Linda Turner

I want to take photos of my grandson at his college football games. I bought my camera for this purpose. I have a Canon T6. My lens I want to use is 75-300. How do I set my camera to take good photos. Linda

Acufine3200 Loc: Texarkana USA

Linda—first, welcome to UHH!—several of will want to jump in and help you, but we’re going to need some additional information.

1st—will you be on the sidelines, or in the stands? If in the stands, how close to the field?

2nd—daytime, or night games?

3rd—what position does your grandson play?

4th—what is your experience level as a photographer? Obviously you just purchased this camera, but do you have a basic understanding of its various settings?

You answers will help us give some good starting points. I’m sure you’re looking forward to sharing your shots with your family.

Linda Turner

Thank you for replying. I will be in the stands. The games are played during the day. He is a wide receiver. I am not an experienced photographer. I am just now learning to take pictures. I am excited to learn how to use my camera.

Acufine3200 Loc: Texarkana USA

OK--you're enthusiasm is going to carry you...which is good. Please know simply purchasing a sophisticated camera and lens does immediately guarantee SPORTS ILLUSTRATED quality shots. Many of us on this site have spent years developing our skills (pun intended for those of us who learned in the days of film, darkrooms, and manual focus lenses.) That said, you have a number of factors in your favor.

First, your grandson plays a position that should give you plenty of opportunities to shoot him exclusively in action, especially since you are in the stands. If at all possible try to get as close to the field as you can. Since your shooting in daylight, also try to sit with the sun either behind you, or to either side; otherwise you will be shooting into the sun and your subjects will be mostly silhouetted. With the crop factor on your camera your lens will reach fairly far onto the field.

Those are the easier parts of my advice. My only experience with Canon cameras was back in the 80's with a AE-1p--a film camera. So, the basics. As long as you have sunlight, I would suggest setting your ISO at 800. You should set your shutter speed at 1000. Then your aperture setting should be automatic. Since you have at least a week before the next game the following link should be elementary enough to help you understand the settings I just suggested. It features your camera.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/canon-t6-user-guide,review-4590.html

If your camera allows "burst shooting"--where when you push the shutter release it fires multiple shots, you will want this setting. Make sure your battery is fully charged. Don't bother using your flash--it doesn't have enough power to affect the quality of the pictures, and will waste the battery.

As your grandson lines-up for the play, train your camera with him completely in the frame, and 1/2 depress the shutter to prefocus your lens. As the play happens, stay on him, and when a pass comes his way, start firing before--before--he starts to catch it. Here's a trick, since your a newbie. Whichever eye is not in the viewfinder, leave it open and use it to give you a wide-field view of what's happening to help you anticipate the action. It's hard at first, but becomes second nature after a while.

Here's another help: When holding your camera, place your left hand underneath the lens so that your elbow rests on your abdomen. This provides a simple tripod effect, and helps steady your lens.

To suggest much more will be overkill. You should have several games left in the season to allow you plenty of opportunities. I will let you know--having worked with countless individuals on HS sidelines over the years, it's important to have an open mind as you review your shots. There are going to be a lot of duds. Just learning to incorporate light, focus, and high action are difficult. It's part of the learning curve. You have a number of challenges just from having to shoot from the stands.

But, shoot, shoot, and then shoot some more. Don't be afraid to post some on here and ask for help. Most of us will want to help you improve. Also, the internet has numerous sites dedicated to helping you. Don't hesitate to look at the other posts in this section...some such as Jules Karney are good about tagging their settings on their shots--take note, and see if these settings will work for you. The ones I gave you above are just starting points. I can't predict actual lighting, but I can get you close.

Hopefully by season's end you will have a scrapbook full of treasured shots.

Linda Turner

Thank you so much! You are very helpful.

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

Aquafine said it best. Try to follow his suggestions, I agree 100 percent with him.

gessman Loc: Colorado

...being a long time Canon shooter let me expand a bit on what has been said above by a non-Canon shooter. Set your mode dial on TV on top of the camera- that's Canon's setting for "shutter preferred" shooting where you set the shutter speed and the camera does everything else for you. That means that regardless of what else the camera does on its own, you want the shutter speed to be what you select and in this case you want it to be set on 1/1000ths of a second. That will give you the ability to stop almost any human action. You will need to make that selection and will want to refer to your manual about how to do that. Once that's done, consult your manual and you will be ready to put into action the other things you've been told about like setting the iso to 800, although I'm not a total fan of 800 iso, more like 400 with your camera, I'd think, but you can be the judge of that after some practice and see what works best for you.

Now you are ready for some practice shooting and a good place to start is by panning the camera with and shooting at some slow moving cars a little distance from you, then some smaller moving objects like people or animals, maybe a bit closer to you, eventually graduating to faster moving objects until you're comfortable with what you're doing. You really don't need to know more than that to start shooting seriously. You'll start to see your mistakes and can take corrective action based on your observations and remembering what you're supposed to do to get the kinds of shots you want. The more you shoot, the better you'll get especially as you get to better understand the finer points of the game and become better at anticipating the action. You might also want to consider the tips I gave you on your original post in the photo gallery. Carefully analyze your practice shots to be sure you're getting the kinds of shots you want and if not, all you need to do is post pictures here and ask for analysis and further help or advice.

jak86094

My congratulations to Acufine, Karney and Gessman on the advice provided to Ms. Turner. First, you kept to the basics and gave great starting advice. Second, you were all very supportive and encouraging. Third, you kept your advice intelligible to a relative novice. Fourth, I think Acufine's original set of queries to Ms. Turner were spot on and allowed you all to give great advice. Finally, the suggestion to go out and pick common examples of movement in everyday life to sample and practice was perfect. I hope Ms. Turner will take that advice and share some samples so UHH can offer more good advice on fixing any problems she experiences. It's nice when the UHH advice is so clear, accurate and thoughtful. Thanks folks. I'd love to see some sample pictures as well as some of the football photos. jak

Linda Turner

I appreciate so much your willingness to help me. I will do exactly as you have said. Thanks a million!

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

Practice and more practice. I have been shooting sports for over 50 years and I still want to learn from others.
Shoot some shots and post on this site. We can from there guide and make comments.
Good luck and welcome.

gessman Loc: Colorado

One further thing I would like to add, when you press the shutter, do so as softly or smoothly as you can. Stabbing the shutter with rapid and forceful jabs often moves the camera and causes blurry pictures. The smoother and more steady you can be, the more likely the better the pictures will be, and when you're panning the camera with your subject movement, follow through, meaning don't just abruptly stop the camera as soon as you take a shot, or a series of shots, but keep following the action with the camera for a short distance to avoid adversely coincidentally affecting the last shot with sudden camera movement or lack thereof. Think of it as "not 'spiking' the football just before you cross the goalline" and hence losing what would have otherwise been a score.

Also, if you get some shots that have some leg/foot or hand/arm blur while the rest of the body is in crisp clear focus, that doesn't ruin the shot, as many have pointed out, it just shows there was fast action. It's a matter of taste and there may be times when you will want to slow down the shutter speed and get some intentional blur to expressly emphasize movement.

Linda Turner

Thanks again for your help!