Shooting the Red Sox Game tonight-kind of urgent

[lkWinnipesaukee]

Hey guys,

For US members who follow baseball, I'll be at the 7th ALCS game between the Red Sox and the Indians. I just had a few questions.

I shot a game before with the seats we had (100 feet back from 3rd base, kind of in the outfield, 15 rows up) and got some decent shots, but with my Sigma 70-200 2.8 lens it was hard to get anything close up, so I had to crop.

One HUGE problem I had was focusing. Since I couldn't get close enough, it would tend to autofocus not on the players, but whatever was behind them, so I got blurry players and tack sharp fans...
I tried closing the aperture a bit, but then I either had to up the ISO to 1600 (bad on my XT) or use a much slower shutter speed, both of which are bad.

Any ideas on how I can get in-focus, frozen, and sharp photos using what I have? Responses ASAP would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks!!

 

[Campbell]

I don't have any experience in this area so I unfortunately don't have any advice, but that is pretty awesome you're going to the game tonight.

Good luck :thumbup:

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Just set your focus point and focus on the players, and keep your aperture at f/2.8.

 

[Mike_E]

Good luck!

 

[Rock]

Was a great game. Did you get any good shots?

 

[lkWinnipesaukee]

A few. Still had lots of trouble focusing on the players and not the fans behind them. The focus point square didn't entirely cover their bodies, so the camera wanted to focus behind them.

I'll post them up here once they're edited.

 

[Big Mike]

You could focus manually, but that might be hard to do accurately, if you are quite far away.

What focus mode were you in? and what method did you use?

I have my AF set to the * button rather than the shutter release button...so I can activate the AF, get it to focus on what I want, then release the button to disengage AF. Then, as long as the player doesn't move too much, you can shoot all you want without have the camera focus on anything else.

I'm not sure if you can set that on the XT or not...it should be CF#4.

 

[(Ghastly) Krueger]

I'm not sure if you can set that on the XT or not...it should be CF#4.

Yep, can be done. Pg. 149 in the user's manual

 

[kundalini]

I missed a most of the games because I was away and without a TV (no complaints), but caught games 6 & 7. Great baseball. I'm part Saponi, but still was pulling for the Sox to win.

Post your photos, please.

 

[WDodd]

I would like to see the photos as well despite the fact that it will bring back painful memories for me. (I had tickets to World Series games 1 & 6 had the Indians won)

 

[Rock]

I just moved away from NH so I am still a die hard sox fan....Wish I could have been there.

 

[JerryPH]

Hard to say since I have never shot a baseball game, but... in cases where I am forced to use a manual focus, and it will be hard to know in advance where... hyperfocus is my friend.

This is a technique where you use a numerically higher aperture and preset the lens for a specific focus point based on lens characteristics. The effect is that everything from (lets say) 10 feet to infinity remains clear. Focus becomes a non-issue... however, I do not know how that would affect your shuter speed as this is affected and I don't know how well your stadium is lit.