October 17, 2008 at 1:26 pm
· Filed under football
I can finally say, “Yes, I’ve shot an NFL game.”
I’ve shot many high school games, a college game, but they don’t compare to the NFL Experience. To those who shoot the NFL regularly, it’s probably old hat for you, but for me it was like getting to fly first class after riding in coach all my life.
The first thing that really surprised me was how big these guys are. Not sure where these guys hang out all week, but I’ve never seen people this enormous at the grocery store or mall.
Photographing the game is pretty much the same — except the players move so much faster, and passes get to their intended receivers (or defensive players) in a blink of an eye.
If you are a sports photographer and frequently shoot high school night games of football, soccer, or lacrosse, you have probably experienced poor lighting. Some of the newer fields have decent lighting, but a majority of the ones I visit are marginal at best.
Prior to Bel Air High School being remodeled, if I shot a game without flash on the old football field, I would usually come away disappointed with my results. The light reading on that field was ISO 3200 f/2.8 1/250 on the best lit areas of the field. The team wears dark blue uniforms and shots from the endzone and sideline would be horrible, unless you shot at 1/60.
If you shoot at night with a flash sitting on-camera, you will end up with a majority of your subjects with red eye or ghost (white) eye. Pupils are dilated and the light from your flash is so close to the lens axis that red eye is unavoidable in that situation. To use flash without getting red eye, the flash needs to be distanced from the lens axis. One way would be to put the flash up high above your camera. Well, in doing that, you being nimble and having the ability to move up and down the sidelines quickly is probably hindered. What I do is put my flash below my camera. This allows me to move up/down the sidelines pretty much the same way I would without flash. The flash below keeps the weight low to the ground and doesn’t affect my shooting ability.
