Best Canon lens for team photos

[cbdawg84]

Can anyone offer me advice on which lens for the Canon Rebel XTi is the best to use for taking still photos of sports teams? I have the kit lens that came with the body (EF-S 18m-55m) and a Quantaray 55m - 200m lens and the best fstop on either lens is f/4.0. I do not believe either of these lenses is best for still photograpy but think I need a prime lens. The places that I know my son's coach is thinking about taking pictures have tungsten lighting or flourescent lighting.

Would the 50 mm f/2.5 EF Macro Lens or the 85 mm f/1.8 USM EF Lens be better for these situations?

[darktiger]

sport's team as individuals or whole team pictures. Also knowing your budget would help too.

[cbdawg84]

The photos would be both whole team and individuals. I'm looking at up to $500. I'd like to be able to use the lens for personal portraits as well so that I'm not just putting the $ out for a one time use.

[Jake]

You could probably just use the kit lens. You will want to shoot around f/8 and use 2 flashes(at least that's what I would do).
I would not use the tungsten lighting or flourescent lighting. Over power those with the flashes.

thejakestir added 5 Minutes and 54 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Something like this would work: http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,11849.html

[CaptainTom]

From the questions you are asking, I think the lens you have is your best bet.
You should concentrate your efforts on controlling the lighting.

[cbdawg84]

Currently, the only flash I have is the flash on the camera body. I suppose it would be cheaper to purchase a flash kit and work it the way you suggested, Jake?

[CaptainTom]

You'll need a light source ( flash ) and a light source modifier ( stofen, softbox, umbrella,etc.).
Team photos are not that hard to take. Good team photos can get very complicated.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by cbdawg84

Currently, the only flash I have is the flash on the camera body. I suppose it would be cheaper to purchase a flash kit and work it the way you suggested, Jake?

For sure!
It's not like you're going to shoot a group photo at f/2.8 anyway. A 2 light setup will make a huge difference in the group photos.
And one off camera light for the individuals would be fine also.

[photostein]

Originally Posted by cbdawg84

Can anyone offer me advice on which lens for the Canon Rebel XTi is the best to use for taking still photos of sports teams? I have the kit lens that came with the body (EF-S 18m-55m) and a Quantaray 55m - 200m lens and the best fstop on either lens is f/4.0. I do not believe either of these lenses is best for still photograpy but think I need a prime lens. The places that I know my son's coach is thinking about taking pictures have tungsten lighting or flourescent lighting.

Would the 50 mm f/2.5 EF Macro Lens or the 85 mm f/1.8 USM EF Lens be better for these situations?

The lens isn't as much of the issue as ensuring it is perpendicular to the ground (thus a tripod is required) so that you avoid keystoning and other distortion. For groups, you want more depth of field and you get that easiest with the wide angle and smaller aperture (e.g. f/8, f/11, etc...).

From there, get the best glass you can afford; however, without proper technique, you will not benefit from any glass.

[cbdawg84]

Thanks, Jake, Tom and Standford! You have been very helpful in pointing me in the right direction.

cbdawg84 added 1 Minutes and 18 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Thanks to Dan as well. Everyone gave me excellent information to work with. This site is so awesome!

[toverman]

Your lens should work fine. As mentioned above, you'll be stopping down your lens so that everyone, front to back, is in focus. Caveat to that is that the background becomes extremely important because it's going to be at least somewhat in focus, too. Pick something clean ... dense growth of trees or similar and watch out for weird things growing out of the kids' heads.