U10 Girls Softball

buckeyenut

Here are some pictures from my daughters U10 Girls travel team. This is the first time I took pictures using manual mode and only the second time taking softball pictures. They were taken with a Canon 40D and 70-200 2.8L Non IS lens. I would love some feedback.










Not the sharpest photo but they called the girl Out.



This one is my daughter. The pitcher was great and threw a no hitter against our team. She did foul off the pitch at least.

insanefred

You did a good job at capturing the moment. (JMO, I would a slightly slower shutter to add some action blur)


second pic has "proof" watermark

The bright green border, although it fits the colors in the pics, is VERY distracting.

Maybe use a more shallow DoF, some of the background is distracting.

Using "manual" for isn't always the best mode to use for outdoor action, try using aperture priority. (it just makes life easier)
Other than that, nice.

Sorry, I am being nitpicky.

buckeyenut

insanefred wrote:

You did a good job at capturing the moment. (JMO, I would a slightly slower shutter to add some action blur)


second pic has "proof" watermark

The bright green border, although it fits the colors in the pics, is VERY distracting.

Maybe use a more shallow DoF, some of the background is distracting.

Using "manual" for isn't always the best mode to use for outdoor action, try using aperture priority. (it just makes life easier)
Other than that, nice.

Sorry, I am being nitpicky.

Thanks for the feedback, The watermark was because I was fooling around in my gallery and put on smugug's watermark. It has been removed but it is now randomly showing up in the pictures in this post.

I am curious on the DOF. All of these pictures were taken at f2.8. I agree that the background isnt as blurred as I would like it but is there something else I should be doing to get a more shallow dof?

kini62

insanefred wrote:

Using "manual" for isn't always the best mode to use for outdoor action, try using aperture priority. (it just makes life easier)

Actually using Av mode with the xxD bodies makes life much more difficult since the xxD bodies are sh!t for metering.

Anyway, nice job overall being your 2nd time shooting this sport.

Gene

insanefred

kini62 wrote:

Actually using Av mode with the xxD bodies makes life much more difficult since the xxD bodies are sh!t for metering.

Anyway, nice job overall being your 2nd time shooting this sport.

Gene

I hear that a lot, but I have such of a hard time believing it.

beetle8

Your shots are fine, You seemed to do just fine with exposure so I don't see any reason to steer you toward Aperture priority.
I like the green border.
#4 seems odd to me, I feel like we are missing a batter.
Your DOF will get larger the further you are from the subject you are focussing on, and the DOF fall-off will take longer.

Example.
200mm at f/2.8 focussing on a subject that is 15 feet away (which is very close) will have @ 1/4inch of sharp DOF and as you move away from that 1/4 inch the sharpness will fall off very fast. So something at 50 feet is total blur.
same 200mm at f/2.8 focussing on a subject that is 75 feet away (which is 3/4 of the way to first base, still pretty close.) is going to have closer to 5 feet of sharp DOF and as you move away from that 5 feet things will remain recognizeable longer.
so in your 5th picture you are probably close to 150' and we can tell that there is a catcher practicing in the BG.
This effect will increase the wider the lens is. So with the 70-200 you'll get softer backgrounds with the lens at 200mm than you will at 100mm and cropping in to the subject.
So there are 2 ways you can get softer BG's in your shots,
1. get closer
2. Buy This