1st Attempt At Shooting Football

[yellalablady]

My granddaughter is in the Marching Band at her high school. We went to the game Friday night to cheer them on. Over all I was pleased with my photos. Here are a couple. Tell me what you think I could do differently. C&C Welcome

ISO 1,250, 1/80, f/5.6
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/503/IMG_9607Zo.jpg

ISO 1,250, 1/125, f/5.6
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/503/thumbs/IMG_9590Zo.jpg (http://www.photozo.com/album/showphoto.php?photo=150600)

This is my granddaughter playing the flute.
ISO 1,250, 1/60, f/5.0
http://www.photozo.com/album/data/503/thumbs/IMG_9476Zo.jpg (http://www.photozo.com/album/showphoto.php?photo=150599)

edit to add: Link still needs little work. Had to add the img tags myself.

[brucep]

Nice exposures, Monnie. Generally photos which include both the ball and the players' faces are preferred. You'll develop the reflexes and ability to predict their moves with a bit of practice.

[yellalablady]

Thanks, Bruce. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

[wulos]

I'm actually quite suprised at how 'still' the action is for such 'low' shutterspeeds.
I would have expected to have used higher S/S & ISO to freeze the play.

[yellalablady]

You and me both, Mark. I think it's because in both of these shots there is a split second of non-motion for the main subjects. In both cases, you'll notice there is motion blur in the photo. I knew using such slow shutter speeds was taking a big chance, and I did delete a lot of photos because of it. I was just lucky to get a few that were keepers. I might post a few more later.

[Teachable]

Monnie those are great. Bruce is correct regarding the ball in the picture. However, in this sitution, the ball would have been nothing but a blurry streak in the image - not even in a good way. Luckly, the slow SS does strongly infer the action you were capturing - works almost as well. Wow! That must be a very well lit stadium. I have been attempting to shoot my son's highschool games. Light is a precious commodity. I'm shooting ISO 1,000 1/250 f2.8 and have not been all that pleased. Regarding noise - No doubt canon rules. I shoot the nikon D200 and ISO 1,000 seems to be the max that gives good results. The thing that has been driving me crazy is focus. Grrrr. I love auto focus but these guys move fast and there always seems to be other objects (players and refs - Got lots of pictures of their rear ends - grrrr) that get in front of the camera and throw the focus off. It has been a learning game for me. Hopefully, the team will get to the playoffs. That will give me a couple of more games to practice. I am thinking of getting the D300 - better noise performance, greater FPS, and a much more advanced AF system. Obviously, it is not the photographer -- It has to be the equipment. Something that can be fixed by helping our economy.