Sports photography

harish_agawane

Dear All,

I have taken few shots with Nikon D90+ Tamron 70-200 Macro lens.

I feel something is missing or distracting the image and one more thing I have observed that I am not getting the DOF effect.

Thanks,
Harish

johng

The most important thing missing is the FACE. It's completely in shadow. Worry less about blowing highlights in the uniform and get the face exposed properly.
The fence is going to be a distraction - you're not going to blur it completely with that lens - a 400mm 2.8, yes. The next thing that is missing though is interesting action. The ball is in the frame, which is good. But, he's not making contact. Framing is good and sharpness is acceptable. But, the underexposed face and the lack of interesting action keep the shot from being interesting.

harish_agawane

Hi Johng, if try to make his face bright pic is getting over exposed due to white cloths, wht cud be the solution ....

Kikoprice

I hope you dont mind Harish, I cropped your photo and used the "dodge tool" on the players face. If its a problem I will delete my post.

I think thats heat shimmer your seeing in the background and on the player. There is nothing you can do about it.

Frank

johng

The dynamic range is simply too great to have both the uniform and face exposed properly. In my experience no one other than pixel peeping photogs notices if you blow the highlights on a white uniform but they DO notice if you can see a face or not. Faces are an important part of sports photography. So, my advice is let the highlights in the uni get blown but get the face exposed properly.

Mike J

+1 on this advice. Blow the white uniform if you need but get the face exposed right.

KellyC

Up the shadows and drop the highlights just a little, you loose the black point, but it lightens the face without blowing the uniform.

johng

KellyC wrote: »

Up the shadows and drop the highlights just a little, you loose the black point, but it lightens the face without blowing the uniform.

The problem with the dodge attempt and the shadow attempt made by different people is there is just too much detail lost. Even though there is some improvement you still can't see facial details - especially at normal viewing size.
Here's an example - white highlights are completely blown but no one cares - you can see facial detail. Dodging can really help if exposures are closer than your original shot but when the face is as much underexposed as it is, you;re too late

Kikoprice

The dodge/burn is just another way to get that little bump you might need if you dont to get the exposure correct in camera. I felt he needed a tighter crop and a threw in a bump of exposure for the face to try and save it.