Renner Cup

du8die · September 8, 2008

A family in our church lost their two month old son on the 31st of August this year. On Saturday, a soccer match was organized as a way to raise money for the family to help offset expenses. Here's some shots from the match.

C&C Welcome!

Thanks!

Edit: Something strange happened with the original links. Sorry 'bout that.

d8

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chuckinsocal · September 8, 2008

No Pics showing

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du8die · September 8, 2008

very strange

chuckinsocal wrote:

No Pics showing

That's very strange. They work fine for me. I went to another machine, and they were broken. I took the url of the pics, copied it to the browser, and it's fine. Very strange. I'll try to re-work later tonight (gotta leave).

Thanks,
d8

du8die · September 9, 2008

Fixed (I hope)
Are the shots showing up now?

chuckinsocal · September 9, 2008

Lookin' good now

thumb

du8die · September 14, 2008

...
Comments?

Anyone?

If not, I'll just assume that these are amazing!

jonh68 · September 14, 2008

Some quick observations:

Looks like it was late afternoon based on the shadows. If it was, you missed the opportunity to have great lighting. You have half and half, half the face lit well, half in shadows. Picture 6 was your best positioned shot. You were between the subject and sun.

You have bad backgrounds on some of the shots. If you get lower and shoot up, it will negate that somewhat, but I do realize you have what you have sometimes.

3 and 7 are underexposed, but they can be fixed in PP.

8 would have been good if it were tighter and focused on the players instead of the ball.

JoeL · September 16, 2008

**Im not trying to be a jerk or anything but before anyone starts being critical of others images be sure you have yours right because usually everything you tell them they are doing wrong is exactly what your doing wrong ....

jonh68 wrote:

Some quick observations:

Looks like it was late afternoon based on the shadows. If it was, you missed the opportunity to have great lighting. You have half and half, half the face lit well, half in shadows. Picture 6 was your best positioned shot. You were between the subject and sun.

Whats the point here?? He cant change the game time and cant control the lighting on a field.. It shouldnt matter where the sun is if you know how to use your equipment then you can adjust for the shadows without blowing the highlights..

You have bad backgrounds on some of the shots. If you get lower and shoot up, it will negate that somewhat, but I do realize you have what you have sometimes.

Are you kidding?? In 90% of all sporting events the background sucks so unless you can have free movement around the entire playing area and you have a lens capable of blurring out the background your gonna get some shots with distracting backgrounds..

3 and 7 are underexposed, but they can be fixed in PP.

8 would have been good if it were tighter and focused on the players instead of the ball.

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du8die,

Those shots arent bad at all for your first attempts at shooting sports and the fact that you are limited by equipment.

You have the right idea as far as capturing peak action and isolating the subjects involved in the play.

There are a few things I would suggest but it is just basic simple editing and cropping advice.

The best thing to do is exactly what your doing and that is get out and shoot as much as you can and make adjustments on the fly to correct things like underexposure and shutter speed, once again that will be based on your equipment.

If your not sure then download the images and read the EXIF Data to see what and how you need to adjust to make it better the next time around.

Do not rely on Photoshop to save your bad images, just work toward getting them right when you push the shutter the first time..

Joe

jonh68 · September 16, 2008

Whats the point here?? He cant change the game time and cant control the lighting on a field.. It shouldnt matter where the sun is if you know how to use your equipment then you can adjust for the shadows without blowing the highlights..

I don't know who this is directed too because the cut and paste was confusing.

The point of my post was he had great lighting at the time. However, the angle he was shooting from caused the dark/light contrast shadows. Moving to get between the sun and the players would have straight on lighting.

Are you kidding?? In 90% of all sporting events the background sucks so unless you can have free movement around the entire playing area and you have a lens capable of blurring out the background your gonna get some shots with distracting backgrounds..

No, I am not kidding. For something like this, you can move around.

**Im not trying to be a jerk or anything but before anyone starts being critical of others images be sure you have yours right because usually everything you tell them they are doing wrong is exactly what your doing wrong ....

The OP was asking for advice and I gave it. I am fully aware of mistakes I make but that doesn't negate advice from me or anyone else. If it did, then why ask for comments to begin with or even have critique sessions? I get critical reviews of my pictures from editors all the time. Posting in this section assumes there is some interest in getting better at sports photography.

du8die · September 17, 2008

Thanks!
Hey Guys,

Thanks for the feedback.

John68 - I think that last part about "looking at your own stuff" caught me a little off guard too. Then I saw a few other posts by the same author and realized that he probably puts it as a "disclaimer" on all of his posts.

I was working with a 300 f/4, which isn't a 2.8 (obviously), and I can't afford that. In fact, I'm borrowing the 300 f/4. Otherwise, it would have been a 70-300 f4-5.6.

In this case, I did have free reign of the field, and I was trying to capture as much of the action as I could, versus setting up in a particular spot and waiting for the right shot. I definately learned some things that day, and am looking forward to trying them again this weekend.

I appreciate your honest feedback!

jonh68 · September 17, 2008

The key is to shoot,shoot, shoot. You will get a feel for the flow of things and soon you will get more critical in the shots you take. I have learned it's not possible to be set up for every shot. You have to be prepared for the shots that you can get at your position.

du8die · September 17, 2008

jonh68 wrote:

The key is to shoot,shoot, shoot. You will get a feel for the flow of things and soon you will get more critical in the shots you take. I have learned it's not possible to be set up for every shot. You have to be prepared for the shots that you can get at your position.

That brings up a question. I'm doing some shooting for parents. (Football, etc). I'm torn between shooting for the ball, and making sure the kids are in the pictures. For example, the kid who plays a defensive end will probably never get his hands on the ball, but him making a good defensive play is a good shot. So, while I'm taking shots of the kids on the defensive line, a safety gets an amazing interception and runs it in for a TD. So, I just missed the big play.

How do you guys balance that?

jonh68 · September 17, 2008

If you follow the ball and he makes a tackle, you have the play.

If you are shooting for parents, get close ups of each individual player before the play when they lineup, or look at the sidelines for signals, etc. If you want an action shot, get two or three of the kid shedding a blocker, or offensive lineman blocking etc.

You cant get every shot or every bit of action by yourself. If you want individual pictures of a kid, you are not going to get the play unless you are really quick with focus and finding the play.

During the play, you have to decide if you are going to follow the ball, or follow a specific player. Sometimes you can get both if you are quick enough. I am sometimes told to focus on a player because we are running a story on him/her. I get the shot and then go about following the action of the actual competition.