High school football, looking for feedback
Hi guys, I've been taking photos at my stepson's high school football games for the last 3 years and I'm looking for some feedback as I get ready for his senior season. I'm a total amateur/hobbyist and unfortunately working in a bit of a vacuum - naturally the parents love all the photos but I'm in desperate need of some actual critique. This will almost certainly be my last year doing this but I'd still like to improve.
These were shot mostly on a Canon R8 with the EF 70–200 f/2.8 II. The games are almost always at night under shitty small town high school stadium lights. Last year they had one noon game so some of these were shot using my trusty old 6D with the Sigma 150-600 f/5-6.3. I do have a 1.4x teleconverter, I just haven't used it yet cause I'm a little nervous about losing a stop at night. I might give it a try for the first few games of the season when it's still fairly light during the first half. I'd love to have the extra reach so I could shoot more from behind the endzones.
The crappy lighting means I often have to crank the ISO up, a lot of these were shot at ISO 12800, and then run the photos through Lightoom denoise. Combined with the helmet shadows, I struggle with faces getting that weird blurry/muddy AI look. See photos 3, 5, 16, 18, and 19 in particular. So any tips for improving on that would be greatly appreciated, whether it's better positioning on the field, adjusting my settings, or better post-processing.
That's def my biggest struggle imo, but any and all other feedback is extremely appreciated!