Tuesday, August 24, 2010

More late-summer soccer








The days are getting a bit shorter and the evenings cooler, probably ideal for outdoor sports. There is usually a soccer game on Monday nights at the local high school, lots of soccer moms and dads attend each game. I am learning a few things about the "beautiful game" as far as photography goes:

(1) It's best to always have the ball in the frame, and it should be frozen - which means a shutter speed of 1/1000th second and often the widest lens aperture. Although the AF-S 70-300mm VR is a consumer zoom, it's plenty sharp at f/5.6.
(2) Fast shutter speeds usually preclude using ISO 400 or 800, so there will be some modest noise issues, but far less than in the days of shooting film.
(3) It's essential to shoot RAW, lots of liberal cropping and exposure adjustments. You can be off by about two stops under the "correct" exposure and still save the file.
(4) Look for expressions of grittiness and emotion, they abound if your timing is right.
(5) There are MANY missed focus and out-of-focus arms and legs due to the shallow depth of field.

Anyway, I missed the first half of the game but came away with some decent captures.

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