It never rains in Southern California

At Sedgley Park on the other hand...

I have not seen much of Lancashire's campaign in the rugby union County Championship for the Bill Beaumont Cup this year, sticking with football for the end of the North West Counties League season. However, I was free for the last game, against Cheshire, at the familiar venue of Sedgley Tigers (or Park, as those of us of a traditional bent pronounce it). The weather in Manchester was as expected, with the air close enough to give me an urgent desire to open a window, until I remembered I was already outdoors.

I am always surprised by the number of spectators at these games wearing wellingtons. Facilities vary between grounds, and the authorities are not as keen as in football to ensure you stay on the hard standing, but even so, it seems like overkill. Wet weather protection was, however, needed quickly after the kick off, as a large cloud dumped its load on us.

You do not expect to see steam coming off the scrum at this time of year.

Once the rain had passed, the light was fairly even, with the sun occasionally poking through light cloud. There were more dark clouds in the distance, which I hoped would not bring more rain, as I had a line of washing out to dry.

I experimented a bit with the resulting images. A disadvantage of shooting in raw is the extra processing time, so I was looking to speed this up. I tried the ViewNX 2 software that came with the camera. If I want to make changes to the raw file, it does not have any speed advantages over Photoshop Elements, and indeed seems considerably slower. However, if the only changes could as easily be made to the jpg, it offers a batch conversion. As this uses a lot of cpu resource and little memory or disk, whereas editing uses the opposite, I can start editing as soon as a couple of jpgs have emerged from the process.

The results seemed quite crisp.

It was not always as clear what was going on.

It even looked at one point as though the referee was thinking of making a move with the ball.

Lancashire have been successful in these encounters for the last few years, with the county almost being an extension of the successful Fylde sides, and reaching seven successive Finals. With a number of players appearing to have retired, and a change of management at Fylde, Lancashire's dominance looks to be slipping, with the visitors securing a clear win to claim the place in the Final. Things were worse the other side of the Pennines, with Yorkshire finishing bottom of the group.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score: Lancashire 11 Cheshire 27.

Shooting raw

I do not often make significant changes to the way I work at a game: I have had the same kit for some time, and know most of the features I need. However, I have always saved my pictures on the camera as jpeg files, and have been generally satisfied with the results. Think of a jpeg file as like a print, but one you can edit. The camera adjusts things like white (or colour) balance, brightness and noise, then compresses the file. The alternative is to save as a raw file, a bit like a film negative. You get all the information from the sensor, which gives much more control over exposure and lighting, and changes are saved to a separate file, so you always keep the original without having to make multiple backups.

Last week, I was feeling curious, and wondered how much extra work was involved processing from raw, and realised the answer is - not much. Photoshop Elements can open files from most cameras, so it is just a couple of extra steps. I then went to take some pictures of general subjects for test files, and quickly decided the extra control for non sports work is well worth it.

For sports the equation is more balanced: as I process about 100 - 120 images from a game, even a minute or so per image can add an hour or two to the job. I decided it was worth a try at Prescot Cables' game at home to Ossett Albion.

My SD card was a bit old and slow, and I was only going to get a new one if the test was successful. When shooting frames in raw in quick succession, a fast card avoids having to stop for the buffer to empty. I was doing just that, and missed the first goal, from Lloyd Dean.

Lloyd Dean

Once I got the images on the computer, adjusting the white balance required some practice to avoid making the players look puce, or, failing that, green. After a short while, I started to get usable images, and as there was even cloud cover throughout the game, once I had got it right, I could stick to the same settings.

James McCulloch

I continued my experiment from the previous week, and spent some time behind the goal, before going to the gasworks side, ending up at the half way line.

George Mannion

In a couple of pictures, the players seemed particularly sharp - you can judge for yourselves whether this survives the conversion on the computer and upload to Google+.

Joe Evans

We went a second goal ahead just before half time through the good offices of Rob Doran.

In the second half I went to the half way line again, which was probably a good position, as the half was quite evenly matched until the balance fell decisively in our favour 10 minutes from the end with a second goal from Rob Doran. There were some good saves from Marcus Burgess, never easy to capture, even standing closer to our goal than I am accustomed.

Marcus Burgess

With only moments to go, Rob Doran completed his hat trick, and I got a decent sequence. It is all very well knowing the technology, but you still have to capture the action.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score Prescot Cables 4 (Dean, Doran 3) Ossett Albion 0

Returning friends, departing friends

"We need to silence that drum", a visiting supporter said to his friend at the beginning of Prescot Cables' game against Droylsden. I was concerned that the drum's owner, Rod, might be about to be upended in the bushes at the Safari Park End. Fortunately, they had in mind to drown him out with noise, an endeavour in which they were not successful, but it made for a decent amount of noise at both ends.

Supplying decibels from the dugouts was Droylsden's Assistant Manager, Ged Murphy, who left us to return to his local club at this time last year. It looks as though he has stopped playing to concentrate on coaching, but he was still in full voice. I am not sure about that jacket though.

Ged directs operations

Also with the visitors was Sean Myler, who scored some useful goals for us a couple of seasons ago.

Sam Corlett is challenged by Sean Myler

After rain at the last two games, it was a relief that it was dry by the time the game started, with low sun. At Hope Street, this can give problems with backlighting, particularly against the lighter advertising boards. Using the normal tools for the whole photo does not quite do the trick, or will leave the background washed out, so we have to lighten the player a bit more as with this picture of Danny Flood.

Here is the end result - I think Danny was happy, as it is now his Twitter profile picture.

Danny Flood

The first half was fairly even, until Liam Dodd scored in injury time. It is another picture in the "goal is a goal" category - as a stand alone photo there is too much space in the middle, of which Liam is neatly taking advantage.

Liam Dodd shoots for goal

Droylsden have been top scorers in the division by some distance, although, until our defeats in December they had also let in more than us, so I was sure we had not seen the only goal. My prediction was confirmed on the hour when Andy Fowler, sporting positively Finnish facial furniture (they like to keep their faces warm in the winter), scored for the visitors.

Andy Fowler

We are used to seeing Jack Phillips starting, but having him on the bench paid off, his pace and agility, combined with fresh legs, came at just the right time.

Jack Phillips

Both sides had further chances, but Prescot held on for a hard earned point, a credit credit to all the team and holding Droylsden to their first draw of the season. The Walloper's Way man of the match poll was won by Ciaran Gibson, not least for a save in injury time described by Neil Prince as "world class".

Ciaran Gibson

Although Rob Doran was not playing, our visitors liked him so much they took him away with them. Rob has been one of our best players and team members over the last season and a half, our top scorer last season, and this blog wishes him success in his future endeavours.

Rob Doran at our fixture at Droylsden earlier in the season

The rest of the pictures can be seen here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 1 (Dodd), Droylsden 1

Premier turf

In the years I have been watching football, which I started at around beginning of the Premiership, I have stuck with the grassroots side of the game, and have never watched a game at a Premiership ground. The nearest I have come was watching Cambridge United when they were still in the Football League at Bloomfield Road, before Blackpool started to rise through the League.

This changed last week when I watched a game at Goodison Park, the home of Everton FC (not to be confused with Estadio Sausalito in Viña del Mar, Chile, the home of Everton FC). Local Sunday team Paddock FC had booked the pitch for their Hayward Transport Cup, and invited Prescot Cables to be their opponents.

Joe Gibiliru Jnr

If you mention Sunday football, many will think of 22 players at less than peak fitness, and this does indeed take place, but top Sunday sides are of a similar standard to the EvoStik League, not least as many non contract players also play for a Sunday side. Contract players are generally prohibited from doing so by their contracts, although that does not always stop them.

Our Chairman was able to include me in the touchline party to take some photos. I mentioned in a previous post that if it were possible to dig a pit from which to watch football, the quality of the pictures would repay the effort. In larger grounds, the front row of seats is set so the eye level of people sitting in them is at about the level of the players knees.

I was happy with the results, looking up to the play gives a greater sense of action than looking down or on the same level as is the case at most non League grounds.

Steven Tames

Fraser Ablett

The vantage point has one odd effect. I do not think the pitch sloped away to the sides, but when looking action on the other side of the pitch, it gave the impression that it did. The gentleman walking in front of the seats is at the same level as me, so my eye level is about 3' above the pitch, but we only see half of the ball above the level of the pitch.

Francis Foy

The match kicked off at 7.15, with the spectators and dugouts on the Goodison Road side, with the setting sun behind our backs, the stand blocking the sun at pitch level.

This presented an interesting lighting challenge, in the shape of seats - 10,478 of the shiny little things in the opposite stand, all reflecting light on to the pitch. It is not an issue at the grounds I normally visit, and not an issue when Everton are playing, as people will be sitting on most of them. In a pitch let like this, only a small part of the ground is in use, as opening any more will dramatically increase the required stewarding, and therefore the cost. Overall, they helped with the lighting, and provided a good contrasting background for some shots.

James McCulloch

However, they also meant some shots were strongly backlit, sometimes in just part of the frame, even after the usual lighting adjustments.

Stuart McMullan

I even stepped briefly on to the turf, as the people from Paddock asked me to take pictures of a couple of their players receiving awards for 10 years' service to the club.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

April showers

Despite having supported Prescot Cables since the early 1990s, it was only last season that I first visited local rivals Skelmersdale United. Skelmersdale play at the West Lancashire College Stadium, a few minutes' walk from the main Southport to Wigan bus route, although on this occasion, I took up the offer of a lift via the Prince Albert in Westhead. The ground is also known as Stormy Corner, which appears to be the only concrete commemoration of the village of the same name, demolished in the 1960s to make way for the development of Skelmersdale New Town.

New grounds on an industrial estate can sometimes feel a bit bleak, and villages can get their names for a reason. Corner is explained by a look at an old map, and Stormy, well you can guess what the weather can be like. We were fortunate: AFC Liverpool, playing back home in Prescot, had their game called off due to the rain.

The away crowd keeping dry(ish)

Most of our support took cover in the stand, but the camera and I were well covered, so I took up my usual position behind the goal Prescot were attacking, but not before getting a couple of shots of our own goalkeeper, with even the programme seller in his booth looking impressed at the jump.

Brian Pilkington

Once the cover has been sorted out, cloudy and wet weather at this time of year gives an easy light, with very little processing required to adjust the lighting, apart perhaps from to emphasise the rain.

Other liquids seemed to be in shorter supply -

- or perhaps it was just a marketing ploy.

Skelmersdale has never been a profitable place for Prescot to visit, and it looked to be so again with Skelmersdale's first goal from Shaun Tuck. An excellent reply from Ashley Ruane gave a brief hope that this may be a more productive visit, although normal service was quickly resumed.

Ashley Ruane lines up his shot

In the second half, one of the home officials suggested I might like to try their gantry.

I decided not to avail myself of the opportunity, as this blog is about taking pictures from areas accessible to the general public, and I suspected there may be a few health and safety forms to be filled in before hopping up the ladder. The result of the endeavours of the gentlemen on the gantry is available as a video nasty (if you support Prescot) here.

The rain eased off in the second half, and even a little sun was able to peep through the clouds.

Steven Tames competes for the ball with former Cables player Rob McIntosh

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

A night in the cold

Tuesday saw what will probably be Prescot Cables' last home League game in midweek until the Spring, hosting Trafford FC. By this time of year, although there are floodlights, the likely drop in temperature at night means there is every chance a pitch that is playable at 7.45 may be dangerously hard and slippery by 9 o'clock.

There is a League game away next week, and the Liverpool Senior Cup tie at home to Southport in December, but the fixture list now has games mainly on Saturdays and Bank Holidays to the end of the season. We have been fortunate with the weather, which will not last, but with only one League fixture to rearrange, it should be easier to fit in the inevitable postponements in March and April. Many people support a winter break in the season, but the practical question would be when to have it - last season December was effectively frozen off, the season before the same happened in January, and the season before that November was washed out.

The cold weather brings challenges for camera equipment: a frequent bus service from near my home to the ground means the camera does not spend long outdoors in the bag before meeting the cold air, so there is a risk of condensation, which can affect optics or electrics. Fortunately, although there was a bit, it did not affect the working of the camera. Coming back indoors is a lot easier - the bag has reached the temperature outside, so I just put everything in, and leave it for 2 or 3 hours after getting indoors to allow it to warm up slowly.

I have mentioned in previous posts that the image from the camera under floodlights usually needs some work to get the best details from the available light. Take this example from early in the game.

This is quite reasonable, but there are details, like the players' faces, wehere we should be able to get some definition. First, we look at the Levels.

There is space to the left and right of the mound on the histogram, so some parts of the picture are over exposed, and some under exposed. Moving the black slider to the left edge of the mound, and the white slider to the right edge will ensure that the picture is using the full tonal range. For pictures from Prescot I do this for the RGB channel, adjusting all the colours at once, as the new floodlights cast a fairly white light. Last season I would often adjust the red, green and blue channels separately, as the older lights had a slightly yellow cast.

We may also want to lighten the picture, either using the grey slider on the histogram to adjust the lighting generally, or the shadows / highlights menu to lighten shadows or darken what has become too bright (particularly useful when one team is playing in white). When part of the image is the sky, the more the shadows are lightened, the more grain will appear in the sky, so I keep this adjustment to a minimum for the effect of the players against a dark sky (the difference in the two images can be better seen by clicking on the image and viewing them at a larger size).

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

Introduction to floodlights

"Is this the League game?", I asked as I got to the gate with my wallet ready to retrieve season ticket or cash. Prescot Cables have already played Warrington Town in the FA Cup, and depending on results could play them in the next round of the Doodson Sport Cup.

We will have quite a few games under floodlights over the next few weeks, so I shall start with an introduction, then look in future posts at some techniques and tricks to get a picture in the reduced light, and some limitations on camera kit that will work at a night game.

Firstly, I do not use flash. There used to be a prohibition on flash photography in the Laws of Association Football (or in the International Board Guidance). That seems to have disappeared, but I take the view that a flash that is bright enough to be effective will also be bright enough to distract the players and match officials.

Not all floodlights are the same. Last season, I was chatting to a photography student who had done a placement at Anfield, who was a little surprised how little light there was at a night game at our level. Illuminance is measured in lux: the article I have linked gives some examples of the lux values of various lighting situations. The minimum requirement for step 4 (EvoStik League Division 1 and equivalent) and 5 is an average value of 120 lux for an existing installation, and 180 lux for a new or upgraded installation. The requirements rise as you go through the leagues, for example, the FA require 250 lux for Blue Square Conference North and South, the Premier League require 900 lux, and UEFA require 1400 lux for international games and the later stages of the Champions League.

The value is an average of 88 readings, on a grid with 11 rows along the pitch and 8 across. The lowest reading cannot be less than one quarter of the highest reading. Because most pylons in grounds at this level are close to the pitch and only have two or three heads, the highest reading is usually in the centre of the pitch with the lowest in the corners. I did a back of an envelope calculation for the 120 lux standard: it is theoretically possible to comply with these requirements with readings of about 40 lux in the corners - somewhat darker than the average living room. In grounds lit to the older standard, it can be an art finding the best vantage point.

Prescot's floodlights failed their 2 yearly inspection (to check they are still giving the required level of light) in the Spring, so they needed to be replaced, to the new standard, which makes a big difference in what it is possible to capture. This is an example of what can be achieved in the middle of the pitch, with my 70-300mm lens set to 95 mm, with a speed of 1/200s at f/4.5, ISO 6400 equivalent. I have just cropped, but not made any adjustments to the lighting.

I made a few small adjustments to the lighting for the version in the slide show.

In the corners the result is somewhat darker - again, this is just cropped with the lens at 200mm, 1/200s at f/5.3, ISO 6400 equivalent.

The lighting can be improved in Photoshop Elements, and we will look at some of the options available in future posts. Here is the enhanced version still a bit on the dark side, and with reduced colour, but Prescot's Steven Tames is much clearer against the background.

With the old floodlights, this was the sort of lighting in the centre of the pitch, with photography next to impossible in the corners, so the newer standard is a welcome improvement, although, as it is only required in a new or upgraded installation, the old standard will be around for some time to come, and remains the standard at County League level.

The slide show from the game can be seen here.

A day in the rain

This weekend saw Non-League Day, designed to take advantage of the international break in the Premiership and Championship and encourage people to visit their local non League club. Prescot Cables were drawn in the FA Cup at home to Warrington Town.

The game kicked off a full 5 minutes early, with me and about 15 others still queueing outside the ground. I did not notice if anyone still outside was new, but if they were, it will not have made a good impression. We encourage people to come, charge them to get in, and start without those who have come on time - the queue was moving quickly, everyone behind me when I got in was in the ground by 3pm. People who are unaware of this occupational hazard with some referees will think worse of the club, although it is completely outside the club's control. I hope it is mentioned in their assessment of the referee, whose performance otherwise gave no cause for complaint.

I had forgotten the hood for my lens - the main reason for the hood is to keep unwelcome light away from the lens, but it is as useful for unwanted water. However, the end of my 70-300mm lens is 72mm in diameter, so a few raindrops do not really affect the picture, which would not be the case with a lens on a compact camera. A 1/500s shutter speed will also catch the rain falling - all very well for the photo, but less pleasant for playing in.

This was the sort of weather where the sports mode on the Nikon D5000 shows its quality. On my previous SLR, a D50, I would have been constantly adjusting ISO settings, and moving from sports mode to shutter priority. The camera looked after itself, keeping the shutter speed mostly at 1/500s, and adjusted the ISO setting between 800 and 1600. It will not take the setting above 1600 though, but we will look at that on a darker day.

Finer rain makes shots look misty, like this one of Cables Kevin Townson competing with Warrington's no 4. I have cropped, but nothing else.

However, we can get rid of most of the mist. I use Photoshop Elements 8, where I use the Levels menu - just move the left and right input sliders to the edges of mound of data in the histogram.

After lightening the shadows, here is the finished photo.

As for the game, the less said the better, after dominating play for most of the game, Prescot never really tested Warrington's rather reluctant stand in goalkeeper, and Warrington scored from both of their chances.

The rest of the photos from the game can be seen here.

A day in the sun

A busy bank holiday weekend saw Prescot Cables' first trip of the season over the Pennines, to newly promoted Farsley AFC, last season's champions of the Northern Counties East League. Farsley AFC was founded following Farsley Celtic's going into administration.

I always enjoy a trip to this area, as it includes travelling through Calderdale, great scenery from the train, and always a good place to stop on the way for walking and pubs.

There was bright sunshine for most of the match (unlike back home, where Prescot's tenants, AFC Liverpool, had to postpone their game due to heavy rain). The most obvious effect of this is plenty of light for fast shutter speeds, with all my exposures being between 1/1000 and 1/2000s, apertures of f/5.6, f/6.3, and even a couple at f/7.1, at ISO 400.

Bright sunlight does, however, give problems with shadows. Farsley's pitch is oriented south-west / north-east, so for an afternoon game, the sun sits behind one goal. If, like me, you like to watch the game from the end your team are attacking, the best direction of play will be the opposite of that for the team - the players are more likely to be dazzled attacking into the sun, whereas taking pictures of the players with the sun behind them means more work to eliminate shadows.

Take this example, with Cables' Liam Pearson. Here is how the picture, cropped, but otherwise as it came off the camera. By this time, I had moved from behind the goal: even with a hood, the sun was too strong.

Here is the same picture after lightening shadows in Photoshop Elements.

Of course, the shadows can make a good effect in themselves, such as in this shot of Cables' Fraser Ablett, in front of the dark of the dugout.

In the second half, it became much easier for me, with everything front lit, I hardly needed to touch the lighting, just crop and publish, as in this shot of Cables' Kevin Townson.

Unfortunately, whilst Prescot had held level with Farsley with the sun and the breeze behind them in the first half, Farsley dominated the second half, with the final score 4-2 to Farsley. The slide show from the game can be seen here.