Soccer Theory

leebase

Soccer Theory

This week I shot mostly in TV mode at 1/250 and 1/320 with the goal (no pun intended) of getting some blur on the ball. I achieved this, but it appears to me to be at the expense of softer photos over all.

I've become addicted to shooting in RAW. After resisting it for so long due to size and post processing time, I now find that I just can't live without it. Even shooting soccer -- the 20D more than keeps up when shooting raw. And with Raw Shooter, I'm spending LESS time post processing than I did with jpg, and I'm getting better results.

Culling -- I'm getting down to shooting 100 or so photos a game, and culling them down to 25 or so photos. Many more than that would normally be "keepers" -- except that there's just no reason to have so many photos when I'm shooting their games every week.

Cropping -- and I've settled quite comfortably into editing the story of each photo by cropping. If I had only the choice of sharpening or cropping -- I think I'd choose cropping as THE essential step in bringing out the best in my soccer photos.

4th Grade: http://leebase.smugmug.com/gallery/536421


2nd Grade: http://leebase.smugmug.com/gallery/536027


1st Grade: http://leebase.smugmug.com/gallery/534094


Lee

windoze

nice work Lee,
your posts are always informative!!! thanx!


troy

leebase wrote:

Soccer Theory

This week I shot mostly in TV mode at 1/250 and 1/320 with the goal (no pun intended) of getting some blur on the ball. I achieved this, but it appears to me to be at the expense of softer photos over all.

I've become addicted to shooting in RAW. After resisting it for so long due to size and post processing time, I now find that I just can't live without it. Even shooting soccer -- the 20D more than keeps up when shooting raw. And with Raw Shooter, I'm spending LESS time post processing than I did with jpg, and I'm getting better results.

Culling -- I'm getting down to shooting 100 or so photos a game, and culling them down to 25 or so photos. Many more than that would normally be "keepers" -- except that there's just no reason to have so many photos when I'm shooting their games every week.

Cropping -- and I've settled quite comfortably into editing the story of each photo by cropping. If I had only the choice of sharpening or cropping -- I think I'd choose cropping as THE essential step in bringing out the best in my soccer photos.


Lee

wxwax

That first one's a peach! As for cropping, I agree completely. A narrow depth of field also helps a ton.

Why limit the number of shots you shoot? Simply for convenience?

Bodley

leebase wrote:

Soccer Theory

And with Raw Shooter, I'm spending LESS time post processing than I did with jpg, and I'm getting better results.
Lee

What is raw shooter? How is it different that processing in photoshop?

Faster than JPEG?

Greg

leebase

wxwax wrote:

Why limit the number of shots you shoot? Simply for convenience?

No reason. I wouldn't say I'm "limiting" my shots, I'm just shooting less. Considering that I used to rattle off 400 or so shots a game (times 3 games) and now I'm only rattling off 100 -- I'm still shooting 300 per Sat.

I don't shoot as many shots of other kids as I used to. The parents don't buy the picts -- so why should I take life off of my shutter?

Also, when I know I've shot a certain kid, in a certain type of "pose" -- I no longer continue shooting them every time.



Lee

leebase

Bodley wrote:

What is raw shooter? How is it different that processing in photoshop?

Faster than JPEG?

http://www.pixmantec.com

It's RAW conversion software -- who's workflow I like better than Photoshop's.

And yes, I spend less time tweaking my RAW photos in RSE than I did adjusting my jpg's in photoshop.

Lee