Football game photography

[shinermom]

I could use some tips on taking photos of my son on the football field. I have a Canon PowerShot S3IS. I usually shoot in Sport mode. Some of my shots turn out great but most are blurry and out of focus. I am taking these shots from the stands. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[matthewchj]

1. Use as high shutter speed as lighting conditions allow
2. Use the longer end of the focal length range
3. Use IS.

Hope this helps!

[clockdoc]

Hi and welcome to the group. You have an excellent camera that should provide superb shots of your son on the football field. Matthew has provided some helpful tips. I am not familiar with your camera but I shoot soccer in the sports mode with uses a high shutter speed. This shot below was made a 1/1000 second but I was right on the sideline and only shooting at 78mm focal length (not using telephoto).


It would help if you could post a link to some of your shots that are blurry or out of focus. Also by examining the EXIF data (ISO, shutter speed, f/stop) we can see how each shot was made. Are you using the image stabilizetion mode and is it turned on? This mode will not help if you are panning with the action. As for focus, you may not be allowing the camera to auto focus and are quickly depressing the shutter button in one swift motion as opposed to the half-way down to focus and set exposure. It may also help if you can get closer to the action. By using a telephoto, any camera motion will be greatly amplified. I look forward to seeing some of your photos.

[shinermom]

I posted a couple of pictures

[clockdoc]

Thanks for the photos. They are a little small but I feel the night shot is showing camera motion from too slow a shutter speed or too long a focal length to be hand-held for a nighttime exposure. You will need to boost your ISO to a higher level to make faster shutter speeds possible. The daytime shot doesn't show as much camera movement in the tiny image but probably is quite apparent in a larger size. Again, if you are using the extreme telephoto setting, handholding will be more difficult. Also when shooting movement, if you had focussed when the runner was at another distance but took the picture farther down the field, the focus would not be at the correct point. Sometimes prefocusing in the manual mode allows the camera to set exposure more quickly. EXIF data would tell me the details I really need to help you more.
Have you considered opening a free flickr account (www.flickr.com) so that you can post larger images?

[HSM]

Depending on the situation, even with plenty of light, I always like to use a monopod which allows me to shoot at lower ISO levels (100 - 300) without losing color. Speed Priority should be a really good setting as well as the Sport default.

[baseballboy828]

Originally Posted by HSM

Depending on the situation, even with plenty of light, I always like to use a monopod which allows me to shoot at lower ISO levels (100 - 300) without losing color. Speed Priority should be a really good setting as well as the Sport default.

Many people suggest using shutter priority. It's a common mistake. However, you are most likely looking for the fastest shutter speed possible. Since increasing the ISO past 400 is death on a point and shoot because of their small sensor size, you have one less way to increase the shutter speed. You really want to shoot in aperture priority with the aperture set wide open. Move the ISO to 400, open up all the way, and you're set.

[rjb_FotoTaker]

You may also try panning with the action you are trying to catch. It will increase your chances of a sharp subject, but the background will have intense motion blur.
My son was playing soccer when I first got my Sony A100, they always played late and the light was poor. I only got about 5 out of 200 shots that were not blurry.

Good luck.

Here are most of my sons football sport pics with good light. Here

[Todd]

I got a monopod. Since at the beggining my frustration level was at 10, I mean I bought the camera to take pistures of my girls playing soccer and had many blurry pictures to start. But to tell the truth the thing that helped me the most was listening to the advice of people on the forum here. I by no means am great (yet) but getting better. Here is an action shot of my youngest daughter I was going to crop out the fans but I think they add to it . Ih yea another thing I think I saw mentioned that realy helps is to try and get closed to the action. Low light is another headache. Keep trying and expierement. Good luck.

[clockdoc]

Nice work, Todd, on the soccer shot. It is sharp and has excellent shadow detail for shooting into the sun. Do you have a ball head on your monopod and if so, what brand is it? I have a monopod with just the simple screw thread but I have not used it in that fashion as it limits how one can angle the camera and also puts it in the landscape mode. I just shot more of our church's soccer league this morning. It was overcast and I used the Tamron 70-300mm in the sports mode and auto ISO. Typically the chutter speed was at 1/500 sec. and wide open or close to it. I shot over 350 images but have very few I would consider "keepers" (no family members are players .) I did most of the shooting between 70 and 150 mm. I have not found much use for the 300mm end of the lens so far for sports. Perhaps if I was in the stands I would use it more. Keep shooting! 8-)