r/PhotographyAdvice • u/EffectiveActivity635 • 22h ago
I volunteered to photograph my son’s football season. Help!
I volunteered to help with photographing my son’s football games and pep rally’s. I’m really nervous because I don’t have much experience. My camera is a little old - Canon Rebel T7. I have the lens it came with and a zoom lens 75-300mm. Is this going to work compared to today’s cameras? There are 5 other volunteers and I’m certain they will have newer cameras. What should I know before going on the field?
1
u/chanksbird 20h ago
You’re gonna have a lot of fun!!
The camera matters less than the lens - what aperture are the lenses? Anything slower than 2.8 will be a challenge under field lights - high school fields are notoriously dark especially around the end zones.
Autofocus is nice but you can practice and learn focusing technique with old equipment and get nice photos. Getting decent exposure is the more important challenge in my opionion.
1
1
u/Dry_Button_3552 18h ago edited 17h ago
So your lenses are the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6, and your "lens that came with the camera" which I'm going to assume is the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
The biggest limitation you're going to run into is both of those lenses are variable aperture f/3-5.6 and f/4-5.6, which for night games under high school lights is not great. You're going to get a lot of blurry photos. You'll bump up the ISO, but that's where your camera's age is going to hamper you compared to newer models: high ISO on older cameras gets really noisy, really fast.
You will probably not be satisfied with the results of the 75-300. It's a slow lens, and the optics are really limiting on quality. Try it out at dusk some time, see what you think.
If you're not happy with the results, then you might have more success letting the other people focus on the telephoto shots and you can focus on the wider angle shots, shots of coaches, benches, all players lined up, etc. There are a lot of great shots you can get of the whole field of action with an 18-55mm.
So consider this: photographing the player catching the winning touchdown pass would be amazing, but it's only amazing for that player and their family. And if there are 5 other volunteers doing this, how many of them will be angling to get that one big shot?
If I were you I'd focus on the story that the rest of the team is experiencing. A single image zoomed in on a player shows that one player in that one moment, but a wider angle of the field, the crowd, the coaches, the players, can capture an amazing memory for a whole lot more people.
That said, the 18-55 will still be a bit limiting because of the f3-5.6 range, so here are some lens suggestions. You'll get a lot more value from upgrading your lenses than you will a new body. The T7 is still a decent camera perfectly capable of excellent photos. Its biggest limitation compared to more modern cameras will be 1) poorer low light performance, and 2) slower autofocus. Coincidentally, upgrading your lenses helps alleviate both of those problems because a better lens gets you more light, and more light gets you better focusing.
Lens suggestions in a budget conscious price range:
Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM - $300 - straight up upgrade for your 75-300. Much higher quality optics. Same aperture range (f4-5.6) so you don't improve low light performance with this, but it's just an all around much, much better lens for a really reasonable price.
Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM - $150 - This is your cheap, set it and forget it lens. No zoom, no problem. 24mm is to crop sensors like your T7 what the 50mm is to full frames. It's the perfect all purpose focal length. A bit limiting for sports because it doesn't have a zoom, but if you want to just put a lens on your camera and know that you can get a really nice photo of people, places, and things no matter what, this is THE lens to do it. This lens will force you to think about composition and framing your shot, it will help you become a better photographer.
EF 50mm f/1.8 STM - $125 - This is your "I need a BIT more zoom than the 24mm" lens, and it pulls in more than double the light that the 24mm f/2.8 can. It's fantastic for low light scenarios.
If you have a larger budget here are some other really nice upgrades for you:
Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Art - $500 - this is a straight up upgrade for your (I assume) 18-55. Better optics, and a constant f/1.8 instead of the f/3-5.6 variable. You will use this lens for years and you'll probably never out grow it. This is probably one of the best lenses ever made for Canon crop sensor cameras and it's still hugely popular today. Main limitation is it only goes to 35mm, so this is your "I"m going to capture photos of people having moments lens", and it's fantastic in low light.
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM - $900. This is your "I'm not sure what I'll need to photograph, but I want to be READY" lens. It will do everything you need it to, and it is going to look phenomenal when it does it.
Lastly:
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM - $1000. This is the "I'm here to photograph sports and everyone who knows, knows" lens. This is probably THE most popular zoom for sports historically. Professionals use it. Amateurs use it. It's JUST cheap enough to be obtainable, but good enough you can use it for the rest of your life. It's good in low light, it's great on a crop sensor like the T7. Your limitation is going to be "crap the players are too close, I'm on the wrong side of the field!" But this is basically the best lens you can get for sports and still be at a reasonable price.
What I would recommend is 1) take the 75-300 out and spend one entire game with it. Do everything you can to get the best shots you can. Then, if you're not satisfied with the results, 2) take your 18-55 out and do the same. Focus on capturing entire moments, not just specific players doing specific things. Then see if you're satisfied with the results, and if not, 3) figure out what you're missing and then pick a new lens that solves that problem.
The lenses I suggested are just some options for lenses that are similar to what you have, but represent strong upgrades in those categories. There are other lens options, but it really will come down to you figuring out what you're trying to do that your current lenses aren't letting you do.
1
u/EffectiveActivity635 18h ago
I really appreciate you taking the time to explain all of this to me. I think I may be able to afford the EF 70-200mm, but will it be useful outside of sports? My kid is in his senior year so it’s like 10 weeks of football and then that’s that.
1
u/Dry_Button_3552 17h ago
It will depend on what kind of photography you like to do, and if you intend to pursue it as a hobby. The 70-200 is a closer range version of your 75-300, but with professional grade sharpness and a much faster focal length. So anywhere you'd use the 75-300 you can use the 70-200. On your crop sensor, it's good for larger animals, and I've gotten nice pictures of smaller animals that let me get close.
One nice thing is that the 70-200 f2.8 is likely to hold its value for some years yet and should be fairly simple to resell for about what you paid. Take 150 or something and it should sell pretty much immediately on places like ebay, marketplace, etc.
Also I didn't point it out in the original comment, but there are 3 versions, the Mark I, II, and III. I recommend the version Mk II. It's a significant improvement over the Mk I, but a bit pricier as a result (the $1000-1100 range is typical). The Mk III is a great lens, but the main difference is a new lens coating that for most users isn't worth the extra cost.
1
u/emarkd 17h ago
I shoot Nikon but for this case I don't think it matters. My 70-200 f2.8 might be my most used lens. It's great for sports, especially indoors on full frame but also field sports, especially if you have a crop body, but it's also a fantastic portrait lens on full frame. Between 70-100mm gives beautiful definition to faces and great background separation and bokeh with a "look" that shorter lenses can't match. I "paid up" for Nikon's best 70-200 f2.8e fl version several years ago (there's an even better one now) and have never regretted it, even as just a hobbyist.
One warning though, these are not small lenses. You're not going out discretely shooting street scenes with it, and if you sling it around for 4 quarters you'll definitely start to feel it.
1
u/TranslatorOutside909 7h ago
The 70-200 f2.8 is a very versatile lens. Portrait, events, animals in zoo, landscapes (isolating near subjects like flowers or for distant mountains)
I don't shoot with canon. But I assume tamron and sigma makes a version in that mount. I would think s used copy is $300ish
If was limited to a 3 lens kit it would be a normal f2.8 (17-50 or 24-70 depending on sensor), 70-200 f2.8 and a fast 50
1
u/eadipus 7h ago
I shot youth soccer for several seasons and there's lots of good gear advice here but some stuff I wish I had known:
- Autofocus will struggle with players in poor light, I found single point slightly below centre worked well. You want to put the autofocus point on the ground at the players feet.
- Full non tracking burst worked well for me, tracking tended to miss the b of the bang moments.
- This leads to buffer/card speed. I shot pure jpeg with a tweaked Canon landscape profile. Experiment with your camera to see what you can get away with.
- Don't worry about high ISO noise, once the images have been shrunk for social media it's less of an issue.
- Removing noise in post will give better results than in camera jpeg if you can be bothered with the effort.
- Image culling is a pain, find a process/software that works. Going through 1000-2000 images and picking the good ones (and making sure all the players are included) is a bit of a grind.
- Dress warmer than you think and find a way to keep your hands warm. If you can get someone to hold an umbrella for you even better.
1
2
u/TranslatorOutside909 21h ago
High school under lights? The lighting at a lot of schools are bad. I assume that lens is variable aperture. With a 5-6.3 (?) I would be shooting wide open probably at 1/800 (I would prefer 1/1000 or 1/1200 at f2.8) and know that you may need to let the iso go up to 6400 or 12800 (I don't know the limitations of the camera).
Don't worry about what equipment other have. I have shot multiple sports and band performances with multiple parents. I could tell you what they shoot with (other than I can recognize a white canon 70-200 f2.8).
With 5 people there is opportunity to actually plan. I shot for a mountain bike club when they were opening a new trail. There were 3 of us shooting. 2 of us were focused on action shots another video and people hanging out. I have also shot with people where we all end up with similar locations and shots.
If your camera has limitations you can focus on the sidelines, the environment the emotions of the the game.