[charlestm]

I've actually had some very good success shooting high school soccer games with my K-7 and Sigma 70-200 2.8. But I have a couple of questions:

* If I am shooting at high shutter speeds (ie. between 1/1000 and 1/4000), does the Shake Reduction help at all? Should I just turn that off once I'm over 1/1000?

* Does having Shake Reduction turned on while continuous shooting in bursts help or hurt (or simply not matter)? I had heard that it takes a second for Shake Reduction to recalculate between shots, so I'm wondering if continuous shots in rapid succession conflict with Shake Reduction.

* If I am shooting in the bright sun, which metering mode is going to help me most? In bright sun, often the field and uniforms are nice and bright, but the player's faces are not especially when their back is to the sun. I'm having a hard time getting the settings right in this scenario. I'm usually shooting TAv, with the aperture between 2.8 and 4. The resulting ISOs are around 200 to 400.

[hcc]

I have a K-7 and I shoot a lot of action incl with Hi continuous shooting. I share below my thoughts although I would not pretend to be na expert.

* If I am shooting at high shutter speeds (ie. between 1/1000 and 1/4000), does the Shake Reduction help at all? Should I just turn that off once I'm over 1/1000?

At these shutter speeds, i believe that SR does not help but it does not affect adversely your shots. Leave SR on.

* Does having Shake Reduction turned on while continuous shooting in bursts help or hurt (or simply not matter)? I had heard that it takes a second for Shake Reduction to recalculate between shots, so I'm wondering if continuous shots in rapid succession conflict with Shake Reduction.

It does not matter and SR does not slow down your shooting rate.

Hope that the comment may help.

[psychdoc]

In bright sun, often the field and uniforms are nice and bright, but the player's faces are not especially when their back is to the sun. I'm having a hard time getting the settings right in this scenario.

If you are a professional, I cannot answer because I am not. Otherwise see below.

I shoot school sports-as family. I try not to shoot much if the sun is blazing and its too contrasty. You can post process to brighten the shadows. But this only works upto a point. But you can be creative and make the photos interesting:
1. Frame it to be interesting-photo1 attached below
2. Compose to be humorous-photo 2
3. Freeze in unusual positions-photo 3
4. Shoot so the face is front lit well-photo 4

[dosdan]

I've shot 4 yrs now of Junior soccer (U7-U11). I've used a tripod for most of that, so no SR. In the last 2 matches I've shot sitting down hand-held. (I've also shot sitting down a few times in the past, but with a tripod.) No SR because the shutter speed was 1/1000s. The reason why I prefer a tripod is it reduces the amount of leveling I have to do in PP. I also find I get more stability in the vertical dimension which seems to lead to less times when heads are chopped off when close tracking. (Doesn't help if the player unexpected leaps up, like in the 3-shot sequence, images #4a, #4b, #4c here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5/115277-k-5-sports-photography-30.html#post2061500)

I usually use a K-5 with both a Sigma 70-200/F2.8 II and a DA* 60-250/F4 (swapping at half-time because I can't decide which one I prefer).

Shooting with back-lit or even with strong overhead sun is always problematic to an extent. I shoot raw and develop with SilkyPix Developer Pro v4. This has a global Dodge control which assists greatly in lightening dark areas of the frame, like a player's face and front. At one time, our guys where playing on side by side half-fields, with very little space between these fields. Depending on which half-field our team was playing in on the day, the watchers were situated either on the North or the South side of these side-by-side fields. So 50% of the time you were shooting backlit (9am-9.30am was the time of the weekly match).

Now it would have been better to shoot situated between the 2 fields. but the distance was so close that you faced a good change of being hit from the front or behind by either the ball or players overrunning, from either of the 2 fields. So I did a lot of dodging, and still do. (We've had a lot of sunshine in recent matches, and later start times: up to 12.30pm, so harsh sunlight has required plenty of dodging.)

An example of SP dodging, without over-lightening, is shown here:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5/170306-dull-colors-pentax-k-5-a.html#post1764454

An example of heavy dodging of players in the shade of a row of trees, with a sunlit area behind, is in Image #2 here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5/115277-k-5-sports-photography-30.html#post2052211, although that's also an example of 2 conflicting White Balances in one scene.

Dan.

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Last edited by dosdan; 09-16-2012 at 02:07 AM.

[slip]

no pro either, but some experence.
If you can, find some shade for you to stand in while you are shooting, it minimizes the flare.
get the exposure you need to brighten the faces (I use spot metering but your subjects look a little far away to make a huge difference) and then put it in manual exposure and keep it there (for that type of lighting). when you are not shooting in direct sun, switch the camera back to your favourite mode which should meter best for that type of lighting. judge the lighting and then switch from manual/auto exposure as needed.You could leave the exposure in manual for both types of lighting and either choose a stop difference (or maybe 2) if you are comfortable with it. camera raw should cover the rest.

BTW, for best results keep the ISO as low as possible and the shots should look cleaner and don't worry about SR as you might turn it off and forget to turn it back on when you need it.

cheers

randy

[Canada_Rockies]

I use manual exposure and the sunny 16 rule as applied to the faces in the direction I will be shooting. At ISO 400 on bright sunny days with the sun to the side of the players, 1/500@f/11 should give you usable faces, for example. Back lit would be f/8, front lit f/16. My personal taste leans toward 1/500 shutter speeds so that there is a tiny bit of motion blur on hands or feet in fast movement. It makes the picture look more real to me. If you prefer the crisp look, use 1/1000. Turn on your "blinkies" and take a couple of shots to make sure that the uniforms are not blown out. Don't worry if the sky is one big red flashing area - that's not what you are trying to capture and there is nothing to see there anyway during a soccer match.

Play with the exposure settings until you are happy with the results as you want to see them, including the amount of motion blur. Memorize the settings for specific lighting situations and use the ISO setting to compensate for cloudy weather if your camera allows it. My K10 isn't all that good over ISO 400, so I compensate with the aperture rather than the ISO.