Help please.

[ballplayer41291]

I am relatively new to the world of photography but being that I am going back to school (do to being laid off) for communication art and design I have really become a fan of photography. I recently purchased a Nikon D90 and I love taking sports photos of my 3 nephews. Right now is football season and I really would like to be able to get some good pictures at one of their night games. I unfortunately do not have the funds to get a low f stop lens so I am limited to the Nikkor lenses I got when I purchased the camera. My question is what would be a good setting to get the sharpest pictures without blur in a pretty bad lighting situation for night football. I did purchase the SB-600 AF Speedlight external flash but I have seen mixed reports on wether to use a flash or not. So if anyone has any input I would be greatly appreciative.

 

[Flash Harry]

You need fast glass, good floodlights on the scene, and a camera which will give low noise at high iso, the D90 so I hear is quite a good performer at high iso so buy yourself a 50mm f1.8 nikor for £90, (your equivalent) up your iso to 1600 and go try it out.

Bigger lens would be better but pricy, the f2.8 180mm is about £600 here I think, which would do for what you want, its super sharp and on your crop sensor will give around about a 260-70 telephoto view. H

ps Flash will be a waste of time unless your close to the action but may get you slung out of the game for blinding players

 

[KmH]

I am relatively new to the world of photography but being that I am going back to school (do to being laid off) for communication art and design I have really become a fan of photography. I recently purchased a Nikon D90 and I love taking sports photos of my 3 nephews. Right now is football season and I really would like to be able to get some good pictures at one of their night games. I unfortunately do not have the funds to get a low f stop lens so I am limited to the Nikkor lenses I got when I purchased the camera. My question is what would be a good setting to get the sharpest pictures without blur in a pretty bad lighting situation for night football. I did purchase the SB-600 AF Speedlight external flash but I have seen mixed reports on wether to use a flash or not. So if anyone has any input I would be greatly appreciative.

I agree, the SB-600 would be of little use, however you can extend the range of it somewhat with a Better Beamer attachment. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/431905-REG/Visual_Echoes_FX4_FX4_Better_Beamer_for.html

There is just no substitute for aperture and reach when it comes shooting night field sports.

That said, noisy photos are preferabe to blurry photos. Crank up your ISO.

 

[Derrel]

There is a contingent of pro sports shooters here in the USA who shoot nighttime high school football using a d-slr and flash...and some of them are pretty high-level professionals. If you ask players about the flash, they'll say, "what flash?" One technnique is shooting with a fast lens at f/2.8 and 1/250 with a Nikon flash dialled down to Minus 2.7 stops, as a bit of fill-in for under the helmets and to alleviate noise.

You do not mention what lenses you have available...if you have ONLY a slowish kit zoom lens like the 18-55 or some other f/3.5~5.6 lens, you can basically forget about night football that is totally stop-action. It also depends on what positions they play...are your nephews linemen? Or running backs? You "can" pan with running players and get nice-looking shots, and you "can" stop peak-action on "some" plays with slowish shutter speeds...but it's not high-percentage, especially for a beginning shooter.

Rod Mar, formerly of the Seattle Times (now working for the Seahawks) has written a lot about shooting football. How to Photograph Football - A Picture's Worth | PhotoShelter

 

[ballplayer41291]

Thanks for the reply I forgot about mentioning the lense and it was a AF-S NIKKOR 70-300MM 1:4.5-5.6G VR. Not sure if that helps you but I really got frustrated do to the fact that the first time I shot a game they were really sharp and then the next game they didn't comeout as well. I am not sure what happened but I am sure it had to do with some changed settings. Note to self remember to write down the settings that seem to work ha ha. I wish I had the money to get a better lense but right now it's just not going to happen. My nephews play the line and one QB's and another one kicks so some are harder to catch in the action. I am usually on the sidelines pretty close to the action and have actually almost been taken out a few times and like you said I have had no comments from the players or the coaches in terms of using the flash. I just love taking sports pictures and would love to do it as a profession but unfortunately I am not getting any younger(37) and there is a lot of competition out there. Next up for me will be my nephews basketball and my daughters varsity dance team which was actually state champs last year. I am sure I will have more questions to come and I am thankfull for these kinds of forums with people like you willing to help.

 

[tirediron]

Determine your highest usable ISO (That is the highest ISO at which you are happy with the quality of the pictures vs. noise), set your camera to shutter priority with a shutter speed of at least 1/200th second (You can go down to 1/125, but you'll start to get motion blur on the faster plays) and see how it works. Unfortunately, there really is no substitute for long, fast glass. Keep an eye on Craig's List and other used boards for used Sigma, Tamron and Tokina lenses; they may not be quite as good as their Nikon cousins, but the price will more than make up for that.