DC United Beats Portsmouth FC in a “Friendly,” 24 July 2010

This was an odd game for a number of reasons. The first was that it looked like a DC United scrimmage because Portsmouth didn’t get their uniforms in time for the match. So they borrowed DC United white jerseys. Second, it wasn’t that “friendly” a friendly since DC United beat Portsmouth 4-0 and players on both sides got issued yellow cards. I photographed it from a seat in the 200s block on the home team side. This had some advantages (a better overall view of the field) and some disadvantages in that the Barra Brava fans (who stand throughout the games) sometimes blocked my view on the field. But I persevered. I used my Canon EOS 7D with a Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 lens and a Canon 1.4x teleconverter (which resulted in a very nice 672mm F4). If I had anything to do over, I would have ratcheted down my shutter speeds which I had too high (1600th of a second mostly and I think that caused some minor halos on the white jerseys … but they were minor … the next time I will use a slower shutter speed though). I developed the pictures in Adobe Lightroom 3.0 and Photoshop Elements 7.0 using Topaz Adjust 4.0 and Detail 2.0 to enhance some of the pictures. I also ran them through Noiseware 2.0 to reduce graininess.