Nikon SB-700 Flash: Plan on starting new job shooting night time football. The lighting at the field is inadequate to say the least and will have to use a flash to capture the action.

coco1964 Loc: Winsted Mn

Plan on starting new job shooting night time football. The lighting at the field is inadequate to say the least and will have to use a flash to capture the action. Will be using a D-3100 with a 70-200 2.8 lens. As I zoom out does anyone know what distance I will get with the flash?? On the flash screen the max it will go in zoom mode is 80mm so is that what I need to get max power out of my zoom and if not how do I get it to zoom out farther. Please don't tell me to read the manual because my comprehension is terrible to say the least especially with Nikon instructions. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.......

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

There is a little product on the market called the "Better Beamer", its great to extend the range of your flash.
One question though, will the teams allow flash photography at the games? <amy will not due to the blinding of the players as well as the officials.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

I use a "Better Beamer flash extender" on my SB-600 speedlight, to photograph hummingbirds at a distance. Manufacturer recommends for 300-mm lens or longer. Different models attach directly to the head of any speedlight.

coco1964 Loc: Winsted Mn

MT Shooter wrote:

There is a little product on the market called the "Better Beamer", its great to extend the range of your flash.
One question though, will the teams allow flash photography at the games? <amy will not due to the blinding of the players as well as the officials.

Yes the paper has been doing these games for years so that's been taken care for me. Thanks on the info on the extender---I'll have to see what happens Fri. because I won't have it but since I'll be shooting all the games it sounds like a good investment . Thanks again..........

coco1964 Loc: Winsted Mn

Nikonian72 wrote:

I use a "Better Beamer flash extender" on my SB-600 speedlight, to photograph hummingbirds at a distance. Manufacturer recommends for 300-mm lens or longer. Different models attach directly to the head of any speedlight.

Thanks for the info, I'll be picking one up.......

FollisFotos Loc: Big D! (little a, double l, a,s)

Another option might be to gaffer tape a gridded flash to the top of the lens hood. The bonus of this is that the light is more directed / focused, and therefore less of a distraction to players on the field. I've tried this now and then and had good success.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

FollisFotos wrote:

Another option might be to gaffer tape a gridded flash to the top of the lens hood. The bonus of this is that the light is more directed / focused, and therefore less of a distraction to players on the field. I've tried this now and then and had good success.

Like this recent article on Strobist?
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2012/09/friday-night-lights.html

FollisFotos Loc: Big D! (little a, double l, a,s)

GoofyNewfie wrote:

FollisFotos wrote:

Another option might be to gaffer tape a gridded flash to the top of the lens hood. The bonus of this is that the light is more directed / focused, and therefore less of a distraction to players on the field. I've tried this now and then and had good success.

Like this recent article on Strobist?
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2012/09/friday-night-lights.html

Yep! I saw that Strobist article...and sent it to the old pro that gave me the idea! :-)

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

FollisFotos wrote:

Yep! I saw that Strobist article...and sent it to the old pro that gave me the idea! :-)

I love Strobist!
I'm guessing with the grid you don't lose that much light, it just narows the beam down so it covers only the image area and, most importantly, the coaches don't notice as much.

coco1964 Loc: Winsted Mn

Went out last night and tried my SB-700 with street lighting and had more light than I needed at 80 ft. I started out with an ISO of 400 and pumped up my flash compension to +1. After getting overexposed shots I dialed back my ISO to 100 and left the compensation at +1 which gave me decent light at 80 ft. I'm going to get to the field early and try some shots while the teams warm up. Ideally I'd like to get some good shots at twilight W/O using a flash and put the flash on once my ISO needs to go over 1600. This 1st game will be a work in progress and one thing to remember is that newspaper photos are very forgiving. Thanks for all your input and I'll proably be back after Fri with what I got.............