joe. They should be pleased with your images. A few tips: set up back button focus, you will never go back to half press. Manual mode, Max focus points, Shutter speed start at 500 and adjust to faster if needed. Lowest f stop you have, only open up to get more DOF. Auto ISO (grain is so easy to remove in post), AI SERVO, High Speed Continuous. Set these settings as Custom Shooting Mode (C3) so you can switch quickly to it without looking.

[Joeyjoe]

Thanks, I've set that up. I've been invited to shoot the AFL game coming up in 2 weeks, so I'll try to remember to use the back button.
Do I just hold that down as I track the players I'm aiming for? Similar to feathering the shutter button to keep the auto focus locked on?

[Isac]

I only use BBF (for the last 12+ years) and keep it pressed with the thumb while tracking and then just hold the shutter button down to take bursts. Works a treat. I'll never go back to 1/2 press the shutter button to get focus or metering.

[Isac]

Have a look at these:
https://youtu.be/2AXUzslHnRc
https://youtu.be/sdfnvCWqb_A

[Joeyjoe]

Thanks Isac, I just tried the BBF setting on this fella for practice

[Isac]

Perfect! Once you use it for a while and come to grips with it, your muscle memory will just go to it automatically. It might take a couple of days but well worth it. You can also set up 2 back buttons for different scenarios - one for stationary subjects and the other for action. Stick with it - it's so much superior to half press.

[wigz]

Excellent action there - well done. It's not easy taking photos of fast moving players under lights.

Nice work capturing the ball in that pass

Is there any reason that you don't brighten the darker shots - it makes a big difference.

[Joeyjoe]

It was interesting that when I finished developing them, I increased the exposure and brightness so they appeared at a decent amount of exposure, but when saved it dulled them down a bit again

[wigz]

Very strange.

[SharonH]

Great shots