St. Johns v. Carver (09.04.2010)

travischance

Saturday's game marked the 2nd time I'd photographed a high school football game. A while back I'd posted a thread looking for suggestions on which lens to purchase (300 v. 400) & I'm glad I went with the 300 as it gave more than enough reach. There were a number of images within a series that were out of focus while others were spot on. Any suggestions on minimizing out of focus images?

All images were shot with my 7D + 300 2.8L and 40D + 70-200 2.8L in AI Servo, Center Spot AF, Aperture Priority at f2.8. Comments & critique are welcomed. Thanks in advance!


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kidzmom

NICE crisp images here. I recently shot a running race and was also in AI servio. I am a portrait personal usually so this was new for me. The few things I noticed about AI servio was that "what you see is what you get". If its in focus....CLICK and fast! For me the trouble (and I'm curious about your impressions as well) was that I only really noticed the focus more when they were for close up subjects (like when the runner was waist up to me on my fully zoomed 70-200 2.8). When they were further back and I wanted a full body shot I was less aware whether I was in focus yet or not. I ended up with some soft images when I was trying to capture more of the scene due to my not sensing the focus. Does this make sense? I also used central AF but shot everything in M. I did get a few oof shots in servio but I got way more oof when I was trying to use the ONE SHOT focus. That was slow and poor. You look like you had a good position on the field-- very key! Really nice set. Love the color pop and the clarity of the images! Do you have the IS verson of the lens and did you have it off? For the runners I shot I actually kept it on and saw a big improvment in OOF shots...BUT runners are moving more smoothly and slowly than the tackles in football, lol!

John Hayes

Those are nice shots Travis.

johng

Travis - you've got some very nice images here. The one area needing a bit more work is framing. On the framing:
shot 1: great action and expression but the entire right 3 of the image is dead space with the action crammed against the left. Get rid of the dead space

shot 2: this image is all about the eyes - but they're small in the frame with a lot of dead space - #26 in the background isn't part of the story so no worries about lopping him off (if the original image has enough detail for a tighter crop)

shot 3: Again, too much dead space. The story here is the expression on the defender (not the ball carrier) - that expression needs to be larger.

shot 4: nice and tight!

shot 5: tight - but losing the foot already. Another note - this shot doesn't do much for me because you can't see faces and the action isn't spectacular. That's tough when players wear face shields like that. You know how to get sharp images now - so it's a question of is the sharp image interesting? Sometimes focus, exposure, etc are all there and the photo still might not work.

shot 6: good framing but this is one where the focus is a bit off. Again - it's about the runner's eyes and they're not sharp - the lineman to the left appears sharper.

shot 7: nice and tight but you've cut him off at the ankles. This is why I'm not a huge fan of shooting landscape orientation - it's easy to cut off feet and often leaves you with dead space on the sides.

shot 8: potentially strong image. Nice and tight without losing the feet (OK you lost his toes but that's not too bad). What keeps it from being a strong image is the wrong player is in the frame. The defender to the right of the frame is involved in the play but he's missing from the frame. The trailing player to the left is not involved in the play but he is in the frame. This is a situation where maybe the next shot or shot after that in the sequence may have had the players in a better position.

You're really improving here and have some nice shots - now it's time to jump your game to the next level and work on the framing. Then the photos will have more impact.

Really nice job!

travischance

kidzmom wrote: »

NICE crisp images here. I recently shot a running race and was also in AI servio. I am a portrait personal usually so this was new for me. The few things I noticed about AI servio was that "what you see is what you get". If its in focus....CLICK and fast! For me the trouble (and I'm curious about your impressions as well) was that I only really noticed the focus more when they were for close up subjects (like when the runner was waist up to me on my fully zoomed 70-200 2.8). When they were further back and I wanted a full body shot I was less aware whether I was in focus yet or not. I ended up with some soft images when I was trying to capture more of the scene due to my not sensing the focus. Does this make sense? I also used central AF but shot everything in M. I did get a few oof shots in servio but I got way more oof when I was trying to use the ONE SHOT focus. That was slow and poor. You look like you had a good position on the field-- very key! Really nice set. Love the color pop and the clarity of the images! Do you have the IS verson of the lens and did you have it off? For the runners I shot I actually kept it on and saw a big improvement in OOF shots...BUT runners are moving more smoothly and slowly than the tackles in football, lol!

Thank You for the reply Kelly. The biggest thing that I remember from Saturday is that I found myself "rushing to capture the image" and not being patient. Shot #6 is a good example of me being too anxious & why I believe I missed the focus. In the second half, I slowed myself down & tried to allow the action to come to me. As a result, the images seem better IMO & I have more keepers. My camera was set to high speed continuous but I only used 3-4 bursts at a time.

My 300 is built with IS but I had it turned off as I've read other posts where IS doesn't help when you have good light and your glass is mounted to a monopod. In my limited shooting sports, I make it a point to keep both eyes open while shooting which helps me see other plays developing. Thanks again!

travischance

johng wrote: »

Travis - you've got some very nice images here. The one area needing a bit more work is framing. You're really improving here and have some nice shots - now it's time to jump your game to the next level and work on the framing. Then the photos will have more impact. Really nice job!

As always, Thank You for the direction John! The only images above that were cropped from the original were 5 & 7 so there's plenty of room left on the others. Shot #6 is a result of my lack of patience (I sharpened it heavily in PP to save this one). Again, you've given me some important details to remember when I'm shooting. Thanks again!

Mark1616

I won't comment on the photos as I'm on my iPhone so can't see them as well as on the monitor, but will say that portrait orientation will help.

The area I wanted to pick up on was the AF. With the 7D I find that you get a more reliable focus (AI Servo) if you change the focus reaction speed down in custom settings. There are 5 settings and I have gone for the 2nd (the first gives very similar results from my testing). I've done the same with my 1D mkIII as well and it helped the performance on both cameras. Another area if you are getting lots of out of focus shots at the start of a sequence is to ensure you have been tracking them long enough so the AI can do its thing.