A Few From This Weekend’s NFL Sideline Shoot
Yesterday (Sunday) morning, I caught an early flight to St. Louis, Missouri to shoot the Houston Texans at St. Louis Rams NFL football game at the Edward Jones dome. (Click on the photos for a larger view)
Although I did shoot some of the game (when the Ram’s offense was on the field), I was actually there on assignment to shoot starting Middle Linebacker James Laurinaitis (#55) shown below.
Of course, as a linebacker James is on Defense, so when he was on the field, my job was just to isolate on him and hope he didn’t wind up in a big crushing pile of guys where he’d get lost from a camera perspective, or that the play wasn’t a quick slant to the far sideline where the receiver gets tackled right away, so James didn’t need to get involved.
The image above is of the Ram’s only touchdown for the day (the Texans only scored one as well, but sadly they wound up winning by a field goal in the fourth quarter). He caught the ball on the goal line so when his feet came down—it was party time in St. Louis!
Houston dropped a pass in the end zone later in the game (that’s James on the far right), and though I don’t do a lot of wide shots, I kind of liked this one.
CAMERA INFO: It was a domed stadium, so it was pretty much like shooting at night, and I had to shoot at 4,000 ISO the entire time to get my shutter speed in the 1/1000 of a second or higher range to freeze the action. I used a Nikon D3 as my main body with a 200-400mm f/4, and my second body was a D700 with a 70-200mm f/2.8 for when they got inside the 15 yard line.
Here’s another wide shot taken as the Ram’s learned they had stopped the Texans on 4th down and one (yard), and they got the ball back on downs. That’s James in the center celebrating the stop.
This one I just love because of the athleticism of #70. I love to see really big guys in mid air.
One more of James doing his thing. He’s really an incredible athlete, which is why he’s starting in the NFL his first year out of college. He was really working hard out there, which makes it all the more a shame they lost.It hasn’t been an easy year for the Rams, but I’m a Tampa Bay Bucs fan so that automatically makes me sympathetic to any losing team this year.
Although I had a great time (I mean, afterall—-it was an NFL game!), overall I wasn’t any happier with my shooting performance than Ram’s fans were with their team that day.
Right after the game, my wife sent me a text message to ask how it went. I wrote back, “Well, I learned a lot. Does that count?” But that’s exactly why I wanted to go St. Louis and shoot this game, and shoot James, in the first place. This stuff, like everything else in photography, just takes lots of practice, perserverence and experience and the only way to get it is to get out there and do it. So I did it, and I did learn some new things that I’ll try next time (and I tried a few new things this time, too).
The good news is; I was able to get a flight home the same day, and even watched a movie tonight at home with my wife once the kids were in bed. But now, I’m beat so I’m heading to bed. Got a busy day at work tomorrow. Hope you all have a good one! 
I am sure you know what is coming now right? What were you shooting with and with what settings. I think the shots are awesome. The clarity is quite snappy. I shoot little league and I know how hard it can be with those guys to isolate your nephew from the bunch, i can only imagine how hard it would be to do PRO.
Cheers
OOPs, now i see you already put in the shooting info. Sorry about that.
eeks
Just a quick question did you mean to put Texas Rangers at the top or was that a mistake. For having to shoot a defensive play you captured his emotion great. Defense is hard don’t beat yourself up. I know big words coming from me who is only an amateur.
Honestly, I was surprised to see Scott string together more than one cohesive sentence after such a long day!
Thanks for the heads up on the Rangers mistake. I’ve fixed it 
A football fan reminding you that the Houston Texans played the St. Louis Rams not the Texas Rangers which are a baseball team. : )
I was so tired when I wrote this, I’m amazed I got the state right.
Thanks for catching that.
-Scott
Any problem with noise at ISO 4000? I couldn’t see any in the photos.
That’s the amazing thing about the D3 and D300. I’m still stunned to this day at the low noise at 3200 and 4000 ISO, and I did NOT run any type of noise reduction software on these images.
When you do see a little noise, it looks more like real film grain, instead of the awful digital noise you normally see from digital cameras, so it doesn’t jump out at you like usual.
This is why you see so many D3s on the sidelines these days. (I remember my first NFL sideline shoot—-I was literally the only Nikon shooter), but the D3 changed everything.
-Scott
I know the D3 has great low light capability, but in your article you mention a D700 as your second camera (also great low light capacity) and in this reply you refer to a D300. I have a D300 and while the low light capability on it is good, at ISO 4000 I am not so sure I would be able to get shots like yours. I am just wondering if you might not really have meant the D700. Can you clarify for the confused?
Whoops—I meant D700. My mistake.
-Scott
Good stuff, Scott. What a fun shoot. I must admit, I’m envious every time you post your football shots…I think that would be a real fun and educational afternoon. I’m sure you were pleased when you learned (probably after landing back home) that while you were enjoying the day in St. Louis, your Bucs were busy dismantling my Seahawks. It’s been a tough year for the Hawks, too…
Hi Mike:
I didn’t know until I landed in Tampa. My iPhone battery went dead and I forgot my charger. I couldn’t believe we have now actually won TWO games. It’s a Christmas miracle.
-Scott
Tack sharp as usual Scott. I’m still amazed at how today’s SLR cameras can shoot so sharp at high ISO’s. Great shots! Possibly another metallic print is in the works?
Hey Scott,
Great shots of the Houston Texans and St. Louis Rams. You are sooooo blessed.
Mike
Welcome to St Louis! I’d forgotten that we have a football team – I think the team forgot too
Scott, what a fun assignment. Sounds like you had a good shoot.
How much post processing did you do here to get the noise down? Looks great at iso 4000.
Yep Scott, Tell us about the noise. Were all waiting to hear.
Hi Guys:
I did NOT use any noise reduction plug-ins whatsoever! (see the earlier post). I shot in JPEG, and besides sharpening the occassional crop—that’s how they looked. The D3 is truly amazing.
-Scott
I had a D2x and about a year ago I bought the D3 and I can’t begin to explain how much better the D3 is.
awesome shots!!!!
If it’s not too personal or restricted: Why just Laurenitis for the assignment?
Please say you’re not a Buckeye’s fan!!!!!!
After spending two years on the sidelines shooting my boys football games in poor lighting I really appreciate the quality of these photos. Not only for lack of noise, but for the crispness of the photos.
Scott, great shots. I have the D3 and D3s and am amazed at the high iso low noise they give! I shot the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas on Sat. but only got a couple of good shots. My best lens is the 2.8 70-200 so my goal for this year is the 400 2.8 (have to save for that one). I started to rent a lens but the forecast was for snow so I backed out. It turned out to be a beautiful day. I plan to shoot an NFL next year (its not what you know….).
Hey Scott, Great straight-on headshot of James. His grandfather is going to love it! The Rams have had a really bad season (an understatement to say to least), but they keep on trying, which is all you can do. James is working hard and we can’t be more proud of him. His first year in the NFL has taught him a lot! Thanks so much for the awesome images. So glad you made the trip.
Great shooting, Scott. We appreciate the camera info. Any chance you’ll be on the sideline when the Saints take their anger out on the Bucs on Sunday?
I’ve been trying but no luck so far, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
-Scott
What a great way to spend the afternoon!!! Looks like a blast! I love the shot of the Rams Defense fully outstretched…
Any chance you’ll run another contest? I’d sure love to have a shot to shoot on the sidelines someday
Merry Christmas from Snowy Canada!
Great photos. ISO 4,000 – no noise. Brilliant.
The athleticism of #70 photo would be my favorite. It seems as if he is going to stamp his team mate and crush him.
We do not have this game in India, but it’s always good to see the huge guys crushing in on each other.
For it’s always cricket or football(soccer, epl, uefa etc.) Do you have any photos of such. Love to see those as well.
I was surprised to read that you paired the 200-400 with FX. I guess because of your sideline position, you felt the D300 DX would have been too much?
P.S. Santa’s bringing me your Lightroom book and I can’t wait to open it!
What do you guys think of the throwback rams uniforms?
Great photos Scott. I too had the great privilege of shooting a game in the Edward Jones dome 3 weeks ago. Not an NFL game, but it was the Missouri Class 3 High School State Championship game. I was shooting for the Bowling Green newspaper and, as was the case with you, the assignment was for the team that lost. Sadly, that’s painfully obvious in the last few photos. Check it out at http://www.photowrx.com/bgdome if you’d like.
Lighting in the dome may feel like shooting at night if your reference point is shooting games outdoors in sunny Florida
, but having worked other high school games… which usually are at night… in high school stadiums, I can tell you that it was quite nice shooting with the dome lighting. I shot at ISO 800 at 1/400 f/4 leaving everything a little underexposed, then adjusted in Lightroom. The 1/400 shutter speed shows in some of the shots, but for the most part was acceptable. That compares to shooting at ISO 1600 1/320 ( or 1/250) f/2.8 at night games in high school stadiums. In addition, the dome light was much more color stable than what you often find in high school stadiums.
After seeing your photos, I probably would have been better off with higher ISO and shutter. But like you say, you practice, experiment and try to apply what you learn the next time.
Nice shots. I’m curious — how many shots do you usually take through the course of a game like this? It must take a while to cull it down to the keepers. I know Lightroom makes it easy but I’m sure it’s a lot of photos to go through in your weary state.
Nice layout catch shot !
Great pictures. I once heard that anything outside the normal stepping of ISO actually took it to the next step and then made it a little darker. In other words, ISO 4000 is actually ISO 6400 brought down a little darker. Was I misinformed?
That’s the first I’ve heard of that. That’s doesn’t mean it’s not true, but I’ve never heard that.
-Scott
Nice shot where he is looking right at you (busted!)…it almost looks like there was a strobe used on that too. Would you mind sharing what was your most often used focal length with the bazooka….200 vs 400? So would you advise just shooting Aperture priority F4 auto-iso minimum shutter speed = 1000? Or do you prefer to set iso manually?
thanks for sharing!
Chris
Hi Chris:
I pretty much kept the 200-400 in the 400mm range, and occassionally down to 200mm. If the action got inside the 15 yard line, I switched cameras to the one with my 70-200mm.
I shot in Aperture Priority all day long with the 200-400m set wide open at f/4 and the 70-200mm set wide open at f/2.8 (I never changed my settings once the entire day).
Hope that helps.
-Scott
Scott,
You are killing my pocket book. I just got a D300s and Now I want a D3s.
Great shots! Yes I also want a big fat lens. You living the dream job.. Do you wake up and pinch yourself. All the toys and joys.
Keep up the great work.
Matt
Scott, you’ve discovered a great truth. Action sports photography, like flying an airplane or dancing the waltz, is a whole lot harder than it looks. In my innocent youth, I thought that if I could ever get an all-access sideline pass to the University of Nebraska games, here in Lincoln, I could shoot pictures just like Wally Ioos, Jr. WRONG. The first few games, I got mostly butts, backs, and helmets…action but no interest. In the years since then, my own hallmark for a successful shot has become whether I can see any eyes in it; especially those of the subject of interest. No eyes, no sale. And you are quite right: the only way to learn this stuff is to keep doing it. All these years later, I’m still trying.
Great blog post I always love your behind the scenes photoshoot posts
Really great posting, Scott, thanks! I’m curious about one thing. You said you shot entirely in JPG. Why JPG instead of RAW? Is it for the speed with which the camera writes to the card? If so, then how do you decide when to make the trade-off between that speed and making it easier to edit later (RAW having more editing flexibility than JPG)? I shoot a lot at my kids’ sporting events and any advice is always appreciated. Thanks!
Shooting in JPEG lets you shoot faster bursts, so most everybody is using JPEG on the sidelines. Plus, you’re having to upload JPEGs at half time and they generally want very small files that are already finished, and JPEGs are pretty much already processed, so it saves a lot of time.
As for shooting your kid’s sports events, you’re not under those constraints, so you can shoot in Raw—no sweat.
Merry Christmas,
-Scott
Great pics Scott. I appreciate your very informative blog. Thanks!
Scott great photo’s. How different in terms of quality are the pic that you took with the D3 versus the one’s taken with the D700. What was your white balance set to & did you use any exposure comp on these pics. The reason I ask is that I’m always amazed at your pics, their colors look amazing. My wife bought me a D700 almost a year ago & I love it. But at time I feel that she should have go with the D3.
“This one I just love because of the athleticism of #70. I love to see really big guys in mid air.”
Scott, come Down Under sometime and see a game of Australian Rules. If you enjoy seeing big guys getting serious air, guaranteed, you’ll love it!
Happy New Year,
Brett
You’re a Bucs fan…me too!!! Sorry…it’s pretty irrelevant…but just excited there are other Bucs fans!
Scott, was any work done in post production? I’ve been having issues with my indoor shots being “yellowish”. Usually my WB is set to auto. I do a lot of fixing in post. Now Im working on trying to get near perfect in the camera. Any suggestions?