Photographed a football match but unhappy with results.

[Seventen]

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.

 

[The_Traveler]

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.

 

[curtyoungblood]

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.

 

[Seventen]

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.

 

[412 Burgh]

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.

 

[Seventen]

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.

 

[Seventen]

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.

 

[runnah]

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

This. What AF mode are you using?

 

[Seventen]

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.

 

[Amocholes]

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

 

[Light Guru]

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.

 

[robbins.photo]

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.

 

[vintagesnaps]

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.

 

[TheNevadanStig]

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.

 

[Seventen]

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.

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.