Last Track Meet This Year

73Rocks · May 9, 2012

As much as I would like to do more meets, my paying job is conflicting with my hobby so last Thursday was the last track meet of the season for me.

Here are some of the best shots -

I was lucky enough to time it so just as she is over the hurdle she is glancing over to her right to check out the other runners.

Yeah, the light was is a little harsh on this one but I like the 3 different expressions and the mid air strides.

Tried to get a little "panning" effect here but I was just a little too fast on the shutter speed. I will have to wait until next year now to try it again.

It seemed like she wasn't exerting any effort at all.

I could have cropped this one tighter but with all 3 runners in the shot it shows just how far in front he was 3/4ths of the way through the race.

This one makes my whole season. My favorite event, the 300 meter hurdles, shot while sitting down on the corner of the turn. Caught the right moment, the light is perfect, and they are absolutely "neck and neck" coming around the turn. The only distraction is the light pole in the background, but to position myself further down the track, I would have risked having someone walk in front of me while the right moment was taking place. That exact spot where I was sitting was the only place where I would be guaranteed of not having any one in front of me.

Thanks for looking and as always, CC is greatly appreciated,

Dooginfif20 · May 14, 2012

Good stuff! I really like the last one.

#1. I really like it, but wish she was in focus and not the hurdle
#2. Great shot! Looks like you had more light than you needed
#3. If you want you could add the panning in PS. It is super easy. It looks like he is a tad underexposed though and I wish the DOF was a little more narrow
#4. Its a great shot, just a tad weird cause it looks like shes missing an arm (which I hope she isnt cause I would feel bad)
#5. Great shot. Would it have been possible to shoot a little lower? I think a lower angle would take that shot over the top!
#6. Love the shot. Hated the event when I was in track. When I was in HS it was a 400m hurdles though. HATED IT!

Good stuff though look forward to seeing more next year.

perroneford · May 15, 2012

Images like this with a call for C&C give me pause. I never know how strongly people want their photos critiqued. And you risk hurting someone's feelings if you go all in, or risk them not learning anything if you just sugar coat it. I'll try to strike a balance here.

The good:

1. Timing is VERY good for these. You seem to have a very good idea of when to be on the shutter
2. Colors look good and true
3. Exposures seem to be nicely done. Shadow detail is good, and highlights show detail as well

The not so good:

1. You used shutter priority. That in itself is not bad, but you've limited it to 1/1000 of a second. And in turn that has pushed your apertures through the roof. This is bad because....

2. The backgrounds are awful. In small venues like this it takes a TON of work to clean up backgrounds. But you still have to try. And the very best way to do that is to use VERY shallow DOF. As shallow as you can. Your DOF extended to F13 in some of these images. With those backgrounds, I would have been looking for F1.8 - 2.8. The deep DOF took what could have been spectacular images and reduced them to nice snapshots.

3. Crop. Crop, crop, crop. Allow us to focus on something. As it is, we are focused on several athletes even though those secondary subjects aren't adding anything to the story. The neck and neck runners tells a story. It's a close race. The rest? Here's a tip. If you are taking a photo of a person, try to give us a photo that lets us see what color eyes they have. Get us IN THERE and engage us. Otherwise you're making snapshots.

4. Get lower. Photos of athletes in basic photos such as these, should feel like hero's. In order to do that, you have to get the camera lower. Waist level. Knee level in some cases. The photo of the young woman doing a long jump is a great example. If you lay on your stomach or back and take that shot, the house in the background disappears and the athlete gets framed against the sky.

5. Use the lowest ISO you can. In this case, you are shooting ISO 400. On a sunny day this is probably not necessary. I'd have been shooting ISO 100. This would have made the images cleaner, and would have brought the apertures down and cleaned up your backgrounds for you. That's a win-win.

That's plenty to digest from this post, and I don't want to just point out negative things here. Just changing a few of these simple things will take your sports photography up several notches.

Best of luck...

73Rocks · May 15, 2012

Dooginfif20 wrote: »

Good stuff! I really like the last one.
#1. I really like it, but wish she was in focus and not the hurdle
#2. Great shot! Looks like you had more light than you needed
#3. If you want you could add the panning in PS. It is super easy. It looks like he is a tad underexposed though and I wish the DOF was a little more narrow
#4. Its a great shot, just a tad weird cause it looks like shes missing an arm (which I hope she isnt cause I would feel bad)
#5. Great shot. Would it have been possible to shoot a little lower? I think a lower angle would take that shot over the top!
#6. Love the shot. Hated the event when I was in track. When I was in HS it was a 400m hurdles though. HATED IT!
Good stuff though look forward to seeing more next year.

Thanks for the CC . . . I appreciate it all.

#6. Love the shot. Hated the event when I was in track. When I was in HS it was a 400m hurdles though. HATED IT!

I do believe that they were 4 inches higher too weren't they? Seems to me there it was hard to find guys willing to run them, that’s why they shortened the event and lowered the height of the hurdles.

73Rocks · May 15, 2012

perroneford wrote: »

Images like this with a call for C&C give me pause. I never know how strongly people want their photos critiqued. And you risk hurting someone's feelings if you go all in, or risk them not learning anything if you just sugar coat it. I'll try to strike a balance here.

The good:

1. Timing is VERY good for these. You seem to have a very good idea of when to be on the shutter
2. Colors look good and true
3. Exposures seem to be nicely done. Shadow detail is good, and highlights show detail as well

The not so good:

1. You used shutter priority. That in itself is not bad, but you've limited it to 1/1000 of a second. And in turn that has pushed your apertures through the roof. This is bad because....

2. The backgrounds are awful. In small venues like this it takes a TON of work to clean up backgrounds. But you still have to try. And the very best way to do that is to use VERY shallow DOF. As shallow as you can. Your DOF extended to F13 in some of these images. With those backgrounds, I would have been looking for F1.8 - 2.8. The deep DOF took what could have been spectacular images and reduced them to nice snapshots.

3. Crop. Crop, crop, crop. Allow us to focus on something. As it is, we are focused on several athletes even though those secondary subjects aren't adding anything to the story. The neck and neck runners tells a story. It's a close race. The rest? Here's a tip. If you are taking a photo of a person, try to give us a photo that lets us see what color eyes they have. Get us IN THERE and engage us. Otherwise you're making snapshots.

4. Get lower. Photos of athletes in basic photos such as these, should feel like hero's. In order to do that, you have to get the camera lower. Waist level. Knee level in some cases. The photo of the young woman doing a long jump is a great example. If you lay on your stomach or back and take that shot, the house in the background disappears and the athlete gets framed against the sky.

5. Use the lowest ISO you can. In this case, you are shooting ISO 400. On a sunny day this is probably not necessary. I'd have been shooting ISO 100. This would have made the images cleaner, and would have brought the apertures down and cleaned up your backgrounds for you. That's a win-win.

That's plenty to digest from this post, and I don't want to just point out negative things here. Just changing a few of these simple things will take your sports photography up several notches.

Best of luck...

Don't worry about hurting my feelings . . . I take it as advice, not condensending ridicule. And I do plan to digest it all.

I do realize I need to get away from "Shutter Priority" and get lower. The reason why #4 looks good as far as the shooter's aspect is because the end of the runway is at the edge of a hill. The track drops off sharply right at the end so I was able to stand as low as I wanted to get the shot.

It looks like I need to take the advice given to me by you and others on this forum and head down to the local baseball fields this summer to work on getting things right for the upcoming football season.

Again, thanks for taking the time to point out what I could be doing better -
Mark

perroneford · May 15, 2012

Thank you for taking that in the spirit intended. There is nothing wrong at all with shutter priority. I use it myself in numerous conditions. Particularly when I need to hold a MINIMUM shutter speed.

And yes, going out and practicing is ALWAYS helpful. I do it every chance I get. Try different lenses, different ideas. Put cameras in places I wouldn't normally. From your EXIF info, it appears you have invested in some pretty good gear. I can't wait to see what you get out of it.

Last Track Meet This Year

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