HS Softball

Scott293

I shot this softball game last night, first softball game of the year. I like shooting softball more than baseball because of the fast pace. Thanks for viewing.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7


#8

AceCo55

Hi Scott. I just hate it when some-one bothers to post photos and nobody gives feedback . Grrrrrr! I would have thought some-one with at least some experience in softball/baseball would have contributed by now. Apparently not. So it looks like your stuck with me ... and I don't know much!

My overall first impression is "wow"!! Every shot is vibrant and so full of dynamic energy. You have an excellent eye for catching the peak action.

#1: you have positioned yourself well. The light is bathing her from the left and illuminating her nicely. Her stance and expression is pure determination. I feel she about to attack me personally - see IS looking right at me after all! Aperture has produced a nice soft background. In this post she looks a little soft, but when I checked the same image on your website it looked distinctly sharper (jpeg compression issue maybe?). I understand completely why you would limit the max viewing size on your website to "Large" (especially for high school kids!) but my poor old eyes are struggling to see the detail.

#2: Pure magic (although I probably would have preferred less real estate occupied by the umpire). The desperation is evident in the prone body, the cloud of dirt and the expression on the catcher.

#3: Great timing again - seeing the ball in the mitt is a bonus. Terrific capture. (I would probably have cropped a little more from the bottom to really focus the viewer on the players - but I can live your decision here)

#4: Catching the runner in mid air with ball already in the mitt - perfect. The basewoman (????) looks a bit soft but after #1, I suspect that the original is sharp. Lighting here is great to enhance the colours of the uniforms.

#5: Nice!!!! Apart from the obvious ball in mid-air, there is some blur in the ball to suggest movement.

#6: this is the softest looking of the set - again with the sizes I can access, I'm not sure how much. I see you are consistently shooting at 2.8 ... and I understand the reasons why but ..... it doesn't leave much margin of error if the player stretches forward. The in focus plane must mean parts of the player will be out of focus? Or am I missing something here?
This seems to have happened in #8. To my eyes the ball is sharp but the body of the player isn't quite so?

#7: I think this is awesome! Man you could light a city with that amount of wound up energy! Action/sports photography is about catching moments like this. Terrific capture.

Looking at your EXIF. I'm assuming you are shooting in aperture priority - f2.8 seems locked in as is the ISO at 500. I'm curious as to why you chose an ISO of 500 on what appears to a bright sunny day? The consequence is that your shutter speeds hover between 1/2000 and 1/8000.

In my mind (a relatively small space) I'm thinking ISO 200, and drop the shutter speed 2 stops ... the players will still be frozen with possibly the exception of some extremities (in some situations) - but that would give a nice touch of blur to emphasis the action. The hit ball would definitely show more blur but again that would emphasise the motion. Again, in my mind I would probably be looking for an aperture around f4 - bit more depth of field but still allow for background softness and it would bring the shutter speed down to get some differential blurring. If it go too slow, bump up the ISO a touch.

Would you mind thinking out loud as to your thought processes in deciding on the settings you chose? It may well be sport specific (and I have never shot softball, baseball). What do you see as your priorities in setting exposure - aperture > ISO > shutter speed??? ... and what are your acceptable aperture ranges and shutter speed ranges for softball? What do you see as more important - the ball to be sharp firat or the player to be sharp first (or some specific part of the player?)

Scott293

AceCo55 wrote: »

Hi Scott. I just hate it when some-one bothers to post photos and nobody gives feedback . Grrrrrr! I would have thought some-one with at least some experience in softball/baseball would have contributed by now. Apparently not. So it looks like your stuck with me ... and I don't know much!

My overall first impression is "wow"!! Every shot is vibrant and so full of dynamic energy. You have an excellent eye for catching the peak action.

#1: you have positioned yourself well. The light is bathing her from the left and illuminating her nicely. Her stance and expression is pure determination. I feel she about to attack me personally - see IS looking right at me after all! Aperture has produced a nice soft background. In this post she looks a little soft, but when I checked the same image on your website it looked distinctly sharper (jpeg compression issue maybe?). I understand completely why you would limit the max viewing size on your website to "Large" (especially for high school kids!) but my poor old eyes are struggling to see the detail.

#2: Pure magic (although I probably would have preferred less real estate occupied by the umpire). The desperation is evident in the prone body, the cloud of dirt and the expression on the catcher.

#3: Great timing again - seeing the ball in the mitt is a bonus. Terrific capture. (I would probably have cropped a little more from the bottom to really focus the viewer on the players - but I can live your decision here)

#4: Catching the runner in mid air with ball already in the mitt - perfect. The basewoman (????) looks a bit soft but after #1, I suspect that the original is sharp. Lighting here is great to enhance the colours of the uniforms.

#5: Nice!!!! Apart from the obvious ball in mid-air, there is some blur in the ball to suggest movement.

#6: this is the softest looking of the set - again with the sizes I can access, I'm not sure how much. I see you are consistently shooting at 2.8 ... and I understand the reasons why but ..... it doesn't leave much margin of error if the player stretches forward. The in focus plane must mean parts of the player will be out of focus? Or am I missing something here?
This seems to have happened in #8. To my eyes the ball is sharp but the body of the player isn't quite so?

#7: I think this is awesome! Man you could light a city with that amount of wound up energy! Action/sports photography is about catching moments like this. Terrific capture.

Looking at your EXIF. I'm assuming you are shooting in aperture priority - f2.8 seems locked in as is the ISO at 500. I'm curious as to why you chose an ISO of 500 on what appears to a bright sunny day? The consequence is that your shutter speeds hover between 1/2000 and 1/8000.

In my mind (a relatively small space) I'm thinking ISO 200, and drop the shutter speed 2 stops ... the players will still be frozen with possibly the exception of some extremities (in some situations) - but that would give a nice touch of blur to emphasis the action. The hit ball would definitely show more blur but again that would emphasise the motion. Again, in my mind I would probably be looking for an aperture around f4 - bit more depth of field but still allow for background softness and it would bring the shutter speed down to get some differential blurring. If it go too slow, bump up the ISO a touch.

Would you mind thinking out loud as to your thought processes in deciding on the settings you chose? It may well be sport specific (and I have never shot softball, baseball). What do you see as your priorities in setting exposure - aperture > ISO > shutter speed??? ... and what are your acceptable aperture ranges and shutter speed ranges for softball? What do you see as more important - the ball to be sharp firat or the player to be sharp first (or some specific part of the player?)

Hi ace,

First of all thank you very much for a great post. I shoot in manual only not aperture priority I've tried it in the past and just hate the results. I bumped the ISO up because it was the time of day the sun was casting a lot of shadows around home plate and left field that way all I have to do move the shutter uo and down a stop or to. If I was at 200 and get into the shadows the shutter would be to low for my taste. The reason I shoot in 2.8 in HS games is there is a lot of clutter in the background that I don't want in my pics so the focus is on players. And again thank you very much for your opinions

AceCo55

Hi Scott - thanks for an insight into your "mode of operation". Having that allows me to consider the situation from your point of view and also forces me to consider my own thinking in similar situations.
Your post and photos certainly deserved more feedback. In fact everyone who posts should expect to get a number of replies ... and I believe that people who view posts have some obligation to at least provide SOME feedback to SOME of the threads they view.

perroneford

Yes, these photos certainly deserved some feedback. GOOD feedback!

I also shoot HS softball, and I have to say these are excellent photos. The other folks have chimed in, but I just have two questions...

1. For photo #4, what was the EXIF info? That photo is EXCEPTIONAL!
2. For photo #5, where were you standing? That is a VERY difficult angle to get.

Scott293

perroneford wrote: »

Yes, these photos certainly deserved some feedback. GOOD feedback!

I also shoot HS softball, and I have to say these are excellent photos. The other folks have chimed in, but I just have two questions...

1. For photo #4, what was the EXIF info? That photo is EXCEPTIONAL!
2. For photo #5, where were you standing? That is a VERY difficult angle to get.

First thank you very much!!

1. Was shot at with 80-200 @ 2.8 1/5000
2. I was down the third base line with my 300mm at 2.8 1/2000

perroneford

Scott293 wrote: »

First thank you very much!!

1. Was shot at with 80-200 @ 2.8 1/5000
2. I was down the third base line with my 300mm at 2.8 1/2000

You just broke my heart!

My 80-200 NEVER looked that good. At least not that I remember. Geez.. it's been languishing in the bottom of my bag for a while now. Just sitting there as a backup.

And I suppose you know why I asked about the second shot. it's RARE to get that much rotation of a batter with the ball still in the frame unless the batter is WAY early. Good stuff regardless.

jmp2204

from a fastpitch fan (coach) and an novice photographer ,they are great shots ! keep them coming!!!

Scott293

jmp2204 wrote: »

from a fastpitch fan (coach) and an novice photographer ,they are great shots ! keep them coming!!!

Thank You!!