Football Photography

[shrimperblue]

Hi,

I have been taking some football shots and while some photos have been very good, most of my photos have been either out of focus or have motion distortion. I know that I am doing something wrong and its doing my head in!

I see photos in the paper and magasines of players "in action" and they are very sharp. Can anyone please offer me some guidance?

Thanks,

SB

[foodpoison]

For them to be sharp, they need to be in focus and have a fast shutter speed.
An aperture of f/4 or lower is preferable, which will give you faster shutter speeds, but cheaper lenses end up having apertures of around f/5.6
For them to focus well, not only does the lens have to have a fast focus (HSM or similar) but preferably the body has good autofocusing, for example use of the AI Servo mode in the Canon bodies.
Also, Image Stabilisation/Optical Stabilisation can't be a bad thing.

I think thats what is necessary!

[KIPAX]

Your 70-200 (f2.8) is good enough for football.. plenty good enough.. So it must be your settings. You need to post a picture and setting used then we can tell you what to change :)

[StuartH]

I use a sigma 100-300mm f4 for my football photography and it does a good job.As mentioned use continuous focus and try and keep the shutter speeds up..it does take practice!.Not sure I.S or VR would help for sports though??..could be wrong. heres a couple of samples taken with the sigma

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v712/malc/STU_1058.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v712/malc/STU_1033.jpg

[Wile E. coyote]

A fast shutter speed is essential for football photography. This is obtained by using 300, 400, 500, etc lenses with constant 2.8 apertures or upping the iso to keep the shutter speed at least higher than the focal length (ie 250 sec at 200mm). Image Stabilisation/Optical Stabilisation may help with camera shake but wont help with a moving subject, so is not ideal for freezing the action.