Baseball Pics Critique please

Oldaker

Ok i have been practicing alot and just wanted to put a couple of pics on here to get some more critique on how to make them better,
i have come to conclusion that i just dont have the lens to get the ultimate shots, but i have just been trying to get the best out of the equipment i have
I am still saving to get the Nikon 70-200 f2.8 lens, but not quite there yet
these shots were taken with a Nikon D90, Quantarray 70-300 f4-5.6, 3200 ISO on Aperature Priority
What do i need to do in post processing here to get these photos to POP like i see so many other baseball pics on here
Thanks

Toshido

I always hesitate to comment on colours since I do not have a calibrated monitor. That being said though....



RED.

Too much red. I am guessing you really raised the saturation which goes nuts on the red channels. Not sure what you are using for post, but if it is lightroom or photoshop you could adjust colour saturation by channel, or colour, That should help you preserve skin tones. Especially the first picture the kid looks a little like a lobster to me.

They both look a little tilted to me, especially the first one. I find myself trying to keep verticals vertical, especially near the edge of the frame. At the edge of the frame the viewer uses the frame as a vertical reference.

Last is I have never shot baseball but these do not seem to be at peak action. Especiallythe first one. May have been an interesting shot from a differentangle though. An angle where you could see his face in profile and his entire body. As it is his body hides his right arm almost completely.

Erbeman

What he said. I also think they could have benefitted from a faster shutter speed as some parts of the pitcher that are moving aren't sharp.

Oldaker

I would love to have got some faster shutter speeds, but im limited there, this was low light situation, and i have the ISO at 3200, couldnt get much faster speeds, at least i dont know how to if there is a way, these were taken at 8pm

as far as color, i have a very hard time trying to figure that out, thats what im learning to do now, see what i can come up with

Erbeman

Oldaker wrote:

I would love to have got some faster shutter speeds, but im limited there, this was low light situation, and i have the ISO at 3200, couldnt get much faster speeds, at least i dont know how to if there is a way, these were taken at 8pm

as far as color, i have a very hard time trying to figure that out, thats what im learning to do now, see what i can come up with

Those are tough conditions for sure especially without a flash.

Dano

At ISO 3200 you just aren't going to get portfolio pictures although the new bodies are getting a lot better. The easiest thing to do in PP is to straighten your horizons and there really is no excuse to miss this. Use the vertical poles in the outfield for reference. Reds do look a bit off.

What was your shutter speed? Pretty hard to get great results in that light so don't distress. Shoot some daytime and post up.

Oldaker

Dano wrote:

At ISO 3200 you just aren't going to get portfolio pictures although the new bodies are getting a lot better. The easiest thing to do in PP is to straighten your horizons and there really is no excuse to miss this. Use the vertical poles in the outfield for reference. Reds do look a bit off.

What was your shutter speed? Pretty hard to get great results in that light so don't distress. Shoot some daytime and post up.

Ok thanks for the advice, i am still learning photoshop, and just so many things in it, i learn more all the time, i just googled how to adjust the horizon, so ill study that now

Shutter speed was at 500

attorneyjay

Oldaker wrote:

Ok thanks for the advice, i am still learning photoshop, and just so many things in it, i learn more all the time, i just googled how to adjust the horizon, so ill study that now

Shutter speed was at 500

Your initial post contains the most important factor in getting better action shots - you need a long f2.8 lens. You'll then be able to shoot at lower ISO and faster shutter speeds. On colors, custom WB the best you can in camera and keep learning about the PP software which can also help.

Jay

zack75144

Oldie, "adjusting the horizon" is the same as "keep the verticals vertical". It simply means to rotate your photo to correct for the camera tilt. Elements has a tool for this.
It's a good plan to learn how to shoot better, but you've gotta have the approach like "the gambler"

"you gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold them."

If you're at ISO 3200 and still only getting 500 SS, dude it's time to go to bed, cuz it's dark outside! (just noticed that you shot at 8pm)
Shoot the earlier games and network with your customers during those late ones.

and yes I agree the first one is too red and it looks like you overdid the noise reduction.

Keep working you'll get there.

codiac2600

Hmmm... I initially saw these images and thought that the first comments were very helpful but I'd like to offer some advice from the standpoint of shooting the game of baseball late at night.

I'm one of the team photographers for our local baseball team and am the only shooter to stay on beyond the third inning because of the lighting conditions.

Here is an example of a series captured during those difficult hours:

#1: ISO 11,400


#2: ISO 10,000


#3: ISO 11,400


I shot these in Jpeg and ran it slightly through noise ninja and ran a quick sharpening and I believe they turned out quite amazing.

Image quality is half the equation in a great image and the other half is the image itself. People always want to shoot ISO 100-400 and have all this wonderful soft available light but the truth of the matter is if the impact of the image is great enough than no matter the image quality it's still a great capture and you should be happy with it.

Your shots were taken at f5.6 and ISO 3200 which means there was more light than I was shooting in for the images I posted above. If you can snag yourself a 2.8 or even an f4.0 lens you'll be able to drop your ISO two or one stop respectively or do a combination of faster shutter, 1/800th minimum, and a lower ISO, 2000 would be great and feasible with an f2.8 lens. Typically when the light gets low I set my shutter to 1/640th minimum and allow my ISO to run wild so I can capture the action. The 1/500th you're using is technically good enough to capture some action but if you can snag that little extra and bump to 1/800th or 1/1000th oh man will the action seem more frozen. Make sure you are using a monopod even if you have a lens with image stabilization because it will still give you better results with than without. You can even save yourself some pennies and snag the sigma 70-200 f2.8 HSM for your D90 and get some uber great IQ at a cost of $799! If you spring for a $60 monopod you'll gain back the VR you lost while saving $1000. Don't let third party lenses scare you as some copies and certain model are better than Nikkor and Canon L series equivalents even though some will argue all day with me on this it's a truth.

Final wisdom is to always make this fun for you and in time you'll get a feel for how to post process your images and yes I have to agree that the red is well... red. Would you mind posting originals and letting us see what you're lump of clay your working with looks like? We may be able to give you some good pointers on post work if we know how grainy the image may be. Knowing my D300 you have the same output as I do and it's very workable unless you're cropping in a ton.

Thank you for sharing and stick in there. The road to amazing sports images is rough and very few people give up their secrets in this sector, but the ones who do give it up are definitely worth noting and taking to heart.