I. Football C&C welcomed (3 pic)

luisferfranco

I used some of the recommendations you gave me for a series of pics, these 3 are proofs. I have found getting a good image of a LB (the pics are for #14's mom) is really really hard, that's why I like much the third, but please be as rude and cruel as you can be, destroy my pics and tell me how to become a better sports-shooter.

Thanks!!

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2...


3...

FrankieAng

Nothing too terrible to offer here, these are pretty darned nice. The second image appears to be just a tad OOF, but the overall quality of this series is quite good. The essentials of quality sports action photography is good clear photos caught during peak action that reveal visible faces of the players. The images need to be tightly cropped to avoid distractions in the backgrounds. This series has tight crops and reveals the players faces. I think that you have done very well with this series. Please keep the images coming because we all learn from one another.

johng

Getting better!!

Still a bit underexposed. Don't be afraid to blow some uniform highlights to get the faces better. The last shot really shows how much you lightened the face - looks unnatural compared to the other face in the shot.

Faces are always more interesting than uniforms so getting them exposed is always better. Here's an example - I blew some highlights but who cares? The face is exposed and looks natural. Yes I still did some lightening but didn't have to do it to the degree you were forced to:

Steve Cavigliano

Luis,
The 3rd shot is the best one as far as capturing "Faces" is concerned. I think you may have brightened the face too much on this one. It looks a bit out of balance with the rest of the image It's a fine line we walk...lol

You also realize that you did a really good job capturing these, despite the pretty harsh lighting you faced, right?

In this type of lighting, it is very difficult to get everything within the frame properly exposed. So that's where post processing comes in It allows you to correct for the lighting, after the fact. IMHO, in most cases post processing of sports shots is at least 33% of the job. If you have a great lens, good angles and great light, this number can be as low as say 5-10%.


Steve

luisferfranco

johng wrote:

Still a bit underexposed. Don't be afraid to blow some uniform highlights to get the faces better. The last shot really shows how much you lightened the face - looks unnatural compared to the other face in the shot.

That's a good point, and I wasn't sure on what to do. Should I dodge ALL the skin in the pic, no matter if its from another player? I think yes. (Ouch... too much work, another reason to crop tighter)

luisferfranco

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

You also realize that you did a really good job capturing these, despite the pretty harsh lighting you faced, right?

That's the camera, not me. I'm really amazed on how this Minolta technology works (I have the Sony Alpha 100), yeah, there is some underexposure, if I remember I was shooting EV-0.3 and EV-0.7 in some cases, this is because it is too difficult to judge using the LCD (they always look a bit brighter)

But really, I'm amazed about the quality of exposure in the camera... there are plenty of details in the blacks, and also in the whites. I'm really loving this camera!

Thanks!

johng

luisferfranco wrote:

That's a good point, and I wasn't sure on what to do.

What to do is next time, expose for the faces - at least with caucasian skin. It's very difficult when you have very dark skin subject to get good face exposure - in fact, in bright light it can be near impossible. But, with caucasians you can do it. A good rule of thumb is you should be able to see their eyes in the image playback on your camera. The eyes are the lightest part. if you can't see the eyes well then it's too underexposed and you'll have to lighten the face too much (and get an affect like you had in your shot).

You'll find the situation worse with white jerseys. In a game last week, there was a 2 1/2 stop metering difference in-camera between the home team (in dark red jerseys) and the away team in white jerseys). So, you don't want to rely on jerseys to determine your metering and certainly not pants. The legs are the most uninteresting part so blown highlights on pants is hard to even notice.

Get the metering better in-camera and your post processing life will be much simpler :ivar

mercphoto

What to do is next time, expose for the faces - at least with caucasian skin. ... Get the metering better in-camera and your post processing life will be much simpler :ivar

Agreed. Get the exposure good at-capture and do not worry too much about blown highlights for this type of photography. Some amount of blown highlights is perfectly acceptable for this.

You mentioned you were shooting with negative exposure compensation. This is why your faces are dark. Football helmets wreak havoc with faces. Dial in zero EC, or even +1/3 EC. You will blow some parts of white jerseys or some parts of the backgrounds but don't worry about that. Positive EC with parts blown will look more natural than dodging the face and with less work.

Lastly, there are all sorts of things you CAN do in post-processing. Selective masking, shadow/highlights, etc. etc. etc. You need to ask yourself how much work you can justify doing to these shots based on how many pictures you take, how many of those will sell, and what people are willing to pay for them.

And yes, getting line backer faces is hard. Best chances of that are when you can shoot from the end zone directly at their faces, rather than from the sideline.