T-Ball All Star Action

MT Stringer

Here's a shot from Monday nght. Five and 6 year olds getting after it. With the little guys going in every which direction, it can really get hectic. Heck, I missed the best play of the game because I was watching and not shooting. I do have an excuse because my grandson was playing and he made the put out at home plate.

This is my first picture post. I hope you like it.

Mike

BRATCH

It's a nice shot especially since it looks like it's pretty late in the evening, but you really need to get faces in as much as you can. Unfortunately, you can't choose which way a 5 year old is going to slide into home plate.

You also might want to consider sitting down on the ground and shooting. It's not the most comfortable way to shoot, but with the kids being so small the downward angle at which one shoots is exaggerated.

Once they get up to the age where they can foul a ball off with some giddy-up, I'm all about standing up and being able to move around and protect myself.

I'm not a big fan of shooting T-ball because of the grown ups standing around, I like shooting ball games at the ages where the kids are pitching and the grown ups are off the field. And in T-ball rarely do the kids actually stop a ball and make a play, so defensive shots are a rarity.

Here is a link to the gallery of the T-ball game I shot this week and the grown ups really hurt some of the shots I liked.

JoeL

Not bad for a first shot at all.

Great action since you know the player it works, it dont work very well for others because theres no face and we have no clue about the story or the players.. just food for thought in the future.

The only thing I see is the noise and blur makes it look like it was a large image cropped in to make it a small action image, you can get away with that sometimes with lower ISO but you were shooting at ISO 800 with a shutter speed of 200 at f/3.5 so your kinda lucky it came out that clear, it also shows that you were shooting "Aperture Priority", in low light you may want to try "Manual" and adjust the shutter speed as high as possible or "Shutter Priority" until the light gets too low.

The only real solution to any clear, sharp sports images at or near low light is fast glass....

One more suggestion is maybe trying the Noise Reduction in the Paint Shop Pro your using and gradually sharpen a little at at time.

This board is full of great people that will give positive critique and help out.

Email if theres anything I can help with.

Keep shooting, practice is learning with every push of the shutter button

Joe

MT Stringer

Thanks for the comments...
Both of you are right on the money. I couldn't get lower because I was sharing the dugout opening with the female coach that was in charge of keeping two players ready to go up to bat. Also, this is a cropped image. I was surprised it came as good as it did. I was using a Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 in AV mode to hopefully blur the background. Blurring the fence and spectators always seem to be a challenge. I didn't move around because any other angle would have been a shot through the fence. I've done that before with pretty good results, but stuck with the opening this time.

I'm still learning the features of Paint Shop Pro. Just can't afford Photoshop. Now, if only I could fix this color blindness thing, I would be OK.

Thanks again for the tips. I promise to keep trying to get better.
Mike

JoeL

With a f/2.8 lens I would use Manual settings and set the lens at f/2.8 then set the shutter speed at 500 or the highest it would allow at ISO 800.

Dbl

I think you are on the right track shooting in Av. I do also prefer manual in these situations but you have to be aware of the fading light and continue to make adjustments so starting out going to Av is the way to go. You are right in shooting at f2.8 for light gathering and blurred out backgrounds. Just keep an eye on your shutter speed and when it starts to fall bump up your ISO.

I can't really imagine a situation shooting baseball where you would want to shoot in Tv mode. If you have a 2.8 lens you want to take advantage of that and keep your aperture locked there. Use your ISO to control your shutter speed, keep bumping it up to keep the shutter speeds up.

Remember in Tv or Av that backgrounds will affect your metering. Light and dark uniforms, the dirt of the infield, all will give you drastic differences in metering, that is why many times manual becomes a better way to handle exposure. If the light is constant manual will always give you more consistent results, if the light is changing, Av will do better unless you don't mind spinning wheels a lot. Under bright sun shooting Av you may need to add +1/3 or up to +2/3 EC to help with the shadows on faces.

Shooting manual, if you meter off the grass and open up one stop you will have a very good starting place. Good luck and good shooting.