Cricket photography, would a 120-300mm lens be okay?

[BrumNewsPhotos]

I have been asked to photograph Twenty20 cricket at Edgbaston (Birmingham) for 6 matches from May onward's (press). I have a Sigma 120-300mm f2.8 (non-stabilised).

I can also use a Nikon D7100 with the additional 1.3x crop factor on top of the 1.5 crop sensor, would this do? Otherwise I would run it on a D750.

Also, as it will be played at night (under flood light), what ISO should I use, not having photographed night sports before.

One more thing, when you get a spot to photograph from, do press photographers move around or do you just sit in the same spot until they change ends?

Thanks for your help.

 

[sssesq]

How large is the field? American rules Football is about 40mx110m (with the end zones). I find no problems with a 300mm lens while on the sidelines. If the field is smaller you may want to bring along a shorter lens, IDK where the players are after they bat(?). If at night you will want to use the 2.8 at whatever iso you need to get 1/800 sec min and better 1/1000. You will want to shoot raw and process for noise reduction. I shoot with a D750 and have no probs with noise, color or vibrancy at 10-12K iso. Moving around IKD enough about Crickett to say.

 

[BrumNewsPhotos]

How large is the field? American rules Football is about 40mx110m (with the end zones). I find no problems with a 300mm lens while on the sidelines. If the field is smaller you may want to bring along a shorter lens, IDK where the players are after they bat(?). If at night you will want to use the 2.8 at whatever iso you need to get 1/800 sec min and better 1/1000. You will want to shoot raw and process for noise reduction. I shoot with a D750 and have no probs with noise, color or vibrancy at 10-12K iso. Moving around IKD enough about Crickett to say.

This is how big it is (not my image)

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www.edgbaston.com

It's a big ground. They have also asked for crowd shots (people in fancy dress), but I might be aple to wander with my 70-200mm for that.

 

[sssesq]

I took a look at the dimensions and you had better take the 120-300 if you want to get good shots when the action is on the opposite side of the field. It could be up to 137.5m away.

 

[Mark LW]

Whilist I have not used the camera or lens, I think you should be able to find some decent shots.
From shooting twelve feet outside the boundary and about fifteen degrees off the bowling line I acheived decent shots with a D3 and Nikkor 70-200mm ƒ2,8 with a doubler.
I would suggest that you go to a few matches, club or park, then have a play about to see what you can acheive and more importantly, to find a feel for the play.
Shooting from a little way off the bowling line allows shots of both bowlers and batsmen, you can alway move for better shots in the circumstances.
One last word. Crank up the shutter speed. Atmosphere is important, but freezing a ball or bat in action / contact is a killer. Try 1/4000th sec plus if you can, especially with a shallow DoF.
You will have to work to acheive this, but wide focus slow shots give you no impact.
It is a dynamic sport, so fast and shallow captures the dynamism.
Good luck.

 

[ZJ24]

Just to add to this I've shot representative and club cricket in New Zealand but not at particularly large grounds. I've found the D7100s ability to go to 1/4000 and 1/8000 really useful with a fast lens (80-200 F2.8) so you can keep the ISO low, on a ground that size you're likely to need a converter - I use a 2x third party one for autofocus and it's OK (at 300mm you may need a 1.4). I am still a little hesitant on the 1.3 crop factor on the D7100 - probably my technique but I find IQ a little variable with this for action.

My suggestion would be to very much make sure you go to the ground in advance and check where you're allowed to shoot and test, and plan some shots - unlike baseball the crowd is usually at ground level so you need to check your backgrounds and likely direction of the sun etc. If under lights you definitely need to balance aperture, shutter speed and ISO so it would be good to test under those conditions, only takes 20 minutes.

 

[Jaded Snapper]

It's OK at the daylight village matches I've been to. However I tend to use a Sigma 1.4 converter too. D7100. And be prepared to crop up to half frame. I'm not sure the D750 would give enough reach and I'd be inclined to use that for crowd shots, where the light will be lower.

You won't need reach to the other side of the playing field because very little goes on around the edges of a cricket pitch. And when it does happen you will not be quick enough to capture it. Plus it won't look very meaningful either - exceptionally difficult to capture a catch in the deep that a viewer can tell what is going on.

The action for you will be around the wickets. And probably the wicket furthest away from you, so that you are looking at the faces of batsman or bowler. So every other over. You won't be able to go very near the sight screens, because of being in the batsmans eyeline. The angle and position will depend on the batsman (Lhander or Right hander) and if the bowler is bowling over or round the wicket. However you won't be able to move during an over and quite possibly not at all. You can get shots from 90degrees to the wicket, but you won't get as many keepers.

it is all about anticipation - the burst rate of a DSLR is not fast enough to capture good shots other than with a bit of luck. However the action in cricket is pretty predictable.

in a 20:20 match you'll have 240 balls bowled, my keeper rate for than many balls will be less than 10. Good shots tend to include the ball, a batsman making a mistake or making a technically good shot, or some interesting arrangement of players and facial expressions. Rest assured the time that you decide to check what's on the camera, or to pick your nose, will be the classic wicket shot with bails flying in the air.

Shutter speed - anything above 1000, you may be limited by the light levels. The ISO, well, it will be floodlit and in theory this will be to the light levels necessary to play cricket. So a lightly overcast day. On a sunny day I'd be using 400 or 800 on my d7100. I can check settings if you'd like.

A stool and a monopod are essential.

if I think of anything else I'll post later.

 

[BrumNewsPhotos]

It's OK at the daylight village matches I've been to. However I tend to use a Sigma 1.4 converter too. D7100. And be prepared to crop up to half frame. I'm not sure the D750 would give enough reach and I'd be inclined to use that for crowd shots, where the light will be lower.

You won't need reach to the other side of the playing field because very little goes on around the edges of a cricket pitch. And when it does happen you will not be quick enough to capture it. Plus it won't look very meaningful either - exceptionally difficult to capture a catch in the deep that a viewer can tell what is going on.

The action for you will be around the wickets. And probably the wicket furthest away from you, so that you are looking at the faces of batsman or bowler. So every other over. You won't be able to go very near the sight screens, because of being in the batsmans eyeline. The angle and position will depend on the batsman (Lhander or Right hander) and if the bowler is bowling over or round the wicket. However you won't be able to move during an over and quite possibly not at all. You can get shots from 90degrees to the wicket, but you won't get as many keepers.

it is all about anticipation - the burst rate of a DSLR is not fast enough to capture good shots other than with a bit of luck. However the action in cricket is pretty predictable.

in a 20:20 match you'll have 240 balls bowled, my keeper rate for than many balls will be less than 10. Good shots tend to include the ball, a batsman making a mistake or making a technically good shot, or some interesting arrangement of players and facial expressions. Rest assured the time that you decide to check what's on the camera, or to pick your nose, will be the classic wicket shot with bails flying in the air.

Shutter speed - anything above 1000, you may be limited by the light levels. The ISO, well, it will be floodlit and in theory this will be to the light levels necessary to play cricket. So a lightly overcast day. On a sunny day I'd be using 400 or 800 on my d7100. I can check settings if you'd like.

A stool and a monopod are essential.

if I think of anything else I'll post later.

That is fantastic information thank you, yes if you could look into your night settings, it would be greatly appreciated. Also is a monopod or tripod better?

Do you upload from the side or from the media centre and if the latter, would it be during a break or can you go at any point?

I intend on visiting Edgbaston as soon as I get the accreditation and brief sorted.

Thank you.

 

[Jaded Snapper]

1/1250 is fine for freezing the action, looking at my keeper shots.

 

[ZJ24]

Yeah totally agree, and you can freeze at 1/250 etc depending on the action (eg batsman's follow-through as opposed to bowler's). I like having access to 1/8000 mainly because you can use a wider aperture in daylight action for background / spectator blur.