Floodlit Footie MKII

Took the K3 and the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 APO (Screw drive) to today's game.

This look's like the best combination I have in the bag for low light footie, I tried a few different AF.C settings, I think I'll settle for AF.C with SEL1 for football with focus priority and fast MTF in the parameters.

This old Sigma is light years ahead of the DA*50-135 in terms of focus speed, I'll just need to get a rain jacket for it.



The next 4 images are a sequence.....



















And yes the boys in black and gold won today, massive 3 points for us when your near the wrong end of the table

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Cheers
Brian.
LBA is good for you, a Lens a day helps you work, rest and play.

I think these definitely improve on your previous set. What shutter speed, aperture and ISO combination did you use? Any noise reduction applied?

The second last is the pick for me.

Roy

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My PPG link
K-3, K-5 + D-BG4 Grip, Pentax: FA 50 1.4, DA* 300, Sigma 70-200 2.8 Macro HSM II, Sigma 18-50 2.8 EX DC, Metz 58 AF-1

Thanks Roy, yes I'm a lot happier with these

The full exif is in the images, all are PEF's converted in LR5.3 with some cropping and 25 noise reduction added, they were shot at either 1/800 or 1/1000 between ISO4000 and 6400.

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Cheers
Brian.
LBA is good for you, a Lens a day helps you work, rest and play.

Great shots. Looks like it's less that Pentax is poor for sports, than SDM is poor for sports...

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[link=https://500px.com/will_brealey/[/link]

I've got to agree Will, I wonder what the old screw drive F70-210 or even the cheap FA80-200 zooms would be like speed wise compared to current SDM lenses.

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Cheers
Brian.
LBA is good for you, a Lens a day helps you work, rest and play.

These are better. The action in the penultimate two shots is pretty cool. I actually like the two letterbox goal shots ( if they level )

There's a still a lot of focus issues though, and it maybe the DOF is a tad too shallow for some of these shots as well as the AG being too slow. or even anticipate and prefocus. How did sports photographers do it before AF ?

I appreciate it isn't easy. I've tried to take greyhound racing pics and the speed they go I have every admiration for those who are good at shooting it.


Overall my main criticisms with this set is it's boring. Not only because most of the shots are mediocre in content/Charisma but because it misses out most of the event itself It reminds me of many other photo sets taken at sports events, for example motor racing where there's endless shots of cars on the track taken from the same corner.


There's so much atmosphere and sectors of the event missing. Where's the pictures of the Ref?, the linesmen?, the turnstiles, the other sports photographers taking pic, the crowd, a wide shot of the field and the crowd from the back of the stand, the managers and coaches, the hot dog stand, etc,etc,etc All these have opportunities for taking great shots showing the atmosphere of the event.

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[i]Bodies: 1x K-5IIs, 2x K-5, Sony TX-5, Nokia 808
Lenses: Pentax DA 10-17mm ED(IF) Fish Eye, Pentax DA 14mm f/2.8, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8, Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8, Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.2, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7, Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8, Sigma 135-400mm APO DG, and more ..
Flash: AF-540FGZ, Vivitar 283

as an example. only 1 pic shows action with the ball

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2534128/Arsenal-host-Coventry-...

or some other exampels from today's MSM Sports articles ....


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/01/05/article-2534088-1A6F381D00000578-623_6...
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/01/05/article-2534088-1A6F6C7200000578-837_6...

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/01/05/article-2534088-1A6F31C300000578-456_6...

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[i]Bodies: 1x K-5IIs, 2x K-5, Sony TX-5, Nokia 808
Lenses: Pentax DA 10-17mm ED(IF) Fish Eye, Pentax DA 14mm f/2.8, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8, Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8, Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.2, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7, Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8, Sigma 135-400mm APO DG, and more ..
Flash: AF-540FGZ, Vivitar 283

They'd make some good spot the ball quizzes like they used to run in the newspapers. (Presuming the ball was cloned out first!)

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John K

Leave the ball in. If the competition was run in The Sun or the Daily Star half the readers would still get it wrong!



.

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[i]Bodies: 1x K-5IIs, 2x K-5, Sony TX-5, Nokia 808
Lenses: Pentax DA 10-17mm ED(IF) Fish Eye, Pentax DA 14mm f/2.8, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8, Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8, Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.2, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7, Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8, Sigma 135-400mm APO DG, and more ..
Flash: AF-540FGZ, Vivitar 283

Smeggy wrote - "Overall my main criticisms with this set is it's boring. Not only because most of the shots are mediocre in content/Charisma but because it misses out most of the event itself It reminds me of many other photo sets taken at sports events, for example motor racing where there's endless shots of cars on the track taken from the same corner."

Smeggy I think you're missing the point, Brian was just trying to illustrate the camera & lens combination, I don't think he was expecting to win any prizes with these shots.

I like the shirt pulling shot. I wonder if shutter speed needs to be a bit faster for the closer shots. East Fife?

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You can see some of my photos here if you are so inclined

Ha! Ha! well your both a bit right, while I'll have to brush up my footie technique and anticipation (forefinger and 8.4 f/sec should do it ) it was another exercise in trying to find the best lens; af.c mode; f/sec; where to stand etc. Apart from the first image which was taken from my seat early in the first half the rest were taken in the last ten minutes of the game when I moved to a corner flag.

New Bayview Stadium is a one sided affair, so getting front on shots of the manager/bench is hard to do unless I ask for permission to go pitch side, trust me the shots Smeggers highlights are the one I 'm after but kind of hard to get from where I can stand.

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Cheers
Brian.
LBA is good for you, a Lens a day helps you work, rest and play.

This is an interesting debate. For example I think the picture in your second link is completely boring unless you happen to know the context. It is interesting choosing photographs from the press because editors will pass over better technical and artistic photographs in favour of those that support the story they are after. Ultimately I think a picture editor would prefer a peak of action shot of Suarez, say, scoring the winning goal rather than just him celebrating but even the massed ranks of sports photographers at a Premiership game may not capture that image but someone will get the celebration.

I think you are right though getting the complete story in a set of images or, even better, summed up in one image would be ideal.

Here is one of my favourite football images - no ball in this one.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2478781/John-Terry-kicked-head...

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My PPG link
K-3, K-5 + D-BG4 Grip, Pentax: FA 50 1.4, DA* 300, Sigma 70-200 2.8 Macro HSM II, Sigma 18-50 2.8 EX DC, Metz 58 AF-1

One advantage of going to match a good few tiers down is that you can choose where you take your photographs. Given that the most desperate actions goes on in the pentalty area and generally the main protagonists are facing the goal then I sit halfway between the goal and the corner flag. This the best place for intense action but generally no good for images of the manager, coaches etc

With regard to the slight blurring - in images 8 and 10 the players are slightly blurred but at 1/800 or 1/1000 there should not be any motion blurring so it is either the focus is slightly off or the NR is softening things. I think the former is most likely - it was why I was asking about the camera settings and NR applied in an earlier post. Do you have focus priority or release priority set for the first shot in the custom menu? If not this might explain the shutter being released before the focus is completely locked on. In these two images there isn't anything else that I can see in the plane of focus that could be confusing the AF. Most of my OOF images now are because the lens has focused on a player, spectator, floodliight pole - anything other than the player I wanted!

I generally try to keep to f2.8 because although it gives less margin for focus error isolating the background is more desirable and under floodlights it means even higher ISOs at f4.

As I've stated before I'm still learning as well so forgive me if my theoretical knowledge is some way ahead of my practical capabilities.

Roy

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My PPG link
K-3, K-5 + D-BG4 Grip, Pentax: FA 50 1.4, DA* 300, Sigma 70-200 2.8 Macro HSM II, Sigma 18-50 2.8 EX DC, Metz 58 AF-1

Well I'm just trying to give honest constructive response to what's presented and have taken into account main context of the camera & lens combination which is Why I commented on that as well.




Well there's no harm in asking is there - I've been shooting at the greyhounds and stock car events and it's surprising how accommodating they peeps can been if you ask.

But even if you can't get in restrcited areas, there's lpenty of stuff to be shot in public areas. It's all too easy to get settled in one shooting position, I've done it myself on the basis that if I move position I'll miss out on that perfect shot from the current position. Everytime I've made a concious effort to move positions regularly the shoot has always been a lot more satisfying

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[i]Bodies: 1x K-5IIs, 2x K-5, Sony TX-5, Nokia 808
Lenses: Pentax DA 10-17mm ED(IF) Fish Eye, Pentax DA 14mm f/2.8, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8, Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8, Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.2, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7, Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8, Sigma 135-400mm APO DG, and more ..
Flash: AF-540FGZ, Vivitar 283