First time shooting baseball

BradfordBenn

I did something I have not done in over a decade, which is go to a baseball stadium to watch a baseball game. :rofl Typically I am there for work, before the season or if during the season it is usually not for "fun".

I had a chance to go for a few innings to watch the St. Louis Cardinals host the Florida Marlins at Busch Stadium. I did some reading and checking and made sure I could bring my camera and lenses with me. As long as everything fit in the 16x16x9 inch bag. Yes, I was searched but as long as the bag fit in the box it was allowed. :thumb

So I started shooting, I did make some mistakes that resulted in the majority of the images being not very presentable. The main mistake was realizing just how fast the action would be. The settings I was using were just not fast enough. However the chimping on the camera did not always show the issues. When I got to a bigger monitor I could see them much easier. I know for next time to go to a faster shutter speed, the camera could have handled it as the ISO was set at 100 so I easily could have gone up to 200 without adding much if any noise. I also think next time I am ready to go all manual.

I did probably about three hours of total processing on 19 images. This included culling the 200+ images down and then cropping and running through Nik Dfine2 and Viveza2.

The entire gallery is located here http://photos.bradfordbenn.com/Travel/St-Louis-May-2011/ a few of the highlights though:

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

Constructive Criticism is welcome.

Thanks for looking

bbjones

Nice stuff!

Your biggest problem is that your pictures are full of St. Louis Cardinals. But that's nothing that a trip over to the Queen City can't fix.

What lens were you shooting with, and where were your seats? The thing that always amazes me when trying to shoot baseball, even at a minor league game, is how far away things actually are.

aktse

I think as a spectator, you did very well with your limited gear. I believe the basics are there -- exposure, focus, action and some emotion. Congrats for hitting those elements and realizing that not all of your photos contained those elements.

I believe your first photo is your most successful image.

Don't forget the mantra of a sports photography -- shoot tight, crop tighter.

In terms of general photography, #2 and #3 are great frames (color, composition, horizons, story, focus), but in terms of a good sports photo, the umpire adds nothing and the extra green grass doesn't add anything to the story. Or, I would crop from the batter and leave negative green space forward . Also, the photo would be more powerful if the person batting was facing your seats, but you have no control over that

Over all, well done from the stands.

johng

as fan snaps from the stands these are pretty good. If you want input on them as sports images let me know (realize though - when judging sports images, no extra credit is given for the subject being an MLB player ).

BradfordBenn

Thanks for the comments.

I agree with you April about the umpire, but I was striving more for the circle around home plate that the umpire is standing it. I decided that was the item I wanted to keep more. Also I tried really hard to avoid cutting people off awkwardly, it changed my entire crop on shot #1. I was not able to do the same on 2 & 3

As I get more shooting under my belt John, I am sure I will come up with some more questions.

Brian I was shooting with a 70-300 kit lens or 28-70 kit lens from the lower bowl. The two locations were the champion's club and the last row of the seats in the lower bowl almost behind home plate on the 1st base side. I learned to focus on what I could see, not on what I couldn't see which helped a lot. The far shots of the pitcher from the Champion's Club just didn't look as good as the batter's box. And almost the opposite from the seats.