# Photographed a football match but unhappy with results.



## Seventen (May 28, 2014)

Hi there.

I photographed a football match on Saturday and had some issued freezing the action. I was using continuous focus mode and in shutter priority. Still I had these issues freezing the action maybe could there have been a focus issue? I was using a shutter speed of over 1/1000 sec most the time and mainly 1/1600 ISO 1000 aperture f/8 - f/11 the sun was behind me and I was using Nikon d5100 with the Tamron 70 - 300mm VC USD. I had the VC turned on could this have been the issue shooting so fast shutter speed with it ? 

I went to the game and hoped that I would be using Shutter speed at 1/800 ISO 200-400 and F/8 ish but on preview looked a bit too blurred. I dont have any of the bad images as just dumped them but have kept 3 images that maybe you could see what I could have changed about them? 

Thank you.


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## The_Traveler (May 28, 2014)

you would get better feedback if you posted either the entire image or part of the image at full size.
by posting a reduced size, you are also reducing the actual problem and compounding it with the distortion that comes with reducing images.


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## curtyoungblood (May 28, 2014)

If you're using a shutter speed of 1/1600th of a second, it is highly unlikely that you're seeing any motion blur. That should be plenty fast enough to freeze action. I think it is much more likely that you're just missing father focus.


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## Seventen (May 28, 2014)

It wouldnt let me post the original size but its large size. Sorry I thought I read somewhere a long time ago to keep image sizes small for posting.


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## 412 Burgh (May 28, 2014)

I'm unfamiliar with that lens. But that shutter speed is very quick and should freeze the action. Even at F8. However, if you're camera has it. I would suggest looking into auto ISO. However. I think it's only the D7000 and up that have that feature.


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## Seventen (May 28, 2014)

412 Burgh said:


> I'm unfamiliar with that lens. But that shutter speed is very quick and should freeze the action. Even at F8. However, if you're camera has it. I would suggest looking into auto ISO. However. I think it's only the D7000 and up that have that feature.



Thanks have turned on the auto ISO will give that a go for a while. The d5100 did have it under the menu.


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## Seventen (May 28, 2014)

curtyoungblood said:


> If you're using a shutter speed of 1/1600th of a second, it is highly unlikely that you're seeing any motion blur. That should be plenty fast enough to freeze action. I think it is much more likely that you're just missing father focus.




Just one week before this I went to the world speedway championship and was using shutter speed 1/800 ISO 800 f4 and was freezing the action perfectly no motion blur no focus mishaps but this football game I took about 500 images and only 46 were OK after sorting further only 8 were actually OK.


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## runnah (May 28, 2014)

curtyoungblood said:


> I think it is much more likely that you're just missing the focus.



This. What AF mode are you using?


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## Seventen (May 28, 2014)

Was using single point continuous same as I used for motor sport and small birds and have never had issues, I thought the AF could have been a issue but when I checked back on View NX the focus points were on the heads of player I was after if not on heads if too far away it was on the player at least.


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## Amocholes (May 28, 2014)

What I noticed was that it was close to noon. The sun is almost directly overhead. Faces are shadowed.


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## Light Guru (May 28, 2014)

Seventen said:


> aperture f/8 - f/11



Use a bigger aperture (smaller number) and blur out that background.  Your backgrounds are distracting and draw attention away from the subject.


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## robbins.photo (May 28, 2014)

I use a D5200 and a Sigma 70-200 mm F/2.8.  One thing I have noticed when shooting at higher shutter speeds, if I leave the OS on I will sometimes get a noticeable blur on some of the final images.  It doesn't seem to happen on all of them but it does seem to happen say as much as 20-30% of the time at higher shutter speeds.  At first I assumed i was simply missing the focus point, etc - but after doing some testing I discovered that if I shut the OS system off when shooting at higher shutter speeds (1/500 and up), I don't seem to experience the issue at all.  The images come out nice and sharp.

I can't say for certain your seeing the same thing since your lens is a Tamron rather than a sigma - but you might want to try the same thing and shut the VC system down when shooting at higher shutter speeds.  Made a world of difference for me.


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## vintagesnaps (May 28, 2014)

I don't see movement blur or shutter blur; I think it might be the focus. In the last one #25 looks more in focus than the other players, and I noticed the flag to the left looks more in focus. You might need to get some practice shots and see what settings for your camera will get a large enough area of the field all in focus (to get a group of players all in focus). 

I've done mostly hockey and have usually used a midrange or smaller aperture (I may have used a larger aperture for example during warmups when I'd want to get a particular player up close). 

I don't use modes, I use manual settings. Maybe you need to try other settings to figure out what would work better for you. I would expect outdoors in the sun to be able to get a fast enough shutter speed without needing such a high ISO. 

A lot of shooting sports is the timing, knowing where to be and where the action will go - go early and find some good vantage points where the background looks good when you frame using your viewfinder/viewscreen, then get set to be able to get focused when play comes into view. I often would focus on the net and wait til action moved to my end and then adjust focus as needed. It takes practice.


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## TheNevadanStig (May 28, 2014)

From a technical standpoint these all look OK to me. There is no motion blur that I see. 
I am not sure why on earth you are running ISO 1000 at a mid day outdoor shoot. You should be able to pull plenty enough of a shutter speed and aperture setting to keep an ISO easily under something like 400. What I do see is some missed focusing issues. Try to keep the focus point on a head. If you use something like a chest, you'll likely catch a swaying arm. And I see that in some of these shots, looks like the focus point is somewhere between the players.
From a getting a better picture standpoint you can do a few things. First thing I noticed is how high the camera seems to be. I'm not sure if you are just that much taller than the players, or if you were in the bleachers, but getting down lower would have helped all of these shots. Second, would be to pick out a single subject, and not worry about shooting such a small aperture. Third, you need much better facial contact. Soccer isn't a very action filled sport, so there isn't a real reason any of these crops need to be so wide. Get good facial contact, zoom in a little tighter, and show the actual emotion of the players and the game more.


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## Seventen (May 28, 2014)

vintagesnaps said:


> I don't see movement blur or shutter blur; I think it might be the focus. In the last one #25 looks more in focus than the other players, and I noticed the flag to the left looks more in focus. You might need to get some practice shots and see what settings for your camera will get a large enough area of the field all in focus (to get a group of players all in focus).
> 
> I've done mostly hockey and have usually used a midrange or smaller aperture (I may have used a larger aperture for example during warmups when I'd want to get a particular player up close).
> 
> ...




That was maybe a bad image to have enlarged as someone else stole the focus and it became a little bit lost, it was only first time shooting football so will keep practicing, wanted to get some tips and got some great ones to try next time. It felt very different to motor sports.


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## Seventen (May 28, 2014)

robbins.photo said:


> I use a D5200 and a Sigma 70-200 mm F/2.8.  One thing I have noticed when shooting at higher shutter speeds, if I leave the OS on I will sometimes get a noticeable blur on some of the final images.  It doesn't seem to happen on all of them but it does seem to happen say as much as 20-30% of the time at higher shutter speeds.  At first I assumed i was simply missing the focus point, etc - but after doing some testing I discovered that if I shut the OS system off when shooting at higher shutter speeds (1/500 and up), I don't seem to experience the issue at all.  The images come out nice and sharp.
> 
> I can't say for certain your seeing the same thing since your lens is a Tamron rather than a sigma - but you might want to try the same thing and shut the VC system down when shooting at higher shutter speeds.  Made a world of difference for me.




I will try that out as normally am around 1/500 but up it to make sure its frozen was above 1/1000, and must say recently i was having issues around 1/800 trying to image a bird that was just walking around and was terrible images yet the focus point was right on after checking.


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## Derrel (May 28, 2014)

robbins.photo said:


> I use a D5200 and a Sigma 70-200 mm F/2.8.  One thing I have noticed *when shooting at higher shutter speeds, if I leave the OS on I will sometimes get a noticeable blur on some of the final images*.  It doesn't seem to happen on all of them but it does seem to happen say *as much as 20-30% of the time at higher shutter speeds.*  At first I assumed i was simply missing the focus point, etc - but after doing some testing I discovered that if I shut the OS system off when shooting at higher shutter speeds (1/500 and up), I don't seem to experience the issue at all.  The images come out nice and sharp.
> 
> I can't say for certain your seeing the same thing since your lens is a Tamron rather than a sigma - but you might want to try the same thing and shut the VC system down when shooting at higher shutter speeds.  Made a world of difference for me.



I had the SAME problem with my 70-200 VR lens when shooting at fast, hand-held speeds with the VR set to ON. I had no idea what was causing the weird look to my shots. It's an inconsistent thing, so as robbins.photo mentioned, it's not an "always" kind of problem. When shooting at FAST shutter speeds under normal conditions, like standing on solid ground and shooting a football match, turn the stabilizing system to OFF; that is what the manufacturers' own web sites and manuals universally say to do!


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## Seventen (May 28, 2014)

TheNevadanStig said:


> From a technical standpoint these all look OK to me. There is no motion blur that I see.
> I am not sure why on earth you are running ISO 1000 at a mid day outdoor shoot. You should be able to pull plenty enough of a shutter speed and aperture setting to keep an ISO easily under something like 400. What I do see is some missed focusing issues. Try to keep the focus point on a head. If you use something like a chest, you'll likely catch a swaying arm. And I see that in some of these shots, looks like the focus point is somewhere between the players.
> From a getting a better picture standpoint you can do a few things. First thing I noticed is how high the camera seems to be. I'm not sure if you are just that much taller than the players, or if you were in the bleachers, but getting down lower would have helped all of these shots. Second, would be to pick out a single subject, and not worry about shooting such a small aperture. Third, you need much better facial contact. Soccer isn't a very action filled sport, so there isn't a real reason any of these crops need to be so wide. Get good facial contact, zoom in a little tighter, and show the actual emotion of the players and the game more.



Unffortuantly I had got rid of the problem files but wanted to use these ones for advice anyway, I was not going to ask for advice yet and wait for the next game but thought it wouldnt hurt to be little more prepare next time. 
I couldnt get to 1/1600 without upping the ISO, When I dropped Aperture thought maybe it was DOF issues thats why started using between f8 and f11 to eliminate DOF issues. It was about 4pm and sun was very high and harsh but I tried lowering ISO and was coming out under exposed. Maybe it was me using spot metering caused a issue with keeping exposure OK. 
There was people using the running track so was only able to kneel down every so often most the time had to either be right on the field line or the other side of track. 
I done some really zoomed in ones but maybe the amateur football here was not exciting at all and looked rather alone. But will try all these tips been getting and keep practicing


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## Seventen (May 28, 2014)

Derrel said:


> robbins.photo said:
> 
> 
> > I use a D5200 and a Sigma 70-200 mm F/2.8.  One thing I have noticed *when shooting at higher shutter speeds, if I leave the OS on I will sometimes get a noticeable blur on some of the final images*.  It doesn't seem to happen on all of them but it does seem to happen say *as much as 20-30% of the time at higher shutter speeds.*  At first I assumed i was simply missing the focus point, etc - but after doing some testing I discovered that if I shut the OS system off when shooting at higher shutter speeds (1/500 and up), I don't seem to experience the issue at all.  The images come out nice and sharp.
> ...



I do find myself trying to hold as steady as I can so this is something I will be trying at higher speeds. Maybe from now on I will use VC only under 1/400 as I am pretty sure dont need it over that. Something I will need to remember and embed into my brain turn VC off when its not needed.


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## imagemaker46 (May 28, 2014)

Shutter speed is fine, shooting around 5.6 would help with the backgrounds. Try shooting down the field instead of across, it will give you a cleaner background.  The content is there, but the shooting position could be better.  A wider aperture would help give you subject separation from the background.


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## Seventen (May 29, 2014)

imagemaker46 said:


> Shutter speed is fine, shooting around 5.6 would help with the backgrounds. Try shooting down the field instead of across, it will give you a cleaner background.  The content is there, but the shooting position could be better.  A wider aperture would help give you subject separation from the background.



Thank you, when you say shooting down the field do you mean to stand behind the goal line and shoot from there? or is there a good all round place to be standing?


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## imagemaker46 (May 29, 2014)

Shooting from the end is one of the best places to be. Even if you stay near the corner and shoot up field, it still gives you the opportunity to shoot the net.


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## Seventen (May 29, 2014)

imagemaker46 said:


> Shooting from the end is one of the best places to be. Even if you stay near the corner and shoot up field, it still gives you the opportunity to shoot the net.



Thank you I will head behind the net next time I go there.


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## Hof8231 (May 29, 2014)

Haven't read the previous comments so I apologize if this has already been said, but I think your positioning had a big impact on you not liking the photos. The shadows are really harsh (understandable when shooting in the afternoon) but I think you might have been better off shooting from behind one of the goal lines. I know your football is a lot different (and in my opinion, better) than our American football, but when I shoot American football, I like to shoot from behind the goal lines. It requires longer lenses, but I feel like I get better shots. If you like shooting from the sidelines, which is perfectly understandable, I would recommend finding a spot where the lighting is less harsh and where the shadows are less likely to be so prominent. 

Also, don't use IS/VC/whatever else some other companies call it while shooting sports. I find it can actually cause blur (go figure) and softness when shooting with high shutter speeds.


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