Most of my photography has been of relatively stationary subjects, where I just use single-servo AF and either focus & recompose or move the single focus point to where in the frame I want the subject, or largely-individual sports like triathlon. But I've struggled getting sharp shots in team sports photography with a large number of moving people in frame.
If I try using continuous autofocus, it often focuses on the wrong subject or the background or seemingly nothing at all. If I try falling back on the techniques that work in other contexts, I usually just can't get the shot off at the right time.
I don't really understand the different autofocus options on my camera. I was mostly using what it calls "3D", but I also briefly tried "group-area". I don't really understand how group-area differs from d9 or even 3D. And my camera's manual doesn't clear things up for me. I spent a little while in manual autofocus with a fairly closed aperture, by using autofocus and then switching to manual and leaving it untouched; but this only worked when play stayed roughly the same distance from the camera for a while, so didn't really scale well.
Separate from the focus question, I spent the afternoon shooting at 1/1600. I'm not completely sure if this is fast enough, and maybe some of the blur in my photos is actually better explained by camera shake (shooting at 200 mm on a 1.5x crop sensor) or movement of the subjects. I suspect it's probably not relevant, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.
What's the best advice for how to get sharp shots in team sports photography?
(Included photo is a SOOC jpeg of a set play on the opposite side of the field from where I was...a situation that minimised my chance of focus problems.)
If your camera supports it you can try registering faces to prioritize the auto focus for a few of the standout players.
If your camera doesn’t have any ibis and you’re shooting with a crop at 200mm I think maybe you’re right that 1600 isn’t quite fast enough. You could go higher or maybe try out a monopod to help stabilize.
There should be a tracking AF option where you can select a focus point and then let the camera track the point but your camera may not have that option either.
If no tracking AF try using a larger point. My camera calls it zone AF where it focuses on one of the 9 boxes made by the lines of thirds.
It could also be a “get good” situation where you just have to anticipate a little of what might happen and try to be ready for shots a few seconds ahead of time. Practice makes perfect after all.
I hope that maybe this helps!
Sometimes I shoot ibis, though personally I prefer curlews, but I don't think the camera has any ibis inside of it.
Nah but seriously, the camera body doesn't have stabilisation, but my long lens does. I've finished my first pass through the photos in the time between posting the OP and now, and yeah I think you're right that especially when I'm zoomed in all the way, a faster shutter speed would help—I'm a little more confident now that some of the blur was shake.
Oh 100% this was part of it. Reviewing my photos, a lot of them it's very noticeable that had I hit the shutter a fraction of a second earlier, the photo would have been better, from a composition/subject perspective, and I'm sure anticipating where the action will go so I know which subject to try and set the autofocus to be focused on would help even further.
But right now I'm struggling to get the camera to stay locked on focus to a subject even when I do know I want to be focused on them. I believe Nikon's "3D" AF is a kind of tracking mode, and from my reading I think 9d (or "9-point dynamic-area") and group-area might be tracking of some form, too. But they're distinct from the face- and subject-tracking AF modes that are available only in live-view (looking at the display screen), when I'm mostly shooting through the viewfinder because it's much, much more responsive. Even if that wasn't a problem, I think the need to actually select an object to track and keep changing which subject would put it back at the start. Still a "get good" situation, but more about getting good with understanding camera features and using them appropriately, rather than just with the more creative side.