New photos ...

[gdickert]

Here are the photos from the Kountze-Tenaha game, the Silsbee-Kountze volleyball match and the pep rally at Kountze High School before the Tenaha game... Go to ...

www.gld-designs.smugmug.com

[Wes57]

nice pics !

[gdickert]

Thanks! I have a lot of fun with the photography part of my job ...

Plus, my son is a senior at Kountze this year, so I'm able to document his final year of high school ...

[BearWolf]

great pics

[Wes57]

Thanks! I have a lot of fun with the photography part of my job ...

Plus, my son is a senior at Kountze this year, so I'm able to document his final year of high school ...

Let me ask you a photography question. I'm sure you took the action photos from the sideline, what I'm wondering is if you used a tri-pod and if you did is it absolutly neccessary. Also is your camera on auto when these night time shots are taken?

[gdickert]

I use a monopod ... it's like a tripod, only just a single pole ... it helps steady the camera and, honestly, after four quarters, even the lightest camera gets heavy.

I use a 200 f2.8 Canon lens with a Canon 20D body.

I set the ISO at 3200, the lens at 2.8 and try to shoot at no less than a 500 shutter speed. In Kountze, the lights are awful ... and with the rain Friday night, there wasn't even any ambient light. You'd be surprised at what a difference a full moon makes when taking photos at night.

My pics in Kountze tend to be a bit grainy only because I'm shooting as such a high ISO speed and with the lens wide open ...

You can't shoot football with a flash because the camera syncs with the flash at either 1/60th of a second or 1/125th ... neither are fast enough to catch the action ...

Blurry photos are MUCH worse than grainy photos ...

[Wes57]

Thanks for the info. 

[dav-joel]

From what distance were these taken? Also do you think they would be better if you you used a tripod instead of the mono pod.

[gdickert]

I'm standing with my toes on the sidelines as long as the refs let me ... and shooting to about mid-field.

A tripod is too cumbersome ... you have to move with the game, so I'm able to grab the monopod and head downfield as soon as I need to.

I'm not sure if a tripod would make the photos better. I use a tripod in my studio setup. It allows me to set the camera, set the lights and then trigger the camera from my laptop ... so i never have to touch the camera after everything is set to my specifications ...

Now if I had better lights in Kountze .... THAT would make my pictures better!

;D

[dav-joel]

Thanks. ;D

Kountze ISD - Get dem lights

[Wes57]

I use a monopod ... it's like a tripod, only just a single pole ... it helps steady the camera and, honestly, after four quarters, even the lightest camera gets heavy.

I use a 200 f2.8 Canon lens with a Canon 20D body.

I set the ISO at 3200, the lens at 2.8 and try to shoot at no less than a 500 shutter speed. In Kountze, the lights are awful ... and with the rain Friday night, there wasn't even any ambient light. You'd be surprised at what a difference a full moon makes when taking photos at night.

My pics in Kountze tend to be a bit grainy only because I'm shooting as such a high ISO speed and with the lens wide open ...

You can't shoot football with a flash because the camera syncs with the flash at either 1/60th of a second or 1/125th ... neither are fast enough to catch the action ...

Blurry photos are MUCH worse than grainy photos ...

Help again !!

I've got the Nikon D40x and a 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G IF-ED lens. My game pictures during the daylight have been perfect but using the camera on AUTO, like I do during daylight, alot of my pictures at night have been blurry. Any suggestions on what I should set the settings on this camera. I tinkered with it last night and for some reason it seems like I cant get the lens below 5.6.

[gdickert]

Hey Wes57 ...

With your lens, the aperture ranges from 3.5 to 5.6

That means that when you are zoomed all the way out to 18 mm, it allows more light into the lens, meaning your lens will go as low as 3.5.

Now, when you zoom all the way in, it takes away the lens' ability to take in as much light and your lens only goes down as far as 5.6.

Unless you're in a stadium with great lights, like PNG, you're going to have a hard time getting really sharp photos.

Here's why.

If you shoot at night, you'll have to push the ISO to at least 1600, and if you're in a dark stadium, you'll need to push that to 3200, if your camera will do that.

The ISO represents the light sensitivity of the "film" in a camera. The sensor in the camera acts as film. Ordinarily in the "AUTO" mode, the camera sets the ISO between 100 and 400.

What you'll need to do is change your ISO to 1600. With the Canon, there is a custom function that has to be reset in order to push it to 3200. ... that might also be the case for the Nikon.

The higher the ISO, the more grain you'll see in the finished photograph.

Because you're shooting auto during the daylight part of your games, you're getting an automatically set ISO, which is probably 100 or 200, based on how sunny it is outside at the time.

As the sun goes down, your camera starts to adjust itself by moving the ISO to about 400, then adjusting the shutter speed to allow more light in.

As it gets darker, do you notice that the sound of the shutter seems slower and more sluggish?

That's because your camera is now shooting at somewhere below 1/500th of a second.

If you're having success shooting automatic during the day, then keep doing that, why stress your brain if the camera is getting it right for you.

But as it gets dark, here's what I would do ...

--- Set your ISO to 1600 if you have decent lights, 3200 if you're in a dark stadium

--- Set your lens aperture as absolutely wide open as possible, which would be 5.6 if you're zoomed all the way in ...

--- And set your shutter speed to no less than 1/500th of a second. Any slower and you'll get blurred arms and legs.

The lens I shoot is a 200mm fixed lens that opens to 2.8.

The smaller the number, the more light you'll get into a lens.

That's why when you go shopping for a lens, if you get a 300 f2.8, you're going to pay a load for it.

The same 300 that's an f5.6 is going to go for a lot less money ... but you're going to be limited to shooting during the daylight hours or with a powerful flash unit.

Here is a photo I shot in Lumberton at about 6 p.m. The sun had started to go down, so I didn't have a lot of direct sunlight, which can cause some nasty shadows.

I shot this with a Canon 20D, 200mm lens set at f8.0, 400 ISO with the shutter set at 1/1000th of a second.

You can see that there is minimal grain and the action is sharp and clear.

Now this image is one from Silsbee's stadium recently. It was about 8:30 p.m. and cloudy, so there was no ambient light from the moon at all.

I shot this with the same camera, same lens but the settings were different because it was much darker.

The ISO was 3200

The shutter was set at 1/800th of a second

The lens was opened up to f2.8

You can see how much more evident the grain is in the photo, which gives it a softer edge throughout the image.

It is said that the best camera in the world is only as good as the lens it has on it. If you really want much better pictures, you're going to have to invest in some glass ... consider a used 200mm fixed lens with at least a 2.8 minimum aperture setting. If you can afford the f1.8 lens, all the better ...

[godogs]

UT commits Luke Poelhmann & Dravannti Johnson

DJ has looked to thickened up for his Sr. campaign, seen he's 230 now-a-days..What a game Dogs!!

[Wes57]

Hey Wes57 ...

With your lens, the aperture ranges from 3.5 to 5.6

That means that when you are zoomed all the way out to 18 mm, it allows more light into the lens, meaning your lens will go as low as 3.5.

Now, when you zoom all the way in, it takes away the lens' ability to take in as much light and your lens only goes down as far as 5.6.

Unless you're in a stadium with great lights, like PNG, you're going to have a hard time getting really sharp photos.

Here's why.

If you shoot at night, you'll have to push the ISO to at least 1600, and if you're in a dark stadium, you'll need to push that to 3200, if your camera will do that.

The ISO represents the light sensitivity of the "film" in a camera. The sensor in the camera acts as film. Ordinarily in the "AUTO" mode, the camera sets the ISO between 100 and 400.

What you'll need to do is change your ISO to 1600. With the Canon, there is a custom function that has to be reset in order to push it to 3200. ... that might also be the case for the Nikon.

The higher the ISO, the more grain you'll see in the finished photograph.

Because you're shooting auto during the daylight part of your games, you're getting an automatically set ISO, which is probably 100 or 200, based on how sunny it is outside at the time.

As the sun goes down, your camera starts to adjust itself by moving the ISO to about 400, then adjusting the shutter speed to allow more light in.

As it gets darker, do you notice that the sound of the shutter seems slower and more sluggish?

That's because your camera is now shooting at somewhere below 1/500th of a second.

If you're having success shooting automatic during the day, then keep doing that, why stress your brain if the camera is getting it right for you.

But as it gets dark, here's what I would do ...

--- Set your ISO to 1600 if you have decent lights, 3200 if you're in a dark stadium

--- Set your lens aperture as absolutely wide open as possible, which would be 5.6 if you're zoomed all the way in ...

--- And set your shutter speed to no less than 1/500th of a second. Any slower and you'll get blurred arms and legs.

The lens I shoot is a 200mm fixed lens that opens to 2.8.

The smaller the number, the more light you'll get into a lens.

That's why when you go shopping for a lens, if you get a 300 f2.8, you're going to pay a load for it.

The same 300 that's an f5.6 is going to go for a lot less money ... but you're going to be limited to shooting during the daylight hours or with a powerful flash unit.

Here is a photo I shot in Lumberton at about 6 p.m. The sun had started to go down, so I didn't have a lot of direct sunlight, which can cause some nasty shadows.

I shot this with a Canon 20D, 200mm lens set at f8.0, 400 ISO with the shutter set at 1/1000th of a second.

You can see that there is minimal grain and the action is sharp and clear.

Now this image is one from Silsbee's stadium recently. It was about 8:30 p.m. and cloudy, so there was no ambient light from the moon at all.

I shot this with the same camera, same lens but the settings were different because it was much darker.

The ISO was 3200

The shutter was set at 1/800th of a second

The lens was opened up to f2.8

You can see how much more evident the grain is in the photo, which gives it a softer edge throughout the image.

It is said that the best camera in the world is only as good as the lens it has on it. If you really want much better pictures, you're going to have to invest in some glass ... consider a used 200mm fixed lens with at least a 2.8 minimum aperture setting. If you can afford the f1.8 lens, all the better ...

Thanks so much. 

[BearWolf]

nice pics

[BMTSoulja1]

I likes that!

[24 over par]

my wife takes lots of pic and the new lights at d=ville has made a world of difference