Critique Beginner - Football with the new Sigma 120-300/2.8 Sport

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Tom
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I’m not a sports photographer, but have on occasion shot football and ice hockey for friends and enjoyed it immensely, so said yes when my local grass roots outfit asked if I could do a few things for them on a voluntary basis including cover a few matches. They have a Saturday and Sunday team and I was also due to photograph my local ladies team on Sunday afternoon too, so given I’d be doing 3 matches in 2 days I decided it would be worthwhile renting a lens. Due to a) inexperience and b) wanting to move around and cover a few different angles, I opted for a zoom – the new Sigma 120-300/2.8 Sport – what a beauty.

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Body wise I have a D3s and that was my first natural choice being tailor made for fast sports, but decided I’d give my new D750 a whirl to start with. The outcome of that was I didn’t give the D3s a sniff all weekend. 6.5fps seemed more than enough, the AF fast and accurate and I didn’t machine gun enough to kill the buffer. 24mp files vs 12mp gave me some great cropping ability for web size files, which is all the club wanted off me really, as a bonus too.

I initially struggled to get used to the zoom direction, being the Canon way and the opposite to Nikon, and missed a few potentially cracking shots fumbling around, but started to get used to it after 3 games in 2 days. The lens is sharp and fast focusing as well as very well built and most importantly, good looking J. It also struck me this would be a great candidate for a 1.4x making it a great alternative to the £4.9k 200-400/4 @ 168-420/4 for a little over £3k (inc. the new Sigma 1.4). Two lenses in one for nearly £2k less if you like.

I don’t have the Sigma lens dock so left everything on the lens as it came – no customisation for AF speed vs accuracy (which you can do with the dock I understand) and I left the VR function off as I had the lens on a monopod – A bit too heavy to handhold all day. AF range was set to full. This can be set to near to 10m max, 10m and beyond or full range.

Position wise after the 2 days I came to favour behind each goal by the corner flag, shooting into the box and down the wings into oncoming players - or up the wing about level with the 18 yard line – again shooting into the area to get some goal frame in shot and in and around the middle of the pitch for any contested headers from goal kicks and general tackles etc. I generally found myself shooting in all directions though, even right up to the opposite end of the pitch at 300mm. I’d be interested to hear from seasoned football photographers in particular: given just a 120-300 range and the crop-ability of a 24mp file – where would you plonk yourselves for best results and given the freedom of choice and movement?

Here are a few of my shots from the weekend.

1.

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2.
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3.
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I think football is a real toughie. People never seem to be facing the way you want them to. What % of your images do you expect to be "wow"? Out of all the ones above, 19 is great. I would have cropped it in a particular way, but that's always a personal thing. I take photos of runners and bikers and the my % of "wow" shots isn't as high as I'd like. I try to let people have a record of their participation in a particular event.

View attachment 25442
 
Good point, I did think to myself going through them how many of these have that something special about them? Probably none, but then I don't think I can concern myself with worrying about that - the primary goal I set myself was to get a couple of shots of every player taking part, even if it's just them with the ball at their feet. Perhaps too clinical a way of thinking?

To get something wow, something wow has to happen - if it doesn't there's nothing you can do about that I suppose. I imagine all you can do is be there taking shots, capturing something wow is probably as much luck as anything else?
 
I imagine shooting a football match would be tough but there's some great shots there, especially the amusement from 19!

Looks like a cracking lens, bet it costs a pretty penny!
 
Decent set. Ive used Sigma 2.8 lenses before for sports and it was absolutely useless.
Looks nice and sharp
 
Another question whilst I think on it.

Professional football images seem to have a certain look and there are a few I've taken which seem to mimic that look in so much as the perspective seems to be quite low, almost as if the lens it below player's waste level - which thinking about it, when you watch a match on TV the photographers are either pitch level and sat, or in some cases even lower than pitch level and sat. That certain look I think comes from that lower perspective and where there is a distance of pitch between the lens and the player, you get that blurred area of out of focus grass before the in focus area starts.

Hope that makes sense - perhaps most evident here in image 1, 4, 12 & 18 - compare those to photos 8, 11 and 13 which almost appear to be taken looking down into the action, versus right into the action from the level of the action...

:)
 
A player's WASTE level is exactly the same as their WAIST level I suppose. :agree:

Sorry, I couldn't resist.
 
19 for me aswell, very funny and great capture.
 
Have I put this in the wrong forum I wonder? Was after a bit of constructive input to my perspective, positioning questions etc. more than showing off photos?

Would also be interested to know where experienced football shooters of the forum would position themselves with a 120-300 range.

if so, can an admin move the thread for me please?
 
Something I read a while ago might help


Tip 1: Fast shutter speed to freeze action
With the latest digital cameras, don’t be afraid to raise the ISO to obtain a high shutter speed. Anything over 1/1000sec will freeze the ball and give a super-sharp image.

Tip 2: Widest available aperture
Use your lens’s widest aperture – usually between f/2.8 to f/5.6. This will offer a very shallow depth of field, so the background will be thrown out of focus and therefore concentrate the eye on the action (download our Free f-stop chart for understanding aperture).

Tip 3: Follow the action
As the players come towards you, if you sit behind the goal, follow the action by looking through the viewfinder; if you are tempted to look up and see if the striker has scored, you will have missed the picture! Use AI Servo AF mode to ‘follow-focus’ the play too.

Tip 4: Sit behind the box
By sitting next to the goal, position yourself on the edge of the box for best ‘side-on’ view of goalmouth action

Tip 5: Look for the emotion
The winning goal-scorer will celebrate as the goalkeeper will show his dejection. Keep shooting after the goal has been scored as some of the best pictures happen after the decisive moment, revealing the wonderful winner/loser emotions.

Tip 6: The fans
Look for the emotions of the fans; they always make great pictures. From Barcelona fans at Camp Nou to your local soccer clubs, every fan is the same and they will always offer a variety of emotions while passionately supporting their team.

Tip 7: The incidents
The bad tackle, the yellow card or red card – and the reactions of teammates when the red card is flashed – all make great pictures.

Tip 8: Shooting under floodlights
Don’t be afraid of taking wide-angle views at night of the play under floodlights. Soccer is a game played in autumn and winter, and great pictures can be often be captured in the pouring rain or the thickest fog.

Tip 9: Be brave
Try and shoot a pan-blur action picture . Stand on the touchline, so the action is happening from left-to-right, and set the shutter to as low as 1/30 sec, and take pictures of players as they run down the pitch. You’ll be amazed at the artistic merits of these pictures.

Tip 10: Practice makes perfect
If you’re unhappy with your results, don’t be disheartened – go to the next game, whether in the park shooting under-16s or your local team, and try and push the boundaries of what you think you can achieve.
 
I'm no expert, so it's only my personal opinion, you've captured some nice bits of action, but most of the shots for me would benefit from closer cropping.
To use number 13 as an example, the main action is the player jumping over the player on the floor, but leaving in the backside of the player in the bottom right and the defender on the right is distracting, you've also cut his head off, so if you crop the right hand side of the picture to just right of the players hand who's lying on the floor, and the left side of the picture to just left of the goal post you'd get a picture that just focuses on the good action that you've captured. You could try another crop with the left hand side of the picture just to the left of the keeper, just to see if it enhances it or not.
After all that, however, although it's a nice action shot, you've still not got the player's faces in the shot, so it's difficult to see what use the picture is, other than an amateur's nice record shot.
This could be applied to most of the pics above. Number 19, as everyone has said is a great capture, would its impact be better if you crop it in portrait and cut out most of the right hand side of the picture?
 
You are in the right forum, it's just there are rather a lot of photos to be able to give constructive critique on. I'll have a look later when I'm on my laptop and give some crit on a few. I've also added the crit prefix to your thread title.
 
Hi Tom. Long time no see. Funny you should post this. I've just bought a Sigma 300 f2.8. Shame you use those funny camera brands otherwise you could have borrowed it! That's the penalty you pay for using Nikon! ;) :D

:canon:
 
Hi Tom,

I’ve never critiqued anyone’s work before as I still consider myself as very much an amateur and so feel a bit cheeky doing so, but these are my thoughts.

Firstly, some great photos there and the lens looks excellent. I purchased an older Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 in the summer on eBay and tested it in a pre-season game at Chester – it was listed again on ebay the following day, it really was poor. This sport lens looks really sharp though.

The set that stands out the most to me is the final match. Two of the main things I’d say have already been mentioned to by those who have already replied, but both are mistakes I was making when starting out.

Firstly, get nice and low – I use a fold-up plastic stool I got from Amazon for about £6-7. It’s pretty tiny and I’m a fairly big bloke, but it does allow you to get nice and low. I’m sometimes amazed how fussy I have become in such a short space of time when viewing my own images – at the ground I predominantly shoot at, stewards request photographers sit in the first row of the stand at one end due to lack of space between pitch and hoardings – being that touch higher makes quite a difference to the shot. Try and get low – sometimes when I do park/grass roots games, I have sat on the grass, although that’s a little too low.

As important for me, crop nice and tight on the action in any image. I have learnt this thanks to some excellent advice from other sports photographers I badgered when trying to get in to this myself, at least one of which posts on TP. For me, football is about the passion and the emotion, and photography can convey that with facial expressions, challenges and freezing moments of action.

Pic 19 is great, I love it. Personally I’d crop closer perhaps so only the player and leaning man are in shot.

16 and 21 are good also – again (my opinion only), I’d try and crop much tighter on the actual action, though you’d have to go wider on 16 to keep the ball in shot. That will also put more emphasis on the facial expressions of the players.

There will be people a lot more qualified to give sound advice on here than myself.

Digisatman’s post above I excellent – love the sound of the pan-blur shot, something I have still not tried. That’s one for this coming weekend for me!

Also, wise words regarding following the action through the viewfinder. I’ve done this for some time but as recently as last Saturday came a cropper for not doing so and must a goal – a player passed it back to a goalkeeper who fluffed his kick against an opposition player who subsequently scored. I’d been keeping the keeper in shot for all back passes for the entire game, and as soon as I stopped doing so, a goal was scored. Luckily, the cele shots were decent and I am yet to see a photo from any other togs that caught it either!

Always expect the unexpected!
 
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