HS Baseball

Scott293 · April 9, 2012

I just shot my sons HS baseball the other day and thought I would post some. Please let me know what you think, good or bad. Thanks again for viewing my work.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

jmp2204 · April 9, 2012

very nice !

AceCo55 · April 10, 2012

Don't know much about baseball ... not a big sport here. (so feel free to completely ignore anything I say!)
#1: I like the off-centre composition here and the intensity in the player's eyes. He is in the game and giving it his all. I appreciate you were probably limited as to where you could stand but the sun's position here is a bit of "sweet and sour" for me. Sweet - shadow casting across the image. Sour - player's face and front is in shadow reducing the "pop" factor here.

#2: I like this a lot. Good catch. The crop is a little awkward ... for me. If you have the real estate, I would have given a bit more room on the right for the ball to fly in from and either include the umpire's shoe completely in or crop at the calf. It is distracting ... to me.

#3: Terrific capture. Sense of action and speed with the flying dirt, shoulder pad raised and slight blurring of the ball gives a sense of movement. I like the timing - will he take the ball cleanly or will it spill. My only possible uneasiness here would be the tight crop above the catcher's head. I would like to see a version with a bit more "head room" to see if it looks better.

#4: For me, this is the the weakest of the set. I wouldn't call this a keeper (but that may well be my ignorance showing through). Crop is uncomfortably close - there is no room in front or behind the batter. The arm obscures his face and shadow across his face both detract for me.

#5: Spectacular and your timing is terrific. The close crop kills it for me ... I just want to see more room for the player's to "breathe"/"shine". I think this has the potential for the best of the series ... for me.

#6: Really like this timing. Sunlight lights up both players - I would suggest maybe boost the contrast to see if it makes it "pop" even more. Again, for me, the crop is too tight on the base runner. I would love to see a bit more space around him.

#7: Nice tension here - good sense of wind up and imminent release of energy with the throw. For me, the crop is back to front. Lot of space on the left with not much going on - unless it is the small dust cloud you are trying to draw the viewer's eye to. The consequence of that though, is that the player is throwing out of the frame. If there was less space on the left and more on the right, then the player would be throwing into and through the frame. Viewer's eye would follow a more natural path? My opinion (doesn't make it true). Again the shadow works against you decreasing contrast.

#8: I like this one. The player is running into the frame, his expression is all "business", there is a great puff of dirt to give a sense of speed/motion, the inclusion of the base bag(???) gives a sense of context. Would be interesting to see if a contrast boost would be an improvement or not.

So as they are, #3 is my winner but #5 has the most potential to be the best of the set. But hey, I am totally ignorant about baseball ... and yes you can feel sorry for me because we have cricket!!!!
Thanks for posting ... I really enjoyed this set. Just want to get out and give it a go (that would be the photographing not the playing!!!)

photodad1 · April 10, 2012

Nice action photos.

Scott293 · April 11, 2012

jmp2204 wrote: »

very nice !

Thanks you very much for taking the time!!

Scott293 · April 11, 2012

AceCo55 wrote: »

Don't know much about baseball ... not a big sport here. (so feel free to completely ignore anything I say!)
#1: I like the off-centre composition here and the intensity in the player's eyes. He is in the game and giving it his all. I appreciate you were probably limited as to where you could stand but the sun's position here is a bit of "sweet and sour" for me. Sweet - shadow casting across the image. Sour - player's face and front is in shadow reducing the "pop" factor here.

#2: I like this a lot. Good catch. The crop is a little awkward ... for me. If you have the real estate, I would have given a bit more room on the right for the ball to fly in from and either include the umpire's shoe completely in or crop at the calf. It is distracting ... to me.

#3: Terrific capture. Sense of action and speed with the flying dirt, shoulder pad raised and slight blurring of the ball gives a sense of movement. I like the timing - will he take the ball cleanly or will it spill. My only possible uneasiness here would be the tight crop above the catcher's head. I would like to see a version with a bit more "head room" to see if it looks better.

#4: For me, this is the the weakest of the set. I wouldn't call this a keeper (but that may well be my ignorance showing through). Crop is uncomfortably close - there is no room in front or behind the batter. The arm obscures his face and shadow across his face both detract for me.

#5: Spectacular and your timing is terrific. The close crop kills it for me ... I just want to see more room for the player's to "breathe"/"shine". I think this has the potential for the best of the series ... for me.

#6: Really like this timing. Sunlight lights up both players - I would suggest maybe boost the contrast to see if it makes it "pop" even more. Again, for me, the crop is too tight on the base runner. I would love to see a bit more space around him.

#7: Nice tension here - good sense of wind up and imminent release of energy with the throw. For me, the crop is back to front. Lot of space on the left with not much going on - unless it is the small dust cloud you are trying to draw the viewer's eye to. The consequence of that though, is that the player is throwing out of the frame. If there was less space on the left and more on the right, then the player would be throwing into and through the frame. Viewer's eye would follow a more natural path? My opinion (doesn't make it true). Again the shadow works against you decreasing contrast.

#8: I like this one. The player is running into the frame, his expression is all "business", there is a great puff of dirt to give a sense of speed/motion, the inclusion of the base bag(???) gives a sense of context. Would be interesting to see if a contrast boost would be an improvement or not.

So as they are, #3 is my winner but #5 has the most potential to be the best of the set. But hey, I am totally ignorant about baseball ... and yes you can feel sorry for me because we have cricket!!!!
Thanks for posting ... I really enjoyed this set. Just want to get out and give it a go (that would be the photographing not the playing!!!)

I think if you understood baseball and the way I shoot you might like these better. As for to tight look at any sports mag

you don't have a lot of dead space. I really do love the time you took on these photos.

Scott293 · April 11, 2012

photodad1 wrote: »

Nice action photos.

Thank you!!

AceCo55 · April 12, 2012

"I think if you understood baseball and the way I shoot you might like these better. As for to tight look at any sports mag
you don't have a lot of dead space. I really do love the time you took on these photos."

Scott - I do like them - a lot and, as I said in my feedback, I really enjoyed looking at them; but you were looking for feedback - I take that as more than "good shot"/"nice set". In your initial post you did not mention the purpose of the shots were for magazine. If that is their purpose, then I totally agree with you - tight crops are the way to go and you have done very well. However, if I were a player looking to purchase a print for display, then (in my opinion) some of them are cropped too tight. Just goes to illustrate different end products have different processing requirements.
And you are quite right - it may well be my ignorance of the game. Cheers and keep posting!

Scott293 · April 12, 2012

AceCo55 wrote: »

"I think if you understood baseball and the way I shoot you might like these better. As for to tight look at any sports mag
you don't have a lot of dead space. I really do love the time you took on these photos."

Scott - I do like them - a lot and, as I said in my feedback, I really enjoyed looking at them; but you were looking for feedback - I take that as more than "good shot"/"nice set". In your initial post you did not mention the purpose of the shots were for magazine. If that is their purpose, then I totally agree with you - tight crops are the way to go and you have done very well. However, if I were a player looking to purchase a print for display, then (in my opinion) some of them are cropped too tight. Just goes to illustrate different end products have different processing requirements.
And you are quite right - it may well be my ignorance of the game. Cheers and keep posting!

AceCo55 sorry if you thought I was mad, that's not what I was trying to sound like. I do shoot for news papers and a lot of other media outlets. But i do shoot as tight as possible for my owen preference. But I don't disagree with what you said its just two diffrent opinions. Like I said before thank you very much for taking so much time!!

AceCo55 · April 13, 2012

Oh no Scott - I didn't think you were mad. I just didn't want you to think that I didn't like them

HS Baseball

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