Sports (Super-amateur footie at night) photography advice requested

[Ceege]

As a team bonding thing in work, we have entered a couple of teams into a five a side footie tournament and seeing as I have the equivalent soccer skills to John Prescott and that singer in the USA world cup (whose name escapes me), I volunteered my services to catch our teams lows and maybe one or two highs through the viewfinder.

Seeing as I've not attempted sport stuff before, apart from a few cricket shots, I'm looking for a bit of advice so I don't perform worse than the team.

So can anyone who has done sport work, especially at night, give me some tips? The tournament will be played outside at night, so it'll obviously be floodlit.

I'll be using a D200 with either my Sigma 120-300 f2.8 or (if it turns up in time) a Nikkor 200-400 f4.0. What sort of ISO settings should I be using and roughly what shutter speeds should I try and attempt to get reasonable pics? Any other tips provided will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Hacker]

I would try the 120-300mm at 2.8 with ISO upped to get some good shutter speeds, I would say you probably need at least 1/400th. Try using the Auto-ISO function on the camera as this will help you in the changing light and exposures (colour of shirts etc). As good as the 200-400mm f/4 is (you lucky bugger, I'm so jealous :D) the VR will only be good at slower shutter speeds. Don't forget your WB, either use a custom setting or shoot in RAW so that you can change it later.

A good tip from another member on here (Diego Garcia) is to shoot from a lower viewpoint i.e. kneeling down, it works very well.

Hope this helps and I look forward to seeing the images.

[Slapo]

It depends on how fast they'll be moving.

I'd suggest to go with 1/800 to 1/1250, that should be enough even if they were running for their lives (unless they're Maurice Green). ;)
ISO is likely to be between 400 and 1600, depending o how much light you'll have there.

[Ceege]

I can't imagine they'll be moving too fast. We'd probably make a pub sides third XI look athletic!

Good tip with the auto ISO feature. Looks like I'll need to break out Noise-Ninja or some other application to clear up the D200's lousy noise performance.

Thanks for the tips so far. The tournament isn't for a month yet so I've got plenty of time to get the theory right :thumbs:

[natjag]

Heres a shot of Nick Leeson (the bloke that broke barrings bank) at all stars premier league football. I'm NOT a sports photographer. It was taken at f2.8 1/200 iso800. Lens was 70-200, which wasn't really long enough, but I didn't know I was shooting the games until I got there. As Nick Leeson was not the fittest on the pitch he didn't move as fast as most of the other players. Ideally I should include the ball in the shot, especially if there is more than one person, otherwise it would just look like a bunch of blokes. As this is just one person, the ball being included wasn't important for this shot.
http://www.nathanhulse.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/TP/NJHA313.jpg

[Slapo]

Btw., contrary to what some might say, it might not be a bad idea to shoot raw. D200 has the power to handle that, so if you have enough card space to go with it, why not.

[Ceege]

I've got an 8Gb card so I might have a go in the RAW :naughty:

[pxl8]

If it's floodlit I would take a reading and shoot manual using the fastest shutter you can get from the ISO/noise level you feel will be acceptable. As the light won't be changing you can stick with the same settings and not worry about the meter getting confused by dark backgrounds, white shorts/tops, etc.