Hi, everyone! Thank you for visiting my site. It has been a long time since the last update, and this time I wanted to share what I have learned shooting soccer games. Along with travel photography, I have been shooting soccer games for my sons' teams for the past several years. It has been a great learning journey, and there are several things I have learned. Here are some of the tips.
I have been shooting my sons' teams for several years and sharing the photos with the team and parents. I have never had any issues or anyone complaining about shooting games. I do not make any money off of these. I shoot in public. But as the subjects of my shots are kids/minors, it can be sensitive. It is always a good practice to ask for permissions.
I have never had any issues shooting games with a couple of different clubs. Also, the current club my sons play actually use the photos I have taken on their website. But I have asked permissions to take photos just in case clubs care about their players photographed. In my recent trip to England for my older son's soccer trip, there was a player from semi-professional team practicing on a field next to ours. There was another photographer (a professional) shooting our practice, but also clicked few shots of this particular player on the next field. Yes, it was a private property, and their coaches really got pissed off with this photographer and got into a huge argument. While I shoot in a public field and my sons belong to a club, I ask to make sure the club is okay with me photographing games. Asking never hurts.
As I do not shoot commercially and do not post in social media, I should not have to get model release. But as these players are kids (8ish~17ish), they are considered as minors and taking pictures of minors may be sensitive to some parents. In the beginning of the season, I ask parents to make sure they are okay with me photographing players during the game. Only thing they ask is if I would be sharing the photos with them. My answer is always yes to this. While I do not like shooting photographs of people in general, being able to capture and share some of the moments in kids lives has been really rewarding for me. I have never had any parents who did not want their kids pictures taken. Parents usually get really excited after seeing the photos from the first game as they realize the differences in the quality of photos between their smartphone pictures and my set up (Canon EOS R5 with 100-500 mm L lens).
You might wonder why I would need permissions from the referees. As long as the club and parents are okay with my photographing the game, there should be no issues. You are right about that. The reason I ask the referee's permissions is for my positioning for taking photographs. I will get into the details on the positioning more later. But some referees do not like parents/audience sitting anywhere other than the opposite sidelines from players benches. In several years of shooting soccer games, there have been two referees who actually asked me to stay on the sidelines. Also, in England, referees told me they would allow me to to shoot on the field because it was a friendly game. If it was an official game, I would not have been able to get inside the fence to shoot the game. In order to avoid disrupting the game and referees, it is always a good idea to check with them before the game where we can shoot from.
One of the factors that differentiate my photographs from other parents photographs are angles and compositions. Usually, most parents are sitting on the sidelines on one side of the field. This really limits the angle of what we can shoot. To really capture the actions and exciting shots, we have to position ourselves correctly. I usually move around the field during the game depending on which way my sons' teams are facing and how games are going. There are few spots I position myself during the game.
This (marked with "1" above) is the primary position I take. I position myself far enough from the goalie not to disturb players and the goalie. I also stay far away from the corner in order not to disturb corner kicks. But more importantly, I choose this position for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I can shoot my sons' teams facing me rather than from the side. Second, actions (goal scoring opportunities and corner kicks) are close. Yes, a lot of photos may be focused on the offensive plays by positioning here. But as long as I have a long lens and enough pixels to crop, my photos of defensive players come out pretty good as well.
The second position I usually take is right on the center line. I certainly prefer taking photos next to the goal. But sometimes a lot of actions are on the defensive end. If that is the case, I position myself right on the center line to capture at least the half of the field. While the angle of the images may be from the side more especially for the mid fielders, defensive players tend to face the side lines little more than other players as they try to push the opponents to the side rather than letting them go inside.
The last spot I may position myself during the game is about 25 yards from the goal line. This is specifically to take photos of the goalie. While I shoot for my own pleasure and my main subjects are my own sons, I try to capture everyone. As I share my photos with the team by sharing a folder in a Google Drive rather than individually, the team and parents see all photos I take/edit. I prefer not to disappoint players and parents for not seeing a lot of their action shots. The angle certainly is not the ideas. But there are less obstacles compared to the center line. There are usually several players in the foreground even if I try to capture the goalie. Even for the penalty kicks, there are players lined up at the 18 yard line getting ready to run towards the goal. If I am at 25 yards, I can avoid unwanted players in the frame to a certain extent.
Shooting with a dedicated camera produces usually better results than with a smartphone for the most part. Dedicated cameras usually have bigger sensors and better lens quality producing better image quality for sure. They usually have less time lags allowing shooters to capture the image they intend to take rather than a few moments later. But there are more controls we have, and setting the camera correctly for the occasion produces much better images. For that reason, I shoot in manual mode.
One of the reasons a lot of sports pictures do not turn out good for parents (mostly blurry pictures) is the slow shutter speed. Most photographers may not need to use a shutter speed faster than 1/200 or 1/250 second for family photos or especially landscape photography. This shutter speed is fast enough for these types of photographs. But in sports photography, it is not fast enough and causes blurry images. We need a faster shutter speed. For my younger son's team (11 years old) I use 1/500 or 1/640 second. For my older son's team (15~16 years old), I use 1/1000 second. These shutter speeds usually stops the motion and produce sharp crisp images of players while the ball may show little blur for the movement.
When I started photography, I was obsessed with wide apertures. I loved the bokeh and the blurry background. It is good for some photographs. But not necessarily great for the sports photography. I use Canon EOS 5D Mark III and EOS R5. Both of these have full frame sensors. Also, I use Canon EF 70-200mm F4 USM IS L or RF 100-500 mm F4.5-7.1 L lenses. These gears result in shallower depth of field. For that reason, I do not shoot with aperture wide open. I shoot either at F5.6 or 6.3 (for 100-500 at the long end, it forces to F7.1). These narrower aperture allows me to capture the players in focus, not only parts of players. Even the camera/lens keeps track of face/eyes, these apertures keep the entire body in focus.
While I shoot manual, I have my ISO setting on auto. I set the range between 100-6400, and the camera changes ISO as necessary for the light condition. With the shutter speed of 1/500 ~ 1/1000 second with the aperture of F5.6~6.3, it is pretty dark unless it is super sunny. Some of you may be hesitant to use high ISOs. I completely understand. I was really shocked with the amount of noise when I shot ISO 400 film. My first DSLR did not even have ISO above 1600. But this is where the technological advancement shines through Images with ISO 6400 are still great.
Even these these settings, there may not be enough light to shoot. In these situations, I either clank up ISOs little more or just give up on shooting the game.
The most difficult part about shooting sports is keeping the moving subjects in focus. In soccer, there are 22 players on the field chasing the ball. Keeping a particular player moving with a ball has been difficult. For the focus mode, I use AF Servo with face/eye tracking. With Canon 5D III using AI-Servo, it was not perfect and I had a lot of images out of focus. With R5's, face/eye tracking capabilities, there are a lot more images in focus on the players I wanted to capture.
Even with the minimal shutter lag time (the time gap between pressing the shutter button and camera actually capturing an image), it still is challenging to capture the "best" moment. To help with this, cameras offer continuous shutter mode. Canon 5D Mark III offers about 6 frames per second. R5 offers up to 20 frames per second with electric shutter. These continuous shutter mode generates a lot of images and few of them may have the ideal moments.
With R5, as I use Dual Pixel focus, I cannot use the high speed continuous shutter mode, and I use the slow speed continuous shutter mode. It is limiting in a way. But I choose a sharp focus over the speed of continuous shutter.
I would say all DSLRs or mirrorless cameras that came out in the past 15 years would have enough capabilities and features to shoot sports photography. I was quite happy with Canon EOS 5D Mark III (released in 2012). While there were a lot of images that were out of focus, I produced a lot of great images that players, parents, and the club appreciated. But as I touched on the post on my decision to upgrade to R5, newer cameras have amazing features that provide better chances of producing more satisfying images. Also, there are other gears and accessories absolutely necessary and helpful in shooting soccer games.
I would say face/eye detection and tracking is a must have feature. This definitely is a game changer. The good news is, this feature (canon calls it Face+Tracking AF) is available even for an entry camera like Canon R100. I can shoot with R100 with the same settings as I have with R5.
Only other features I may consider is the weather sealing depending on the geographical region/weather and how serious you are about shooting soccer games.
When I first started shooting soccer, I only had 28mm-135mm. Quickly I learned it was not long enough even for smaller fields. As my older son plays on a full size field and plays defense, 200mm started to feel limiting. I upgraded to 100-500mm. But I would say 100-500mm is not practical for other purposes. If you are interested in shooting only your own children, 200mm should be long enough.
If you do not want to spend that much money, you can try RF 100-400mm. While it is a slower lens and does not have the same level of weather sealing, it is less than a half of 70-200mm F4 lens and gives you twice the length.
I do not see many parents with tripod or monopod on the field. But a monopod is an absolute must for me while shooting soccer games with a heavy camera and a long lens. Not having to hold/carry a heavy camera and a long lens really help my shoulder/arm/wrist. Also, it stabilizes the camera further. My strong recommendation is to buy a solid and sturdy monopod with tri-feet for added stability and a solid ballhead for smooth control.
I do not shoot standing up. I shoot sitting down on a stool. It helps me with my legs/feet/back. But more importantly, it gives little more balanced angle vertically. Rather than shooting down my subjects from my eye level. I would be shooting from players' hip level. This gives a better angle especially for younger/shorter kids.
As I live and shoot in the Pacific Northwest, there are a lot of rain/misty weather during the fall and winter. While I have shot with my 5D Mark III and 70-200mm F4 lens without any covers before, it is a necessary protection to take care of my investment. I have asked a professional photographer about their take on using rain covers for their gears. His advise was put a cover on the gear if I have to use an umbrella or raincoat. It makes sense. Though R5 and 100-500mm lens are both weather sealed, I feel much better if they do not get wet. LensCoat Raincoat Standard covers 70-200mm F4 comfortably and fits 100-500mm perfectly.
I am usually cold and my hands and feet get really cold especially during winter while shooting. I used several different gloves and put one over another. But nothing really seemed to work. Then, I came across Vallerret Markhof Pro V3. This pair keeps my fingers warm and dry. If you are to shoot in winter in wet condition, I strongly recommend investing in a good pair of gloves.
I hope this would be helpful in your photography journey of shooting soccer games, especially the positioning and the camera setting part. Of course, everyone has their own styles and he/she finds the settings they like for their photos. Just play around with different settings, changing things little by little to find what works. Happy shooting and sharing precious moments!
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