New Basketball..Took your suggestions

hschlessphoto

After my last post of bball pics, I took all of your advice and did things such as straighten my horizons and tighten up my cropping. Tell me what you think of these. Thanks!





I know this one isn't a very striaght horizon but i think the subject itself is straight enough to make up forit




thanks!

-Hank

johng

Hank,

You're getting better.

WB is a bit off. And the first three are still a bit crooked.
Motion blur is hurting you a little but without knowing you're settings it's tough to say if you have any leeway in aperture or ISO to improve that.
#2 is probably the best of the series. I like the action in #3 the best but the face isn't as sharp as I'd like. It could be motion blur but it also looks like it might be front-focused since his left foot is sharp and his right isn't.
#4 is the only one that, IMO, still belongs on the cutting room floor - the timing of the shot isn't good - you want the ball closer to his hand (which is why it's a good idea to shoot in 2-3 shot bursts) and it's not a flattering body position.

But you're definitely moving in the right direction. Keep up the good work and keep at it, you're getting better!

du8die

Hi,

I know this one isn't a very striaght horizon but i think the subject itself is straight enough to make up for it

Sorry, but no (IMHO). The horizons are very, very distracting. This, again in my opinion, needs to get fixed - it is very easy. Look for the bricks. Straight lines are VERY strong visual elements, and they should be as horizontal as possible. (Unless of course they are at an angle opposed to your floor, but they shouldn't be, unless the builder was very bad).

Thanks for posting!

hschlessphoto

du8die wrote:

Hi,



Sorry, but no (IMHO). The horizons are very, very distracting. This, again in my opinion, needs to get fixed - it is very easy. Look for the bricks. Straight lines are VERY strong visual elements, and they should be as horizontal as possible. (Unless of course they are at an angle opposed to your floor, but they shouldn't be, unless the builder was very bad).

Thanks for posting!

ok fair enough but does one sacrifice quality for a little bit of orientation? I get what you're saying but sometimes that just not possible to do. I guess i should try my monopod?

tjk60

you've been given some good advice. when your reviewing you pics, you need to straighten them. A monopod can help, but is not necessary. the only time I don't straighten is when I would lose a strategic element of the picture, AND it's a PHENOMENAL picture!

These should be brightened up a bit also. Some good action there, take a little more time in post to show off your work. What you've said by posting is that these are 'good enough'. try and make the best of every picture!

jonh68

hschlessphoto wrote:

ok fair enough but does one sacrifice quality for a little bit of orientation? I get what you're saying but sometimes that just not possible to do. I guess i should try my monopod?

Monopod wouldn't help and might hurt,

I try when possible to straighten unless there isn't room to work with and the shot is good.

Your first shot is an example. If this is full frame, then you can't do to much about it unless you crop tighter and not have a full body shot.

What you can do is notice how your tilts favor. You seem to have a left to right tilt. Adjust the way you hold the camera to make it FEEL like it's the other way around. It may feel like you over compensating, but it might help out. It is something I have started doing.

johng

I agree about not using a monopod. It's too restrictive for a sport like basketball where you need to cover such a wide arc of action. A monopod will be more a pain than a benefit.

Also, I'd like to address this comment:

ok fair enough but does one sacrifice quality for a little bit of orientation?

The issue here is, there is a LOT that goes into making a shot a quality shot. As another poster indicated, a crooked shot can be OK if the shot is phenomenal. I'll add that it can also be OK if the visual ques in the background aren't as noticable. Trouble with basketball is it's very difficult to impossible to eliminate the visual ques in the background. So, having a shot that appears level is generally a requirement for a quality shot.

Again, as has been pointed out, crooked shots are generally a consistent problem. My advice is to pay attention to those ques while shooting - so you start to correct the problem IN CAMERA. After a few games you'll notice the number of crooked shots will decrease and you won't be faced with the tough issue of deciding how to straighten a crooked shot where the subject already fills the frame.

The best advice I can give you on sports shooting is: your goal should be to get everything right in-camera. I'm not saying I've achieved that goal myself but it's still the goal. So, when WB is off, exposure is off, horizons are off - correcting the issues in PP is a short-term solution. Work on trying to prevent the issues in the first place.

Keep at it. You're getting better.