My first attempt at shooting High School Football

[lensbaby]

Here are a few shots that I took from the sidelines. I rented a 70-200 for this one. I was having some issues with focus and I think it was due to when I did not use center point focus and let the 20D decide where the focus point was. Other than that I got a few keepers.

These were shot at 3200 ISO. I shot in RAW and used Noise Ninga.

http://stearnphotography.smugmug.com/photos/96088551-L.jpg
http://stearnphotography.smugmug.com/photos/96088552-L.jpg
http://stearnphotography.smugmug.com/photos/96088553-L.jpg

[dbaker1221]

nice shots. It would be so much nicer if they played during the day wouldn't it?

[stephiewilliams]

Looks like you are following the action pretty well and these are suprisingly bright for HS...the fields I shoot at are horrible. One thing you may want to work on a little is your focus...now I know in suggesting this that it is VERY hard to do during a night game but you have to try and keep the focus on the player with the ball...I noticed it was often on the other players.

[Seefutlung]

Stephie's remarks ar right-on. In photo #1 the center of interest is the QB, but the focus is on the linebacker, in #2 the interest is the ball/running back the focus is on the pursuit, #3 the focus is on the ref not the actual TD. Remember that in sports which use a ball ... for 99.9% of all decent photos ... you gotta have a ball in the shot.

Gary

[lensbaby]

I was using a combination of center point focus and having the 20D auto detect the focus points. Next time I will use center point and recompose and shoot.
Stephie's remarks ar right-on. In photo #1 the center of interest is the QB, but the focus is on the linebacker, in #2 the interest is the ball/running back the focus is on the pursuit, #3 the focus is on the ref not the actual TD. Remember that in sports which use a ball ... for 99.9% of all decent photos ... you gotta have a ball in the shot.

Gary

[johng]

I was using a combination of center point focus and having the 20D auto detect the focus points. Next time I will use center point and recompose and shoot.

Just to be clear you can't focus and recompose in servo mode - you need to keep the focus point on your subject. So if you use center only you may need to frame slightly looser so you can recompose when you crop in post processing.

[FrankieAng]

As Stephie has already mentioned, you had decent ambient lighting at Geneva's field, I shot there last season and did not achieve anything as nice as what you have posted. You will undoubtedly do better with the focusing issues next time out and improve with each game that you shoot. All things considered, these are pretty darned good for images taken at a high school stadium. Keep your eyes on Geneva, they will go deep into the post-season.

[ian408]

I was using a combination of center point focus and having the 20D auto detect the focus points. Next time I will use center point and recompose and shoot.

It would be good to learn how to move the focus point on the fly
when composing the shot. Sometimes you might want left or right or somewhere inbetween. Just remember that not all the focus points are
the same with regard to how they work--take a look in the manual for
the differences.

Cheers,
Ian