Youth Lacrosse - Pics from Sunday first game this season

northcoast

Here are pics from Sunday's lacrosse game (3rd and 4th grade boys). It was the first of the season and it was nice to shoot outside. I don't/haven't shot a lot of field sports. I have coached soccer and baseball over the years which didn't give me the opportunity to take pics at the same time. Last year I did shoot lacrosse and I need some C&C. So I would appreciate any advice or comments.

The pics are from Sunday and it was 2:00 PM with a very sunny, bright sky - not a single cloud. Having shot competitive cheer and hockey for a couple of years the lighting was gift - I thought. It was very bright and the white helmets made for a new challenge – for me and the meter. After a few test shoots I decided to shoot manual exposure. The captured images were in RAW and did “chimp” every so often to review the highlights weren’t too blown out. The faces were almost always in a shadow. Also, I noticed that the direction of play on the field and the uniforms would need to be given more consideration than I anticipated.

I would like to improve on my pictures. I am using a 50-200mm lens, that’s a 100-400 equivalent on a FF camera. I have a 70-300 (again 140-600mm equivalent on FF) however; the 50-200mm is faster to focus and sharper wide open at the long end. I would like to get the best from the gear I have although I am considering adding a 1.4x teleconverter for more reach outside. Setting the gear aside, what else can you suggest about the images or post processing?

I’d be happy to provide more details if it would help the conversation. Thanks in advance

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6) Not an action shot, but a candid of a true fan!

wmstumme

Not sure about your conversion of relative focal lengths for a crop body versus a full frame (there are much smarter guys like Ziggy on this board who could probably tell you exactly), but I think you've done fine here. With kids this young, I think it's hard to get too much because they end up in packs all staring down at a ball they just can't seem to pick up. Maybe trying to catch them individually in the open field (like your first shot--except with the ball in the pocket) will give more keepers. I like that you seem to be shooting from very low. I would watch the direction of the sun. For example, seems like # 2 is shooting somewhat into the sun and has that kinda foggy/washed out look. I'm guessing you were trying to capture the team in the red primarily. Generally I try and set up with the sun a good angle, and since they will switch ends at quarters, focus on the half the team (offense or defense) which is nearest to me during that quarter--rather than trying to stay with the action whereever it may occur.

Regarding focal length, I think a 200mm (even on a crop body) is a little short for lax on a full size field (guessing that is what this age plays on). But if you don't have an f2.8 200mm, I'm not sure you'll be all that happy with the resulting teleconverted combination...

northcoast

Thank you for the reply. I'll keep your suggestions in mind at the next games.

Kingdomphoto

You captured good action...especially the second shot; nice job!

northcoast

Kingdomphoto wrote: »

You captured good action...especially the second shot; nice job!

Thank you!

I'm looking to get better and any additional C&C is always welcome. These are from last weekend. With the bright afternoon sun and the shadows from the helmets I tried to expose for faces. That meant that the white helmets would have blown highlights. RAW enabled me to recover. I didn't go too agressive on the recovery because it begins to look unnatural and flat at the extreme end. I am shooting two more games this weekend - rain or shine.

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Again, comments are welcome.

Thank you for looking!