It's outdoor high school soccer time for the girls again in Michigan. Although I can capture perfectly good soccer shots with my 70-200 f/2.8 lens, there's no substitute for the reach of big glass like the 300mm f/2.8 that captured this shot. My 300mm lens is a Nikon circa 2000. Yes, this lens is abourt 13 years old. I purchased it on eBay from a camera store several years ago. It's AF-S (meaning fast auto focus). And it works perfectly well with both my newer Nikon D700 and D800 camera bodies.
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I ordered the D800 in February from B&H and it arrived in late July. After a weekend shooting soccer, I must say it seems like it was worth the wait. First, I must admit I have to grow accustomed to a 4 frames per second frame rate in FX mode (highest resolution mode). With the vertical grip attached to my old D700, 8 frames per second is a nice added feature. I ordered the vertical grip with the D800 for the added battery capacity. However, unlike the D700, the D800 still only shoots 4 FPS in FX mode with the attached vertical grip.
Are there any other other reasons not to like the D800? Absolutely not! Autofocus speed is better than my D700 with the same Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 lens attached. And picture quality is outstanding. In fact it's much better than anything I've ever experienced. One of the main reasons for purchasing the D800 for sports is the ability to crop and maintain significant photo clarity. For me, that means not worrying about the reach of my 300mm lens when shooting soccer. Check out the first photo below. This was shot with the D800 and 300mm lens. The photo was cropped significantly and straightened as well. I think the photo clarity is outstanding. Compare this to the original 36.2MP (28.81 MB) RAW file at the bottom of this post.
Nikon D800, 300mm f/2.8 lens, Shutter 1/1600s, Aperture f/4, ISO 450, 10.4 MP after cropping (2733 x 3806)
Original pixel size 7360 x 4912 (36.2 MP)
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These two soccer athletes are sisters. Check out the bend of the strike leg of each young lady. There's a weird thing going on with their knee. Is this an illusion? Or does their knee actually flex in this manner after a strike?
The top photo was taken in April 2011. The bottom photo was shot in May 2008.
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As the spring club soccer season gets underway, here's a reminder about the basic camera settings I use for soccer photography. This photo was taken using Nikon's D700 with a 300mm f/2.8 Nikon lens attached. Using the D700, I use shoot in manual mode (both shutter speed and aperture are set manually; with the ISO set automatically using the Auto ISO setting of the D700). The sun was setting during this game which created shadows and bright sections on the field. The shutter speed was set a 1/800 second. While the aperture was set a f/2.8. This caused the ISO setting to rise to ISO 1000 under these lighting conditions. After taking a few test shots before the beginning of the game, I noticed some over exposure in areas of the photo like the player's socks or shots of light skin taken in sunlight. So I dialed the exposure bias back to -1/3 as well.
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The title of this post seems obvious. But when capturing soccer shots, actually getting the action that highlights the goal is not as easy as it seems. What makes a goal photograph a good goal photograph? One that shows the scorer; the ball, the net; and the keeper if possible.
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The background matters. If inappropriate, it can distract from your main subject, particularly when it's not nicely blurred like the big lenses with big apertures can give you.
This photo was shot with a 300mm f/2.8 lens, with 1.4x extender attached (shot at aperture f/4). The background is blurred somewhat. But the brick wall, fence and "Danger" sign in the background is a little unusual for a soccer photo.
I think the backgrounds of these photos are better.
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I finally got a chance to shoot some outdoor soccer with my relatively new D700 this weekend. All of these photos were shot with the D700 and a 300mm f/2.8 lens attached. Being a full-frame camera (FX is Nikon's nomenclature for this), I don't get the reach multiplier factor that I'm accustomed to with my D300 camera. For soccer, that lower reach might be the only drawback of this camera. Autofocus speed and the ability to capture more in-focus shots seems to be much better than the D300. Yep, the D700 is expensive. But it's also a very good camera for the sports photographer.
My autofocus settings for these shots were:
If you have a D700 or a D3 (or even a D300), try these autofocus settings the next time you shoot soccer.
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This shot was taken from behind the net at a terribly lit indoor soccer facility. I was able to stand very close to the net (which is something normally not allowed). Standing close to the net allowed me to almost completely blur the net in this image. Capturing this direct perspective was very appealing to me as a soccer photographer. The lack of light in this facility, however, was very problematic.
This shot was taken at ISO 6400 with a Nikon D700 and 70-200 f/2.8 lens. The shutter speed and aperture were manually set at 1/400s and f/2.8 respectively
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It pays to shoot lots of photos when you're taking sports photos. After all, it's only digital. It really doesn't cost you anything to shoot as many photos as you can. The benefit for holding down that shutter release button is you'll capture some very interesting sports shots that you really can't plan for.
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