High School Football

f/2.8, 1/2500, ISO 100

The undisputed heavyweight of the high school sports world.

I could create an entire blog devoted to high school football photography. In fact, there’s no time to be funny or clever here – we just need to get down to business.

Here are some of my tips from spending countless Friday-night hours on the sidelines.

Logistical Tips

1. Get There Early! Most football games are played on Friday nights. Take advantage of the fleeting daylight savings time hours and set out to shoot early in the season. Believe me, the difference in available light in early September compared with late October is staggering.
2. Stake Out Your Spot – Park yourself in the end zone or in the corner of the field. You will get yelled at if you get too close to the coach’s box.
3. Follow the ball – this is where most of the action is.

f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 1000

4. Look out! Tackles happen in the sideline – exactly where you’re standing. If the rumble of sweaty boys starts to gain strength – MOVE!
5. Take a knee – shooting sports from a sitting or kneeling positions is a really great perspective and enhances the action and drama.

Camera Settings

1. Shutter Speed – It is really hard to stop action with a shutter speed of anything slower than 1/250. If you go slower, you’ll get more light into your camera, but you will most likely end up with a blurry image.

f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 800

2. Bump up that ISO as high as it will go. (I know, I know – the grain! Keep reading because I’m addressing that in the next section.)

3. Open your aperature as wide as it will go (smallest number possible). If you’ve got some fast glass and can go as low as f/2.8  – you’ve got the ingredients to make some terrific images!

f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 800

4. Use spot focusing.

f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 1000

Equipment and SoftwareTips

1. Investing in a cheap monopod can come in really handy for high school football. Because of the lighting, you’re going to have to slow your shutter speed waaaaaay down and a monopod will reduce natural camera shake.

2. Noise reduction software. Personally, I really like Noise Ninja. Again, because of the lighting, you’re going to want to bump up your ISO as high as it will go. The higher the ISO the more grainy or noisy the image. Noise Ninja is a photoshop plug in that resides in your filter section. It does a really nice job of getting rid of a lot of that noise.

Cheats - OK so you don’t have the kind of setup I’ve described above – not a problem – here’s an idea that will also work.

If you really want to capture some great action shots of your son or nephew, a cool cheat is to set up shop during warm ups. Usually, both groups run patterns for a long time before the game starts.

f/2.8, 1/2500, ISO 100

You can usually venture closer to mid-field which is closer to the lights AND the ref won’t give you a hard time for being close to the field before the whistle blows.
Since the players run patterns as a part of their warm-up routine, you have more opportunity to capture YOUR kid with the ball. If you frame the image right, nobody will be able to tell that the shot occurred prior to kickoff.

Don’t forget to capture some non-action shots. I talk about that more in this post.

And of course, if there is a DAY game scheduled – get there and make some great images!

f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 100

f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 100