Select Page

Earlier in the week, I blogged about learning to take basketball pictures and how challenging that has been for me.  Me…a person who LOVES natural, outdoor light when taking pictures. It just seems so much easier, and I always get better pictures when I’m shooting outside.  I was so happy to be heading back out to the soccer fields this morning.  I found my seat on the sidelines, and I happily set my camera to Aperture Priority (Av on a Canon), and boom – – I got some wonderful pictures!!  Being back in my comfort zone with lots of natural light means less time in the “editing room”!  So what’s the difference between a soccer picture and a basketball picture?  And why can I set my camera to Aperture Priority (my personal favorite) for soccer, but not for basketball??  Well…I’m not a camera expert, but here is how I understand it…

When I’m outside shooting soccer or baseball pictures, I have all that natural light – at least on a sunny day!  And today was very sunny.  So I set my camera to Aperture Priority (Av), opened the Aperture up using f/2.8 and clicked away.  The reason I was able to freeze Morgan and the soccer ball while she was racing up and down the field using the Aperture Priority setting instead of the Shutter Priority setting was because in order to keep the picture properly exposed, the shutter had to open and close very quickly because of all the light coming in.  The natural light!!  Does that make sense?  Inside a basketball gym, I don’t have all that natural light.  I have that horrible gym lighting – – it’s very low light with a yellow tint to it.  So my camera needs to be set with the Shutter Speed as a priority, because it needs to try to get in enough light without blurring the image.  The faster I set the shutter speed, the higher the Auto ISO setting goes to try to add more light.

So I definitely prefer being outside with some sunlight.  All I have to worry about is finding a good seat on the sidelines, the Aperture setting, and being able to focus on my quickly moving subjects.

Soccer pictures taken with my Canon 70-200mm Lens

Soccer pictures taken with my Canon 70-200mm Lens

Look at my Supergirl get that soccer ball!!  Way to go, Morgan!

Soccer pictures taken with my Canon 70-200mm Lens

All three of the pictures above were taken with my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens.  The settings I used for the pictures inlcude Aperture Priority (Av), wide open Aperture set at f/2.8, and the Shutter Speed fell between 1/1600 and 1/2500.  In most of the pictures, the ISO automatically set to around 100.

If you are shooting sports, I highly recommend the Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 lens!  It is awesome.  But…whatever lens you are using, get out there, take some pictures, and enjoy the natural light when you can!!  And as always…if you find something that works, please share with me.  I’m always looking for something new to try!  Until next time…