| Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 51200, ƒ/5.6, 1/1250 |
This past Friday Night and during the day on Saturday, I went through a tune-up. There are two parts to the tune-up.
First, since the last football game, I have bought new cameras and needed to calibrate the lens to the camera body.
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I took this photo when I talked about how to calibrate your lenses in an earlier blog post. Take a look here if you want a refresher on how to do this.
So I spent several hours doing this with my cameras and lenses. Now I shoot with a Sigma 120-300mm lens and recommend you look at that blog post where I explain how I calibrated the lens using Sigma Optimization Pro software coupled with the Sigma USB docking station to calibrate the lens. I also use it to calibrate my Sigma 24-105mm Art and Sigma 35mm Art lens.
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| Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 720, ƒ/5.6, 1/4000 |
The second thing I do each year is to go out and shoot some football games before my first job shooting a game. For example, this year, I went to the Catholic High School near me and shot their home varsity game on Friday night and then shot their 7th-grade team playing the following day.
Before taking photos of the game, I set my Nikon D5 camera up to shoot the match. Here is a blog post on sports settings with the Nikon D5. Next, here are my settings for the Nikon D4.
Let me tell you that the Nikon D5 was a definite upgrade over the Nikon D4. When shooting on the high-speed motor drive of 12 frames per second, I can say it looked more like an old-time movie. However, you could still see the action through the mirror because of the camera’s speed. Very cool!!!!.
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| Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 720, ƒ/5.6, 1/4000 |
For those of you who are just starting out shooting sports like your child’s games, don’t just go and shoot their games when getting started. Instead, practice at the local recreation center and get used to following the action and keeping it focused. I use the back focus button, so I can then improve my chances of getting in-focus photos. It would help if you tried my setup to see what I mean.
Honestly, being able to walk up and start shooting a kids’ game like I did this weekend is much more relaxing than getting to a fun two hours early that you must do when shooting Division 1 college and the NFL.
Another thing with shooting for fun is if you want to stop, you can. But, you must arrive early and stay to the very end when shooting professionally. Now, if you’re going to get hired to shoot professionally, you need to learn why we get there early and stay late.
Rather than telling you what we shoot when we arrive and stay late–let me challenge you to come early and stay late and try and take compelling photos around the entire game.
Have you tuned up for this football season?