Help!!...Night LAX games under High School lights

[BlueHoseJacket]

I am trying to get shots of my daughters LAX team, unfortunatley all but two of their games have started at 7:30 p.m. Is there any hope? I am shooting with a Canon XT with a 70-200mm f4 L series. I am thinking about renting a 2.8 for a week to see if I see any improvement during the next two games. What do you guys think?



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[vt1122]

What ISO and shutter speed were you shooting at?
The 1st couple of shots look under exposed which is adding to the noise.

[sportshound]

I was facing the same issue after I bought myself a D80 for Christmas in '06 - trying to shoot night baseball games and volleyball games indoors. I would suggest not bothering to rent a 2.8 lens - just get to eBay and start bidding on some used ones for your gear. That's what I did and I'm now the proud owner of 2 - Nikkor 28-70 and 80-200 - both off of eBay. I don't even bother with my other lenses anymore. You definitely need the 2.8 aperture for night or indoor shooting where you can't use a flash.

[BlueHoseJacket]

I am typically shooting aperture priority f4 with the ISO at 1600.

[BlueHoseJacket]

I would LOVE to purcahse a 2.8...my problem....$$$$$ or lack of it. I am thinking about selling the f4 to go towards the cost of a 2.8.
If I rent, at least I can get a couple of games and my daughters prom.

[KMCC]

Without a f/2.8 lens, you're at a great technical disadvantage trying to shoot any sport at night.

An f/4.0 lens just won't gather enough light to allow you to use a shutter speed fast enough to eliminate blurring.

When I shoot at night, I typically shoot in Manual mode, ISO 1600 or 3200 (depending on the quality of the stadium lights), f/2.8, and a shutter speed of either 1/400 or 1/500.

Here's a couple of examples from a game that I shot last night (Friday 3/21). Both were shot at f/2.8, ISO 3200, 1/500 sec.


http://kent.smugmug.com/photos/268937235_V4wuu-L.jpg (http://kent.smugmug.com/photos/newexif.mg?ImageID=268937235_V4wuu)

http://kent.smugmug.com/photos/268939282_NCo7K-L.jpg

[BlueHoseJacket]

Ken,

that's pretty much what I assumed, I had my ISO as high as it would go and the aperture wide open. I just need for the days to get longer or my boss to give me a big raise. I guess I will wait on mother nature.

Were you shooting the varsity Milton/Lassiter game? who won? My daughter plays for Pope, are you shooting any of their games?

[KMCC]

Ken,

that's pretty much what I assumed, I had my ISO as high as it would go and the aperture wide open. I just need for the days to get longer or my boss to give me a big raise. I guess I will wait on mother nature.

Were you shooting the varsity Milton/Lassiter game? who won? My daughter plays for Pope, are you shooting any of their games?
Yes, these shots were from the Lasssiter at Milton varsity girls game. I also shot the junior varsity boys and the varsity boys games against Lassiter (long evening! :D).

Milton won all three games by wide margins; with the exception of the JV boys game which was fairly close; something like 8-5.

[sportsshooter06]

Ken,

that's pretty much what I assumed, I had my ISO as high as it would go and the aperture wide open. I just need for the days to get longer or my boss to give me a big raise. I guess I will wait on mother nature.

Were you shooting the varsity Milton/Lassiter game? who won? My daughter plays for Pope, are you shooting any of their games?

Unfortunately, without the ability to have higher ISO, the f4 lens will not give you enough shutter speed to stop the action and avoid motion blur.
I routinely shoot Baseball< Lax, and Football at night. Even using a 300mm , f2.8 vr and a camera that wil give ISO 6400 cleanly, it is a challenge to shoot at night. 1/640 maybe 1/800 is about as fast as one field will give us. Even those shutter speeds are not high enough for Baserunners, Catching clean shots of the ball etc.
What most of us must understand is that when you shoot HS or most College games under the lights, there is just not enough Illumanation. Pro stadiums etc, have brighter and more continuous lights, therefore higher shutter speeds and easier shooting. If you want to shoot at night, you must sacrifice some of your needs for moving action or try to get faster lenses etc.
Just my 2 cents after trying to stop the action in the evening, when you just can't squeeze out the shutter speed.

http://sportsshooter.smugmug.com/photos/268095429_Nai5M-L.jpg
This photo was taken while there was still natural light. The Ball is almost perfect.

http://sportsshooter.smugmug.com/photos/268095837_V5rqW-L.jpg
this one was taken, when darkness came,, see the ball totally blurred, shutter speed had fallen to 1/640 just not fast enough for a good smooth shot.

Hope this helps, good shooting.

[cecilc]

Is there any hope? I am shooting with a Canon XT with a 70-200mm f4 L series.

I know the field that you're shooting on, and if you're shooting at anything less than f2.8; ISO 1600; 1/320 .... then you're underexposed. I don't know the EXIF data from your shots, but my first guess is that the f4.0 lens you're using will be too slow for under those lights ...

And if you're shooting in AV mode at f4.0 and ISO 1600, then I'm assuming that your shutter speed is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/200 or 1/160 - too slow to stop action .....

I might be over there to shoot the Pope vs. Etowah girls' game on Wednesday at 5:30 .... look for me !!