Portfolyo Loc: Baton Rouge, LA

I'm a beginner with a lot to learn. I own a Canon EOS Rebel T4i with the following lenses : Canon EFS 18-55mm, Canon EFS 55-250mm, and an older Sigma 70-300mmDG lens. I've started trying to photograph my nephew's night time high school football games under stadium lights from the stands. My pictures have been awful. Which lens and camera settings should I use?

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

Please upload some photos and check store original. It helps to determine what is needed to fix the problem.

MagicMark

You might want to turn the Exposure Value (E.V.) down about 2 stops. Hope this helps :)

RAK Loc: Concord Ca

Check your menu settings for the type of light they are using if these are night games. Use a mono pod to steady your camera and lens. shoot in aprature mode to get high speed, aprature set to widest opening for night games and shallow depth of field or stop down and slow down to achieve wider depth of field and blurred backround. Post pics with "store original" box checked for further help.

olcoach Loc: Oregon

Go out and take pictures of cars to see if you can get the kind of movement photos you want at the games. Any moving thing is worth trying to shoot to see if you can isolate what your actual problem is. Good luck.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

You don't give much to go on. I assume the Sigma is at fastest an f3.5, and at 300 you are shooting at 5.6 or slower. If so. it's a pretty tall order for your lens. I suggest you put the ISO on Auto, and your speed at what ever you need, maybe try 250(kinda slow) with the lens wide open. See what you get. If that doesn't work, You will need a faster lens.
Maybe a fast prime and get closer.
Good luck. SS

dlmorris Loc: Loma Linda, Ca

You didn't say exactly *what* was awful, but if it is the color, go to the menus for white balance and try several different settings until you find one that gives you what you like. I have fun experimenting with those settings, and sometimes the "wrong" setting is more interesting then the "correct" one....

Tecant Loc: Wisconsin USA

In the past, I tried shooting American high school football using my first DSLR, a Nikon D50 that maxed out at ISO 1600 + my cheapo f4-5.6 70-300G zoom. I quickly discovered that at night games there wasn't enough light, even at ISO 1600 and with my lens wide open, to get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze action. I was limited to the occasional Saturday afternoon daylight game. I now have a Nikon D7000 which is comparable, I think, to your Canon EOS Rebel T4i. My tele zoom is now the 70-300VR lens, sharper than my old zoom but no faster at f4.5-5.6.

I haven't been going to football games lately but this past summer I tried shooting two of my nephew's evening baseball games on fields with no lights. As the games went on, the sun sank lower in the sky and good light faded.

For football I had learned that a 1/500 sec shutter speed was the bare minimum to freeze action on the field. For baseball I needed a minimum of 1/1000. Unless you can afford a professional f2.8 zoom, there is no option but to keep jacking up the ISO as the sun sinks in the west. I used the Auto ISO setting on my D7000, setting 1/1000 as the minimum shutter speed and ISO 6400 as the max ISO. Late in the game I upped the max ISO to 12,800 to get 1/800. I shot in aperture priority at f8 early in the game, switching to f5.6 later. My autofocus was set to AF-C continuous servo. My advice:
1. Get a faster f2.8 or constant f4 aperture lens if you can afford it.
2. Otherwise increase the ISO setting to get the shutter speed you need to freeze action. Better a noisy pic than no pic.
3. Master the autofocus system of your camera; learn what settings are best for action sports. Anticipate where the action will be going.
4. Shoot JPEG instead of RAW for longer bursts before your buffer is full.
5. Practice at junior varsity games which are usually played in the afternoon.

Attached are three of my sports photos, straight out of camera except for adding text. #1 from my old camera is a little underexposed. I was happy with #2. White balance is off in #3 but I wanted to show what you can get at high ISO settings.

Good luck!

CurreyPhoto Loc: Reddick, Florida

I agree with all of your excellent advice, except shooting in JPEG. You are right that you will get more frames before the buffer fills, but you will have more headroom to bring up the dark areas so you don't have to reduce the shutter speed as fast, if you shoot in RAW. It's all compromise, but that is a compromise that I would investigate. If the 2.8 zoom is too expensive, perhaps a single focus 2.0 or 1.8 would be better as the sun sets. You lose depth of field, but you gain shutter speed, better color and lower ISO. Still another compromise, but it's all about making the best compromises.