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I went to the St George junior league grand finals today at the spiritual home of Rugby League, Kogarah Oval and knocked off about 300 pics. I did this partly as a friend of mine was the coach of one of the U21 teams and also had friends connected to one of the teams in the A grade final.

First thing I discovered is that it not as easy as it looks to knock out sport pics Bad sun angles, grandstand shadows, damm touch judges and ballboys getting in the road and not enough reach for stuff on the other side of the field, etc.

It was a lot of trial and error (mostly error) bit I had a great time though and learnt a hell of a lot about how to set up my camera for fast moving action under "constrained" conditions.

The pics below are a couple of examples with minimal PP as I batch processed most of them to give to the abovementioned friends.

I like these action shots - well done I would crop the bottom of the second shot to remove the dark shadow

Another One. It's a tough game... Try to give me the Christmas Hold (handful of nuts) and I'll knee you in the head!!

Bit of well-captured brown nosing in that first shot, eh?

Cheers,

Those are very good, John. It isn't easy to get good shots in those lighting conditions.

Hi John
Very good shots. the first tells the story. Would you mind sharing lens,shutterspeed etc as I have been asked to do a union match this weekend. Any tips would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Owen

Nice crisp shots As you say you, have to shoot the action where it is, and worry about other factors such as shadows afterwards.

These action shots are very well done.

O1 wrote:Hi John
Very good shots. the first tells the story. Would you mind sharing lens,shutterspeed etc as I have been asked to do a union match this weekend. Any tips would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Owen

Hi Owen,
I used an 80-200 2.8, which isn't really long enough but was all I had. Try to keep your shutter speed as high as possible (for obvious reasons). I found that I could use an aperture of around f6.3 and still get speeds of up to 1/1000. This gave me the twin benefit of being a couple of stops down from maximum aperture for the greatest sharpness as well as still being fast enough to freeze motion. Your setting will vary depending on what lens you use and how strong the sunlight is.

Set your AF to single area. I originally had mine set to dynamic but the camera was getting confused with so many bodies in motion. Use AF-C so you can track the ball runner and click away when he gets crunched. You usually don't have time to frame your shots very well or capture the decisive moment so shoot in continuous mode.

Most importantly of all, take a friend to get your beers for you, it's thirsty work

Great shots John, always hard in some light conditions. I have it all the time here at the bikes at times and have to work different spots of the track pending on light. I notice you mentioned single AF as i have found this to be good other than dynamic i have tried and dont like it. But great shots well done and yes these are hard to get.
Cheers
John
BBJ

Thanks for the explanation and tips John
Are these shots straight out of the camera?? and what Iso were you using.
Take your point about the beers though I doubt that I will get a chance

Cheers

Owen

O1 wrote:Thanks for the explanation and tips John
Are these shots straight out of the camera?? and what Iso were you using.
Take your point about the beers though I doubt that I will get a chance

Cheers

Owen

ISO 200 and some PP mostly a bit of extra contrast and saturation because of the strong sunlight.

While I'm here... One more entitled "Beer Guts and Bad Haircuts". I also found time to water the grass in the background

John, have you checked your Private Messages?

Glen wrote:John, have you checked your Private Messages?

Done

Glen,
I like all pictures. Good conbination and good color.
Better than most photos I see in newspapers.
Great job.
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Regards
Poon