Close Crops

wmstumme

I was at a Girls Lax tournament yesterday. I took virtually all the shots in a portrait format--but found a landscape crop worked better to get closer on the face. The originals captured from head to toe. These are cropped closer than what I usually do--not sure if there are enough pixels left for a large print--but thought they might post here okay...

Appreciate any comments...

Skippy

wmstumme wrote:

I was at a Girls Lax tournament yesterday. I took virtually all the shots in a portrait format--but found a landscape crop worked better to get closer on the face. The originals captured from head to toe. These are cropped closer than what I usually do--not sure if there are enough pixels left for a large print--but thought they might post here okay...

Appreciate any comments...

Hi there the kids look like they are really enjoying the game.
Hopefully someone who shoots Sports will give you a reply to your cropping question.

Gosh those mouth guards are awful looking, but I'd rather wear something like that than get a smack in the mouth that does a lot of damage to my teeth .... thanks for sharing.... Skippy
.

dbaker1221

great shots I think you need to bump the contrast a bit on them to make them pop more.

JoeL

Great action shots for sure. Those kids are serious and you did a great job capturing it!!

I would sharpen them a bit and add a little saturation to bring out the colors.

(My personal opinion) I feel the images would be much stronger if they were complete with feet and legs, unless you are using them as cover or placement shots where space dictates that the image be cropped to fit a certain layout say for a newspaper or magazine they are missing a vital part of the story, sometimes the feet and legs are strong points when they are stepping on each other or getting tangled up or just showing direction of movement.

Other than that, if you are going to sale the images to parents you may want to crop enough along the sides to allow for a frame.
I usually allow 1/2 inch from the outer most part of the image when viewed at 100% on the screen ,that seems to work with most generic Walmart type frames.

Keep it up and stay out of their way, those little girls may damage you and your camera if you get too close...

Joe

BRATCH

wmstumme wrote:

I was at a Girls Lax tournament yesterday. I took virtually all the shots in a portrait format--but found a landscape crop worked better to get closer on the face. The originals captured from head to toe. These are cropped closer than what I usually do--not sure if there are enough pixels left for a large print--but thought they might post here okay...

Appreciate any comments...

Personally I don't think it's really a matter of portrait or landscape. For me it's what is the interest in the photo? If you want to get up close and personal and see the whites of their eyes crop it in close. Sometimes it's fine to show players from head to toe. As far as selling big prints, a close crop might limit you, but if it is a stronger photo in tight then that is what needs to be done. That's just my opinion.

The way I look at it is this. I work for a small newspaper and people bring in youth sports photos all the time for events we might not decide to cover. Every photo they bring has as many kids as they could fit into them. Action shot or whatever, they always try and fit more and more into the frame. I guess they don't want to leave anyone out.

So when I shoot, if I get a chance to practically put the reader in the game by tightly cropping a photo I'll do it. Most folks don't get a chance to shoot with $1,000 cameras locked to $1,000 lenses.

That being said, I can get away with more cropping when it comes to the newspaper printing process. It's ridiculously forgiving. I might not be able to sell even an 8x10 print of the shot that was printed, but it's still a good shot even if I can't sell it.

Either way, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some shots you might hate, others may love.

wmstumme

Appreciate all the comments. You are right on--that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I still am trying out several things to figure out what everyone (including me) seems to like.

Here are the full--body versions of some of the earlier shots:








By the way--I had both the close cropped and "full body" versions of the shot of #9 posted. I just sold a copy of the full body shot...

wmstumme

JoeL wrote:

Other than that, if you are going to sale the images to parents you may want to crop enough along the sides to allow for a frame.
I usually allow 1/2 inch from the outer most part of the image when viewed at 100% on the screen ,that seems to work with most generic Walmart type frames.

Great comment! It's something that has always concerned me. It just seems to be a balancing act--the closer the crop always seems a bit more dramatic. But the having half a kid's face end up under the edge of the frame isn't very flattering.

JoeL wrote:

Keep it up and stay out of their way, those little girls may damage you and your camera if you get too close...

Actually, the best thing about shooting girls lax is that they only shoot about 30-40mph (at this age--about 10/11 years old)--you can still be right behind the goal (if the refs will let you) and get out of the way --but still get a shot where they are about to shoot like this:



With older guys--you can still get it the same shot--it's just a little scarier as the shots generally range from 70-90+mph (the ball's behind the goalie's right foot):

JoeL

The full body shots are really great. I would crop the full body shots tight and call it a day.. thats just my opinion.