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New Sports Photographer needs Critique

zSCOTTzzSCOTTz Registered Users Posts: 169 Major grins
edited January 27, 2012 in Sports
I just got started into photography. I bought a Canon 7D in February of 2011. I love shooting sports, and I am still learning alot about photography and how to use the camera. I was wondering if anyone who has been shooting sports for awhile could critique my sports pictures on my web site and give me some feedback so I can learn what I am doing wrong, or right. Thanks for your time.

www.mapesphotography.com is the website with my sports photos.

Scott.

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    xchangxxchangx Registered Users Posts: 47 Big grins
    edited January 23, 2012
    Looks like a lot of the shots were from the stands, no? If so then get field level and shoot low looking up at the player. Always get a ball in the picture at peak time, along with faces. It also looks like your white balance may be off on some of these. I'm at work on a non-calibrated monitor so I can't be certain.
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    zSCOTTzzSCOTTz Registered Users Posts: 169 Major grins
    edited January 23, 2012
    Yeah, alot were in the stands, wasnt sure if I could go down to the field, but now I know I can. I have alot of pics with the ball in the air, but I didn't like the background, or maybe something was a little out of focus. You are probably right about the white balance, I dont know anything about it, I have that set on auto white balance. A year ago I didn't even know what a DSLR was, and I am just now getting kind of comfortable with settings on the camera. I shoot in manual mode. The college and pro games I can't be on the field, so those are always gonna be from the stands. Ill put some with the ball in the pics on here to see what people think.
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    zSCOTTzzSCOTTz Registered Users Posts: 169 Major grins
    edited January 23, 2012
    Ill put some pics on here I didnt think were good enough to good on my web page, as I am using that as my portfolio. Let me know what you guys think, on how I could improve, or maybe how to set a white balance.
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    zSCOTTzzSCOTTz Registered Users Posts: 169 Major grins
    edited January 23, 2012
    Michigan game halftime entertainment.
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    zSCOTTzzSCOTTz Registered Users Posts: 169 Major grins
    edited January 23, 2012
    Ball thrown cross court, almost out of bounds, Hardaway save.
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    zSCOTTzzSCOTTz Registered Users Posts: 169 Major grins
    edited January 23, 2012
    Ben Zorbrist bunting
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    zSCOTTzzSCOTTz Registered Users Posts: 169 Major grins
    edited January 23, 2012
    Swing and miss
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    xchangxxchangx Registered Users Posts: 47 Big grins
    edited January 23, 2012
    The basketball shots look pretty heavily cropped. You could try to run some noise reduction on it. Otherwise, you look like you are on the right track. Keep shooting! Only way to get better. :)
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    zSCOTTzzSCOTTz Registered Users Posts: 169 Major grins
    edited January 23, 2012
    xchangx wrote: »
    The basketball shots look pretty heavily cropped. You could try to run some noise reduction on it. Otherwise, you look like you are on the right track. Keep shooting! Only way to get better. :)


    The high school one isnt cropped, I was on the baseline with a 70 - 200 lens. The flight crew one is, I was in the stands for that, same lens. I ran noise reduction on the high school basketball pic, but the gym lighting is horrible, and I'm not sure where all my settings need to be as I shoot in manual. I have to have the apparature at 2.8 as I dont use flash, and the shutter speed was 1/500, and ISO was 1000. I shoot ISO any higher on the 7D, and i start getting alot of noise. I had the setting on my built in noise reduction set to normal on the camera, but I read somewhere on line to turn it off when shooting sports, is this true?
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    xchangxxchangx Registered Users Posts: 47 Big grins
    edited January 23, 2012
    Built in noise reduction is fine. But since it's high school with horrible lighting, shoot raw. I believe the 7D is good up to 3200 and usable at 6400. I shoot Nikon so I'm not 100% sure.

    Invest in lightroom if you can, the noise reduction in Lightroom v3 is pretty good. But, more grain is better than blurred action.
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    jheftijhefti Registered Users Posts: 734 Major grins
    edited January 24, 2012
    xchangx wrote: »
    Built in noise reduction is fine. But since it's high school with horrible lighting, shoot raw. I believe the 7D is good up to 3200 and usable at 6400. I shoot Nikon so I'm not 100% sure.

    Invest in lightroom if you can, the noise reduction in Lightroom v3 is pretty good. But, more grain is better than blurred action.

    Agreed. Built-in noise reduction can ruin a great shot; far better to shoot raw and deal with the noise later, and on a case-by-case basis. LR3 has a very good noise reduction algorithm, and it's easy to use.

    Also, white balance can be pretty bad under indoor lights, especially if you have the dreaded 60Hz cycling. A jpeg conversion is much harder to to color correct than a raw file is.

    Regarding ISO, you can certainly go higher on a 7D. And in any case, under-exposing and/or too slow shutter speeds are will frequently give you unusable shots. Bringing up the exposure in the post processing will reveal even more noise, and motion blur is impossible to correct. Just push the ISO to where you need to be, and deal with the noise in the post.
    http://johnhefti.com/
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    MPRamseyMPRamsey Registered Users Posts: 10 Big grins
    edited January 25, 2012
    Looks like you are getting some good picture for "just getting into photography". You are also getting some good tips (white balance, noise reduction). I would suggest experimenting with changing your ISO settings given the lighting situations of each place you shoot. As you are finding out, shooting HS basketball (and any other HS indoor sport), the lighting isn't always the best.

    As far as composition, I always try to capture facial expressions and body language in my basketball shots. These two items bring out the emotion that is so intriguing in sports photography. Getting the ball in the shot is a bonus but not a requirement. Its the intense emotion of the sport in the player's face that I am after.

    Hope this helps some. Regardless, keep shooting...you have one heck of a start in photography!
    Michael
    http://www.michaelramseyphotography.com
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    Quincy TQuincy T Registered Users Posts: 1,090 Major grins
    edited January 25, 2012
    zSCOTTz, it looks like you get out to a lot of sporting events with your camera. Continue practicing, and take the time to listen to what others have to say. I'd recommend you read some literature on photography as well. Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson is one of the best for the basics.
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    zSCOTTzzSCOTTz Registered Users Posts: 169 Major grins
    edited January 25, 2012
    Thanks for all your help, I am going to learn alot from this site, glad I found it. I need to learn about white balance though, as I don't know much about it. Gonna look it up on the internet.
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    jheftijhefti Registered Users Posts: 734 Major grins
    edited January 27, 2012
    zSCOTTz wrote: »
    Thanks for all your help, I am going to learn alot from this site, glad I found it. I need to learn about white balance though, as I don't know much about it. Gonna look it up on the internet.

    Yeah, white balance (WB) does take some practice. And like many aspects of photography, people can get religious about the proper approach. There are many good tutorials out there (and in here) which will help. What I will say is that proper WB can make the difference between a snapshot and a really wonderful photograph. OK, maybe not WB by itself, but it goes a long way.

    My approach is to just do it by eye, and not use a grey card or other such calibrations. I just pick a few things in the picture that have known colors, and take it from there. I have on occasion used a white or grey object in the shot to set the WB, though it never is perfect. Oddly enough, white soccer balls come mighty close!

    Others have their own ways of dealing with WB. The important thing is to get the colors right on the main subject--especially skin tones if there are people in the shot--as this is what people notice first and foremost.
    http://johnhefti.com/
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