Shooting field hockey: best lens and camera position

I was taking photos of our university’s women’s field hockey game last two weekends, and as an experiment, I shot each of them with a different lens.

Shooting field hockey is challenging for couple of reasons. First, the field is relatively small and it is enclosed by a fence, so on one hand, the action can come very close to the camera very quickly, and on the other hand, it is difficult to isolate the players from the background if they are at the opposite end of the field from the camera.

The second challenge is that the players are crouched down while fighting to control the ball, so if the light is harsh, as the daytime sunlight often is, the players’ faces are covered by deep shadows.

Third, the colour of the artificial turf is bright green, which creates an unpleasant cast on the faces of the players, as they bend down, looking at the ball.

The first challenge of the wide range of distances from the action can be overcome by using an appropriate lens. I shot my first game of this season with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. I has a good zoom range, which is great to have when the action is close, it focuses very fast and it is relatively light. I had the lens mounted on a Canon EOS-1D X and carried it on a Y-strap. It was so easy to handle that I was convinced that if I had a single lens to choose, the 70-200mm f/2.8L would be it. Its only drawback is insufficient focal length for far-away shots, such as action at the opposite end of the field and close-up shots of the players celebrating the goals.

The next game, one week later, I shot with a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens, and the success rate of interesting shots was much higher than I expected. In fact, I had to revise my opinion on what would be a single go-to lens for field hockey. The 300mm f/2.8L is at least a very close contender, if not the winner of that title, in my opinion. There are a couple of disadvantages of this lens: fixed focal length and weight. Both are manageable, though. The challenges in composing shots due to the absence of zoom can be overcome with practice. It took me about one season of shooting to become comfortable with the 300mm. I must add that I am deeply grateful to Armando, who gave me a free run of using his lens, for making this experience possible. The weight of the lens is also not prohibitive for using it hand-held. More importantly, I believe the interesting shots 300mm f/2.8L produces are worth the inconveniences.

To handle the lighting, I think the best angles with respect to the sun are either direct light, where the sun is behind the camera, or backlight, where the sun is behind the subject. The direct light is a bit flat, but produces bright, saturated colours of the players’ uniforms. The backlight produces low contrast and saturation, but creates very pleasant rim light effect on the hair of the players.

Note: The artificial turf is soaked with water before each game, so when its surface is struck with a stick, or even with players feet, a spare of small water droplets is produced. To capture it, a fast shutter speed (minimum of 1/1000 sec) works best. Also, the spray looks very nice when backlit.