Need comments and suggestions!

jtutp4

Looking for comments and suggestions on my latest soccer photos.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
Thank you.

Professional

#2 & 4 & 5 & 6 are the best, the others are not that much, so tighter or cropped parts like leg or arm or the ball is missing all those will not make it a winner/keeper shots.
Keep shooting, you will be there and will be improved significantly within the time, good luck!

photodad1

Good shots, also be aware of background when taking photos. The car in the background of # 8 stands out. Keep practicing and have fun.

jhefti

You've captured some great moments in the game, and for the most part I cannot pick on the composition. I agree that background clutter is a problem in some of the shots; often this is unavoidable on some fields. I also think that the colors could be tuned a little better. For example, the skin tones seem a little too red, but the grass does not seem green enough. Maybe you can play with HSL to improve this. Try bumping up the saturation on the greens, and pulling it down a little on the reds and oranges. Also, some of the shots seem a little soft, suggesting that maybe they were over-cropped. What lens(es) did you use? How much cropping did you do? Over-cropping is one of the biggest mistakes aspiring photogs make IMHO.

Some specific comments:

2. The player is a little underexposed. I realise he is backlit, but you might try bringing up the exposure on him, while toning down the sky behind him. Heck, even just bringing him up a bit at the expense of a slightly overexposed background would be fine.

3. Nice capture, but the presence of the ball would be an improvement.

6. Any way to get rid of the portapotty in the background? Maybe a combination of more crop and some tilt, so that the ball stays in frame but most of the potty is gone.

8. An absolutely lovely action moment, but the car and person behind are distractions. Not sure what you can do with it at this point, other than some major PS content alteration, but maybe next time try to get a different angle with a clean background (a hard, sometimes impossible task, I know).

Thanks for posting a small set and numbering them; it really makes C&C quick and easy.

John

jtutp4

jhefti wrote: »

You've captured some great moments in the game, and for the most part I cannot pick on the composition. I agree that background clutter is a problem in some of the shots; often this is unavoidable on some fields. I also think that the colors could be tuned a little better. For example, the skin tones seem a little too red, but the grass does not seem green enough. Maybe you can play with HSL to improve this. Try bumping up the saturation on the greens, and pulling it down a little on the reds and oranges. Also, some of the shots seem a little soft, suggesting that maybe they were over-cropped. What lens(es) did you use? How much cropping did you do? Over-cropping is one of the biggest mistakes aspiring photogs make IMHO.

Some specific comments:

2. The player is a little underexposed. I realise he is backlit, but you might try bringing up the exposure on him, while toning down the sky behind him. Heck, even just bringing him up a bit at the expense of a slightly overexposed background would be fine.

3. Nice capture, but the presence of the ball would be an improvement.

6. Any way to get rid of the portapotty in the background? Maybe a combination of more crop and some tilt, so that the ball stays in frame but most of the potty is gone.

8. An absolutely lovely action moment, but the car and person behind are distractions. Not sure what you can do with it at this point, other than some major PS content alteration, but maybe next time try to get a different angle with a clean background (a hard, sometimes impossible task, I know).

Thanks for posting a small set and numbering them; it really makes C&C quick and easy.

John

Thanks for the comments. I am use a Nikon D300s, with a Nikon 18-200 f3.5-5.6 zoom. I do have a 300 f4, but it is manual focus, and I just react quick enough anymore to use it effectively. The field that the team uses has issues. I usually shoot from behind the end line, so on one side I have the hill with the parked cars, on the other side I have a drop off (hence the resulting back lighting), and at the other end of the field is the port-a-potty (if i switch ends, I would have the issue of backlighting again, field runs E-W). I will try the picture adjustment on my pictures. Thanks again.

fredjclaus

Overall the images are great. Exposure is nice, lighting is good. I'd just say again what's already been said. 1: loosen up your crop. You can always tighten up in the computer later. 2: try to get the ball in the shot as well. With no ball the one shot looks like the players are trying to kick each other.


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jhefti

...and you've probably already done this, but shoot at the widest aperture you can so that the DOF isolates the player/action as much as possible. If you're using a 3.5-5.6 lens, you won't get too much background blur, though.

JSPhotography

All the above and a little acronym I read here a while back - F.A.C.T. Faces, Action, Contact, Toy(ball) Gotta have all 4 to go on the top of the heap.