Need comments and suggestions!

jtutp4

I take pictures of almost all the sports at my children's high school . Looking for any comments and any suggestions . I am including pictures from cross country, softball, soccer, and football. I use a Nikon D300s. For the cross country I used a 35-70 f2.8, for the rest of the pictures I mostly used an 18-200 f3.5-5.6 and a manual focus 300 f4.5. Thank you!






















Hopefully I did this right. And I will actually have images show up in the thread. LOL!

dbveto

it is very distracting with all the watermarks.

donek

Axe the watermark. Nobody here is going to steel your shots, it's not the objective.

There are a number of shots that are not straight. Get those fence posts, buildings, porta potties straight up and down.

You have some out of focus shots. Set a1 (AF-C Priority) to Focus and you'll eliminate a lot of them. ditch the rest.

codyjbennett

I understand the watermark... these happen to be images from your smugmug site which has a sitewide watermark. It is bold, but with HS sports, it may be valuable to keep it so that in the case that it is swiped by someone, they know where to turn to get the real image. You might also consider your URL in your watermark so they have an easy way to find you.

As for the images, here are some initial thoughts:

* So many images to review, I eventually just started scrolling to the end. (pick a few of your best'est and show those next time around).
* I like it when the background is more fitting (the images with the chain-link fence in the background weren't particularly dynamic, whereas the images of the racers with the long trail of other runners behind them set a sense of place & action)
* It looks like you have a handle on "peak action" with regards to football & soccer - keep honing that effort.
* I wonder what kind of feedback you are getting from the community; it may be telling about how to adjust your images to meet their desires.

Good luck!

jtutp4

codyjbennett wrote: »

I understand the watermark... these happen to be images from your smugmug site which has a sitewide watermark. It is bold, but with HS sports, it may be valuable to keep it so that in the case that it is swiped by someone, they know where to turn to get the real image. You might also consider your URL in your watermark so they have an easy way to find you.

As for the images, here are some initial thoughts:

* So many images to review, I eventually just started scrolling to the end. (pick a few of your best'est and show those next time around).
* I like it when the background is more fitting (the images with the chain-link fence in the background weren't particularly dynamic, whereas the images of the racers with the long trail of other runners behind them set a sense of place & action)
* It looks like you have a handle on "peak action" with regards to football & soccer - keep honing that effort.
* I wonder what kind of feedback you are getting from the community; it may be telling about how to adjust your images to meet their desires.

Good luck!

I didn't realize that the watermark would stay on the image. The chain link fences (if country country shots) were the boundary of the course in certain spots, and they were from two different races. As far as feed back, I get very little (which doesn't help me!).Thanks for the advice, appreciate it.

jtutp4

donek wrote: »

Axe the watermark. Nobody here is going to steel your shots, it's not the objective.

There are a number of shots that are not straight. Get those fence posts, buildings, porta potties straight up and down.

You have some out of focus shots. Set a1 (AF-C Priority) to Focus and you'll eliminate a lot of them. ditch the rest.

Thanks for the advice. The reason the watermarks are still there, I didn't realize that they would still be there when I linked to my photos on smugmug. Appreciate the help.

photodad1

I agree, too many photos to look at. I would recommend selecting your best photo from each sport. Crop a little tighter.

johng

As with everyone else - too many photos. Each sport is a bit different. I suggest starting a thread for feedback o a specific sport - include about 4 or 5 shots - that's it. I'd start with the sports going on now - not Spring sports. That will garner you much better advice on how to improve.

jtutp4

johng wrote: »

As with everyone else - too many photos. Each sport is a bit different. I suggest starting a thread for feedback o a specific sport - include about 4 or 5 shots - that's it. I'd start with the sports going on now - not Spring sports. That will garner you much better advice on how to improve.

Thank you for the advice.

jtutp4

johng wrote: »

As with everyone else - too many photos. Each sport is a bit different. I suggest starting a thread for feedback o a specific sport - include about 4 or 5 shots - that's it. I'd start with the sports going on now - not Spring sports. That will garner you much better advice on how to improve.

Thank you for the advice. Still trying to figure (the idea of submitting photos for comments) it all out.

johng

jtutp4 wrote: »

Thank you for the advice. Still trying to figure (the idea of submitting photos for comments) it all out.

Here's the thing: it depends on what your goal is. And you have to be very honest with yourself regarding your goal in posting. If your goal is to improve as a sports shooter, the best way to do that quickly is to get constructive criticism from other sports photographers more accomplished than you. Every sport has it's nuances. So discussions trying to cover how to improve that span multiple sports aren't as effective as limiting to just one. Accomplished shooters also don't want to wade through 15 shots - keep it simple - 4 or 5 shots is enough.

Now, when you're at the "wow" stage of sports shooting, you can post a dozen shots and we'll all ooh and ahh over them. You are not there yet. But neither am I. Neither are 99% of the people that post here at DGRIN sports forum.

Now, lots of enthusiast sports shooters here. Everyone here has friends/family that tell them their photos are great. If you're looking for more of the same ego boost, a forum of sports shooters is the wrong place to go. Some people just like to share and enjoy each others photos. You'll find this forum is more geared toward constructive criticism and helping each other get better. So, not a good place if you don't like to hear that there are things you could do better.

If you do decide you like this approach, when you make a post for constructive criticism / feedback, number the photos - it makes it easier to provide feedback.

Now, here's an example of the feedback you can expect. Photo # ?? (8 i think - second softball photo with play at the plate): The timing is good here - just crossing plate while fielder attempts a tag too late. Exposure looks ok. However, the shot is framed way too loosely - too much unneeded dead space. The story is the base, the runner and the fielder - period. No other subject in the photo adds to the story so they shouldn't be in the picture. Shutter speed is way too slow. No need to shoot at f8 and ISO 400 - open up the aperture and raise the ISO - should go for 1/1000 shutter speeds which ISO 800 and f5.6 would give you. Next: f8 is too shallow - it provides too much depth of field so distracting background elements are too much in focus. Eventually if you want to get serious this is why sports shooters use f2.8 - it isn't just about shutter speed it's also about isolating your subject. Also the colors seem very unnatural in this photo - way too pastel. Not sure what parameters you used or what post processing but it looks very unnatural (way too pastel).

See why it's impossible to give you good feedback on so many photos?

jtutp4

johng wrote: »

Here's the thing: it depends on what your goal is. And you have to be very honest with yourself regarding your goal in posting. If your goal is to improve as a sports shooter, the best way to do that quickly is to get constructive criticism from other sports photographers more accomplished than you. Every sport has it's nuances. So discussions trying to cover how to improve that span multiple sports aren't as effective as limiting to just one. Accomplished shooters also don't want to wade through 15 shots - keep it simple - 4 or 5 shots is enough.

Now, when you're at the "wow" stage of sports shooting, you can post a dozen shots and we'll all ooh and ahh over them. You are not there yet. But neither am I. Neither are 99% of the people that post here at DGRIN sports forum.

Now, lots of enthusiast sports shooters here. Everyone here has friends/family that tell them their photos are great. If you're looking for more of the same ego boost, a forum of sports shooters is the wrong place to go. Some people just like to share and enjoy each others photos. You'll find this forum is more geared toward constructive criticism and helping each other get better. So, not a good place if you don't like to hear that there are things you could do better.

If you do decide you like this approach, when you make a post for constructive criticism / feedback, number the photos - it makes it easier to provide feedback.

Now, here's an example of the feedback you can expect. Photo # ?? (8 i think - second softball photo with play at the plate): The timing is good here - just crossing plate while fielder attempts a tag too late. Exposure looks ok. However, the shot is framed way too loosely - too much unneeded dead space. The story is the base, the runner and the fielder - period. No other subject in the photo adds to the story so they shouldn't be in the picture. Shutter speed is way too slow. No need to shoot at f8 and ISO 400 - open up the aperture and raise the ISO - should go for 1/1000 shutter speeds which ISO 800 and f5.6 would give you. Next: f8 is too shallow - it provides too much depth of field so distracting background elements are too much in focus. Eventually if you want to get serious this is why sports shooters use f2.8 - it isn't just about shutter speed it's also about isolating your subject. Also the colors seem very unnatural in this photo - way too pastel. Not sure what parameters you used or what post processing but it looks very unnatural (way too pastel).

See why it's impossible to give you good feedback on so many photos?

Thanks for the advice. Just so you know, I am looking for ways to improve, because personally, I usually hate 90% of the pictures take. And my budget has yet, except for a 35-70 f2.8, allowed me to buy a decent f2.8 I can use for sports. Hopefully I will get better posting a taking pictures. Again thanks.

Icebear

jtutp4 wrote: »

And my budget has yet, except for a 35-70 f2.8, allowed me to buy a decent f2.8 I can use for sports. Hopefully I will get better posting a taking pictures. Again thanks.

You have a good sports camera. Better glass will make all the difference in the world. Start off used if you have to. A used Nikkor 80-200 f2.8 on your camera will give you great results at reasonable cost. "Till you can do that, just use AP and set your lens to it's largest aperture. Seriously . . . f8?:D

jtutp4

Icebear wrote: »

You have a good sports camera. Better glass will make all the difference in the world. Start off used if you have to. A used Nikkor 80-200 f2.8 on your camera will give you great results at reasonable cost. "Till you can do that, just use AP and set your lens to it's largest aperture. Seriously . . . f8?:D

The pictures shot at f8 were shot before I had read in a forum to use aperture priority and shoot wide open, which is what I do now. I am hoping to improve my lens options soon. Thanks for the advice.