Pro football - hit me with some inspiration

[Birch]

I have been doing football photography for 15 years. Starting as an absolute amateur, working my way up the ranks. Now shooting danish "Premier League", cup-finals, Champions League, National Team etc. Can't really ask for more, or ... I like my work, my customers do too. But I still think that I need to do better. Always looking how to improve the quality, motives and technically. When the job becomes a routine, I think quality decreases. So, I am looking for input from some of you pro guys.

My two main bodies are Canon 1dxII and 1dx, with a 400 2.8 and 70-200 2.8. Pretty standard, I think. I tend to like the 400mm images most. Which means that I often use the 400mm to shoot in the near penalty area, when positioned behind the goalline, at the corner flag. This can give fantastic shots, but also a lot of misses, as I am to close, really. Using the 70-200, even at 200 mm, I think the background seperation is not star quality, if action is center of goal. I could use my 1.4 extender at the 70-200, which does help of course.

I normally go for 2.8, f/1250, autofocus football but sensitivity +2, single point focus (by the way, can it get more clear to see in the viewfinder?).

My inspiration have always been the top pros. Trying to calculate their position, exif data, gear etc. Using hours surfing at the Getty-site is really inspiring, as well as frustrating.

Please hit me with some inspiration. Is the 400 /70-200 the best combination? Do you fit in the extender? Which positions do you prefer? Which lens for which area in the field? Always 2.8 ?

Preparing for my sixth-in-a-row Cupfinal this coming friday, I would love to get some new ideas how to do the "usual" stuff.

Thank you for reading

 

[Sideshow Alvie]

I cover a lot of top flight football and often sit alongside some of the very best guys in the UK (or even the world). I'm always amazed at how good they are even when they spend half the game looking at their phone...

The one thing that we can say is that they all use the same gear pretty much all of the time ie 70-200, 400, a wide angle remote camera and, as often as not, a fourth body with a standard zoom on it. At pretty much every EPL ground I go to. we're all shooting from the same positions, too. The upshot of these factors is that most of the images you see of a given game are very much the same across a whole range of photographers, with everyone going for the same kind of shots - goals, celes, managers.

When you see something different it's because the photographer has thought outside the box and found a different position, chosen to ignore the 70-200, say, and used a different lens in a unusual area of the pitch.

The standard combo of 400/70-200 is a safe one but I've always preferred the reach of a longer combo - 500/600 and either a 300 (from near the corner flag) or the 70-200 on a crop factor body. Full frame bodies are great but I do long for more reach. I often find myself shooting across the penalty area with the 400 so as to keep the frame filled but this often means missing actual goal pics on the 70-200. It's always a tough call but you can only do one thing at a time with the camera in your hands.

I think that the bottom line here is that you have to fight against the instinct to do the same stuff as everyone else. For myself, that would mean, say, doing entire games on a single lens/body combo. One day, I'll actually get around to doing it...