High School football

knguyen

Hi everyone I was just recently hired from a local photo company to go out and shoot high school sports for the yearbook. This is my first time shooting football but I really enjoyed it and hopefully I will continue shooting and getting better. Check out some of the pictures and critique anything that I can improve on

johng

My advice is - if you want good critique, imbed 5 or 6 shots (number the shots) in the post here, rather than linking to an entire gallery. You'll get much better response if you do that.

knguyen

Hi John thanks for the advice, I just figured how to imbed the pictures from my smugmug.

johng

OK, a couple thoughts here:
Exposures and WB are pretty good in these. One general issue is you want to try and fill the frame with action - that provides more detail. Now, since this is going into a yearbook there are options for cropping without resizing. So, in shot 1, 2/3 of the photo is throw-away - the area to right/left of the action. If I'm laying out the photos in the yearbook I could deal with cropping out the sides. BUT, you should strive to fill the frame. In this case - shoot portrait. A good majority of shots are going to have more vertical component than horizontal. So, shoot vertical.

Now, the general rule is - you want FACES in the photos. Faces make the photos more interesting. You don't want to have to read a caption to know who the player is (if you know the players). You want to look at the photo and say "hey, there's Joe". In the case of defense, the back of the jersey can sometimes work. For example, shot 2 is a more effective shot - good action and the jersey names. In shots 1 & 3, you are missing those. Specific critique:
shot 1: Nice timing and action but the shot is from behind so not that effective and there's a lot of dead space. That dead space can be cut out in a yearbook so not as bad as if you were shooting for print sales. But, looks to me like the receiver is going to catch the ball. So, nice shot if you were shooting the other team. But, the shot doesn't portray the defender in a great light.

shot 2: much tighter framing and good action. No faces, but I think it's still a much more useable photo - except for #6 whose just lying there (doubt he'll like the shot being used much). So, I'm a bit mixed about this shot in the yearbook. Effective shot for 2 of the 3 players but puts the other player (the one laying there) in a bad light. You always want at least a neutral view of a player - don't want a negative view of them.

shot 3: cool looking 'gazelle' type stride here - but again, lots of dead space and no face - nor number. So, players not so recognizable.

Based on the technical merits, you seem to know how to use your gear. Now you need to work on your shooting angles and shot selection so you get tighter framing and shots where the players are portrayed positively (or at least neutrally) and are easily recognizable.

knguyen

Hi John thanks for the much needed critique, I will take your advice and improve on my pictures in the next football event on friday.

cr8ingwaves

and don't forget about the lineman!