Women's College Basketball: AppState vs. Furman

Mr. 2H2O

Different seats and first time taking in the Lady Mountaineer's play. Quite a hard fought game on both sides with AppState coming out on top.

1. First Year Head Coach Darcie Vincent surveying the landscape.


2. Some of the action under the basket.


3. Foul shots were an important part of this game.


4. It was a great win for the Lady Mountaineers!


- Mike

donek

You need to shoot with a larger aperture. Looking at image 2, everything from the refs jersey to the seats in the background is relatively sharp. In reality, none of it looks as sharp as it could be, almost as if you've shot the images at f22. Can you share some camera/setting information with us, so we can provide some better guidance.

Mr. 2H2O

donek wrote:

You need to shoot with a larger aperture. Looking at image 2, everything from the refs jersey to the seats in the background is relatively sharp. In reality, none of it looks as sharp as it could be, almost as if you've shot the images at f22. Can you share some camera/setting information with us, so we can provide some better guidance.

Sean,
Thanks for taking time to comment. I am just sharing fan photos I took at the game. I use a Panasonic bridge camera (the FZ-50) so these shots at ISO800 are soft and uncorrectable.

I shoot at F4.0, 1/250, with custom white balance. The largest aperture I can get is F3.7 but its on a small sensor so it would feel kind of like F11ish on a crop sensor. I don't shoot for publication, its more to promote the team to the community and also for the players. The pro's that shoot the games don't give thier pics to the players (they are for thier affiliated websites and papers) so I like to make them available to the families.

I don't have equipment to shoot sports so I have to wait until I can save up and buy the stuff I know will create a narrow DOF, fast focus, and burst speed to get the compositions I am see in my mind but not reproduce with the equipment I have now.

- Mike

donek

Given your equipment, I'd say you've done quite well. I think all of them could use some cropping and you might try a little usm.

Mr. 2H2O

donek wrote:

Given your equipment, I'd say you've done quite well. I think all of them could use some cropping and you might try a little usm.

Thanks Sean.

Cropping is pretty hard for me - I don't see composition as well as many others so I have trouble figuring out what elements to exclude. Its not hard for me in my portrait and event photography, but sports is "a whole 'nuther ballgame."

The edges are so cruddy, USM actually can't find them. I kindof have to live with what I have here - the workflow I use produces the sharpest photos available. Panasonic is pretty famous for noisy sensors on these smaller cameras.

- Mike

theultimateguru

GO ASU. Do you have any pictures of the APP bench? My family was watching game and sit just behind the Lady Apps at all of the games.

Mr. 2H2O

theultimateguru wrote:

GO ASU. Do you have any pictures of the APP bench? My family was watching game and sit just behind the Lady Apps at all of the games.

I wasn't on that side of the Holmes Center for the game. I'll be up there again this weekend for the doubleheader. I'll go around to the student section and snap you guys and post in another thread.

- Mike

jonh68

Mr. 2H2O wrote:

Cropping is pretty hard for me - I don't see composition as well as many others so I have trouble figuring out what elements to exclude. Its not hard for me in my portrait and event photography, but sports is "a whole 'nuther ballgame."

In my eyes, the only ones that need a little cropping are 1 and 2.

For 1, crop out the right side and the top, leaving only the coach and the cheerleaders in back to tell the story. There isn't a a big crowd and the ones there look bored anyway. Get them out.

For 2
Do a portrait crop in the middle, but make sure the two girls battling for the ball are kept in the frame.

Number 3 would have been better if you had gotten this picture on your side so you could see her face.

These are not too bad for the equipment you had.

Mr. 2H2O

jonh68 wrote:

In my eyes, the only ones that need a little cropping are 1 and 2.

For 1, crop out the right side and the top, leaving only the coach and the cheerleaders in back to tell the story. There isn't a a big crowd and the ones there look bored anyway. Get them out.

For 2
Do a portrait crop in the middle, but make sure the two girls battling for the ball are kept in the frame.

Number 3 would have been better if you had gotten this picture on your side so you could see her face.

These are not too bad for the equipment you had.

John,
Thanks so much for your advice. I have the men's game yet to process from the same area so I will take your suggested guidelines into account when processing them.

- Mike